BY JOSEPH B. NADEAU

WOONSOCKET — The City Council and Mayor Susan D. Menard renewed their feud over city affairs Thursday with a spat of legal action between their respective attorneys.

BY JOSEPH B. NADEAU

WOONSOCKET — The City Council and Mayor Susan D. Menard renewed their feud over city affairs Thursday with a spat of legal action between their respective attorneys.
At issue was a work session the Council had planned for Thursday evening at City Hall during which time the panel planned to have its independent legal council, Joseph Larisa, interview two city employees about matters involving the administration.
Menard responded by having her independent counsel, Sullivan, Signore, Whitehead and Deluca of Providence, file for a temporary restraining order stopping the meeting, according to City Council President Leo T. Fontaine.
The council in turn had Larisa go to court to fight the move despite only just learning about the pending hearing, Fontaine said. The notice of the session had been prepared by the Mayor’s firm on Wednesday but not dropped off to the City Clerks’ office until Thursday, he noted.
“Basically I had to scramble to get Joe Larisa into court to allow us to go into session tonight,” Fontaine said.
The mayor prevailed in the hearing before Superior Court Judge Judith Savage and the planned meeting at City Hall was postponed as a result, Fontaine said.
“Basically the judge ruled that we would have to be more specific about the areas that we want to investigate,” Fontaine said.
Menard could not be reached for comment about the legal dispute over the council’s work session on Thursday. The dispute surfaced a day after Menard called in State Police to run the police department after a testing controversy prompted the retirements of both Police Chief Michael L.A. Houle and Deputy Chief Richard Dubois.
The Council had called for the meeting under the terms of a resolution it approved when hiring Larisa in January for a probe of the circumstances surrounding John R. Dionne’s award of lifetime healthcare coverage following his retirement under City Hall’s email flap.
At the time, the Council said it also planned to use the attorney to look into other issues that cropped up  regarding City Hall.
A majority on the Council that includes Fontaine and Councilman John F. Ward, have been battling Menard for information on a number of issues including the status of the city’s pension fund investments, the city’s pending audit, police department outside revenues and other topics.
Menard has countered with an order to her directors that all information provided the Council will be funneled through her office.
While not offering specifics on the information the council was seeking through its talks with the two City Hall employees scheduled to meet with Larisa Thursday, Fontaine did say it was a matter the Council planned to pursue further.
He also voiced objections to that fact the two employees scheduled to meet with were called into City Hall and spoken to by City Solicitor Robert C. Iuliano.
“We are going to be speaking with Attorney Larisa and find a course of action to move forward on this,” Fontaine said.
Such action, he said, would likely not been necessary if Menard would allow City Hall employees to answer Council questions.
“We wouldn’t have to call work sessions if there wasn’t an edict out there preventing employees from speaking to us," Fontaine said.