Council Chambers
October 7th, 2026
Reported by Bark Doggyn
The scene was set: the town hall council chambers in unresplendent glory. This room, usually reserved for quiet meetings of various departments, boards, committees and workgroups, would be transformed into a wild free-for-all, a knock-down, drag-out showdown between various well-spoken and conservatively dressed white people who seemed to fear nothing but stepping on each other's toes.
In a cool-ass suit he might have bought secondhand from Columbo’s lawyer, Mike Rego of the legendary Warren-Times Gazette prowled the room with telephoto lens in hand like Ernest Hemingway hunting antelopes on an African safari.
Said antelopes soon arranged themselves helpfully in a row behind the dais, test driving the chairs they hoped to fill on the council. The room was noticeably less than full, and at least half of those in attendance were local politicians themselves, scouting the upcoming class of hopefuls to see whose fastball might have some run on it.
The event was presented per usual by the League of Women Voters (extent since literal suffrage) and the East Bay Media Group (which opened doors as the Bristol Phoenix in literal 1837). Praise be to both their names.
There was (as there absolutely always is) an interminable period of dead air before the event got under way, with the candidates all looking horribly uncomfortable and the meagre crowd ‘peas and carrots’-ing away. Crowdwork is not the work of our hosts. As the debate kicked off (forum! do we not say debate anymore?) someone was recognized for something by the moderator, affording candidate Scott Lial the opportunity to standing ovate and perhaps make his fellow candidates look comparatively ungrateful (it didn’t play).
Buckle up kids, it’s meet the candidates time! Stage right and first to rise and say hello to the class was Bert Rodriguez, a 16 year resident of Warren who is a cop in Bristol and serves on the zoning board, which is pretty much exactly how he comes off.
Rebecca Schmaeling was handed the conch next and the note she decided to blow was that she is an older sister and a Catholic. Yikes!
Jim Core hit in the three hole with a power hitters resume of professional experience in the state department, HUD, CDC, etc. He also said he was ‘ridiculously happy to be living here in Warren’ which your reporter can attest to be true.
Danny Barlow’s got 18 years in town under his belt, with a career in ‘public service’ that he was no more specific about.
Scott Lial is an old campaigner, having served several previous terms on the council, and he mentioned being compelled to run again based on the town's current financial and budgetary crisis and also because there are vacancies on the council lol. His family has been uptown for a hundred plus years.
The first question of the evening was with regards to the benefits/drawbacks of school regionalization. The reverb was apparently cranked in the room, because Schmaeling, Core, and Barlow all ‘echoed’ Rodriguez’s milquetoast assertion that regionalization was a great benefit to both towns. Only Lial knew the game, which is that in Warren you always have to gripe about how we’re carrying an unfair financial burden compared to Sneakytown and something needs to be done about it, damnit (nothing will ever be done about it, damnit).
The next question was about how to connect the east bay bike path to the ‘broken bridge’ bike path. Schmaeling basically proposed asking the DEM to do it for us. Core said ‘we probably shouldn’t call it the broken bridge anymore’ (demonstrating a deep misunderstanding of how we name things here) but went on to offer a practical proposal to add ‘wayfaring signs’ as an attainable near term step. Barlow and Rodriguez ‘echoed what others have said’ (note to candidates: stop that). Again Lial knew the game, which is that it’s actually a pretty thorny issue and so probably won't happen, but we should coordinate with the DEM and state something or other and blah blah blah.
‘Rhode Island has the worst roads in the country, and Warren has the worst in the state; discuss!’, cried the moderator. Core led off the inning suggesting a plan to prioritize which roads need attention with input from the public and let the public hold the town accountable for improvement. Barlow and Lial took turns scoring points off him because there is basically already such a plan in place. Rodriguez said to ‘reach out to the state’ (note to candidates: stop that!). Schmaeling suggested bringing in private developers and having them fix the sidewalks as some sort of quid pro quo for exploiting the town for private gain. Cool!
In the top of the fourth our noble candidates must make noises about encouraging affordable housing while protecting the historic nature of the town and green spaces. Barlow leads off and at least has the balls to say ‘we can’t prioritize historic character and green spaces over people’ which is very likely a minority sentiment in town. Lial thought we should work with state representatives to push back on affordable housing plans achieved through the comprehensive permits. Schmaeling again suggested bringing in more private developers to ‘pay for things’. And Core stated that ‘affordable housing is a human right’ which should not need to be said but here we are.
On to a question about how the town is shitfucked financially and where can we find some more dough. Lial: taxes. Rodriguez: get sponsors for the town ballfields lol. Schmaeling: bring in ‘private money’ (does she work for Lial Lanley, the monorail guy?). She also suggested donating the council stipend which is a nice gesture but thirty million minus five thousand is still thirty million. Danny B: charge more taxes for non owner-occupied properties. Ok, Danny, I see you there. Core said fees and such can be raised, but acknowledged that most things that can be tinkered with are on the margins.
Listen, friends. Were there other questions? There sure were. I even have some notes on what everybody said. But realistically you stopped reading a while ago to turn on the Brewers-Padres game, so let me wrap this up here.
Core seems like a no-brainer based on his government experience, his speaking ability, and his obvious love for his new home town. As a relative newcomer he will take some time to get up to speed on town government history, and longer to figure out how to deal with all the salty, intransigent, bullheaded and glorious weirdos who actually make the town what it is (or was, anyway).
Schmaeling had some nice messaging about reaching out to voters, creating a ‘council digest’, and holding coffee chats and such. But she repeated the same line so many times about bringing in ‘private developers’ and getting them to ‘do stuff for us’ that she started to sound like a damn industry plant.
Rodriguez has that familiar thing of having seen everything through one lens, as a cop. Oh, right, zoning board too. Who is this guy, Calenda? Probably a nice enough fella but he did not impress with having done the homework.
Barlow was a tough read. It may be that the debate (excuse me, forum) format doesn’t suit him- he didn’t really shine- but looking through my notes his points were mostly solid. He took the opportunity to stress the importance of the working waterfront and encouraging aquaculture and marine industries etc. He also pushed for a stoplight at KMS on Child St. which is a decent thought and also likely one that will go over well with voters. Overall better on substance than on style.
Lial’s realism and experience was a strong point but he came off a bit dour and pessimistic. He would be essential as connective tissue to previous iterations of town government except that Rego is already acting as such. He acknowledged the role the state needs to play in overseeing zoning and ensuring Warren makes at least a meagre gesture at affordable housing. He also mentioned traffic patterns uptown, but wasn’t specific at all.
The absence of most of the real players in town (Water Rower guy, Blount Boat, Blount Seafood, the various mill building owners and property portfolio owners) tells you much of what you need to know about the relative influence of any of these council positions. A bunch of bozos on the council can do real and lasting damage to the town for sure, but the power structure in Warren really resides with the manager, planner, and to an unclear extent the solicitor. If the candidate's answers sometimes seemed unequal to the large questions being asked, the fact may be there’s only so much they can do. But it’s fun to practice democracy anyhow so congrats to all of the candidates and to you for reading and me for being all type-y type-y with the recap!