SMITHFIELD – Councilor Michael Iannotti has announced that he will be seeking re-election to the Smithfield Town Council.
Iannotti served as an assistant U.S. Attorney for more than 30 years, including as civil chief of the Rhode Island U.S. Attorney’s Office and asset forfeiture/money laundering coordinator at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.
Prior to being elected to the council in 2022, he had served on a number of Smithfield’s boards and commissions, including the Financial Review Commission, the Capital Committee, and the Charter Review Commission. His work on the Charter Review Commission resulted in the creation of the Budget and Financial Review Board, on which he also served.
Iannotti said he remains committed to working to conserve vital town resources and protect the quality of life of all its citizens.
He said he sponsored and the council adopted ordinances to prohibit solar farms in residential areas and to ban industrial size battery storage units in the town of Smithfield. He recently co-sponsored a ban on data centers, which the council passed on a 4-1 vote.
As a strong proponent of preserving the character of the town, said Iannotti, he sponsored a resolution placing more than 800 acres of Smithfield’s conservation land and farms in the Rhode Island Public Trust to provide the properties with extra protection and ensure their existence in the future.
As a strong opponent of overdevelopment, he added, he has collaborated with the town’s state senator and representatives to introduce legislation to restore some of the town’s ability to control the size and nature of residential development.
When voting against a recent application by a developer for a zone change, Iannotti stated that “we should not be tailoring our zoning for specific projects, rather, those projects should conform to our zoning.”
Together with Councilor Rachel Toppi, he said he has sponsored several “good government” initiatives, including the more than 20 new ordinances or changes correcting outdated and inconsistent language that conflicted with either Rhode Island State law or the Smithfield Town Charter, and an ordinance providing the public with an opportunity to comment on any agenda item before a vote is taken at all board and council meetings.
Currently, he is sponsoring an ordinance to provide public access to and a public hearing for all union contracts prior to council ratification.
“Increasing transparency, government accountability, and public participation results in better decisions,” he said.
Iannotti said he is committed to working to protect our municipal revenue. He said he strengthened the requirements under which a company could be granted a tax treaty by the council. He also sponsored an ordinance to link tax treaty benefits directly to the company’s investment in the town.
During the next two years, Iannotti says he plans to continue to address the fiscal challenges facing the town. He said he will remain a strong advocate for operating budgets that do not take funds from the town’s emergency savings, as has been done for a number of years.
“Depleting our savings to balance our budget threatens the long term fiscal stability of our town,” he said. “We must engage in long-range planning to ensure we have the revenues necessary for the improvement of our long neglected school buildings and roads and maintain essential services at a reasonable cost.”
