The Public’s Radio — In Westerly, town councilor’s work for coastal fire district raises questions about potential conflicts of interest

The entrance near the town-designated Fort Road right-of-way in the Watch Hill Section of Westerly. Alex Nunes / The Public’s Radio

April 4, 2023

By Alex Nunes — Public records show Town Council President Edward Morrone accepted $30,000 in consulting fees to “monitor issues” for property owners in the Watch Hill vacation community, an area that's become the focal point of ongoing coastal access debates.

Two Westerly Town Council members and shoreline access advocates are raising questions about recent financial connections between the council’s president, Edward Morrone, and the Watch Hill Fire District. The issue surfaced contentiously at a town council meeting Monday night.

Documents released by the Watch Hill Fire District in response to a public records request filed by an out-of-state attorney and shoreline access advocate, Anthony Palazzolo, Jr., show the district paid Morrone $30,000 for work done between June 1, 2019, and May 31, 2022, a period that began less than a year after Morrone left office as town council president and ended roughly six months before he came back on the town council and was elected president.

Issues related to shoreline access in Watch Hill have come up at several meetings since the new council took office in November, but Morrone had not acknowledged during those discussions his previous work for the fire district, which owns about 65 acres of coastal land, including beach and parking areas. The district is also actively questioning the legitimacy of a popular town-designated right-of-way to the Napatree Point Conservation Area called Fort Road.

Councilor Joy Cordio said she was unaware of Morrone’s recent financial ties to the fire district prior to last week, and she called on him to recuse himself from discussions on the contested Fort Road right-of-way at the council’s meeting Monday night and ask the Rhode Island Ethics Commission for input on how he should proceed going forward. 

“I would hope that you will seek an advisory opinion,” Cordio said to Morrone. “But until then, I would ask that you would recuse [yourself] based on the appearance of impropriety.”

Cordio was also concerned about the potential applicability of a 2020 Rhode Island Ethics Commission opinion that said a Westerly Planning Board member shouldn’t participate in discussions and votes on a contested right-of-way in the Weekapaug Fire District because of the potential impact those actions could have on his property’s value. Morrone owns a home in the Watch Hill Fire District.

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