BY JOSEPH B. NADEAU

WOONSOCKET — Mayor Susan D. Menard hasn’t attended a City Council meeting in recent memory.

 So long, in fact, members of the public have raised that as a concern while mounting frequent attacks against her in the weeks before her recent announcement that she will retire in June.
But Menard was out of her City Hall office Monday evening and sitting at the table before the City Council alongside the directors of her administration.
She got her five minutes of public good and welfare comment before the panel, and probably a bit more by City Council President’s Leo T. Fontaine’s watch, and used that as an impromptu farewell address to the Council and the city as a whole.
The Mayor generally offered the same explanation for her departure she offered earlier, her belief that her accomplishments speak for themselves and the acknowledgement that family responsibilities do come first, but she also showed the self-confidence and directness, and even that take-no-prisoners toughness that many believe served her well during her 12 years as mayor and 29 years in city service overall.
“My belief is that you are as good as the people you surround yourself with and I have been surrounded by an extremely dedicated and hard working group people and a want to thank you all for that,” Menard said while sitting with Finance Director Robert Strom to her left, Planning and Development Director Joel D. Mathews to her right. Also seated with her were Public Works Director Michael A. Annarummo, and newer administration members, Human Services Director Albert G. Brien and City Solicitor Robert C. Iuliano, and Jeffrey Polucha, economic development director.
Menard also had praise for all the volunteer members city boards and panels that give their time without compensation and then remembered many of the people she worked with and supported her over the years who have since passed on, people like the late State Rep. Barbara Burlingame, Kate Racine, Sen. Roger Badeau, and her former Highway Superintendents Michael Simpson and Robert Bentley.
 Menard’s son Kevin, an Air Force F-16 jetfighter pilot, is awaiting the birth of his second child in Utah and is also scheduled to leave for his latest deployment to Iraq and Southwest 
Asia in early June, the mayor noted.
 For that reason, Menard said she hopes to complete work on the city’s new budget in time to head west before her fourth grandchild arrives and help her son’s family during that time.
“I’m going to put my family first, and I’m going to be looking forward to retirement after 29 years in public office,” she said.
Menard has been working with City Council President Leo T. Fontaine, who will take over her office upon her departure, and conducted another of those transition sessions for several hours Monday, she said.
“I’ve always said this was best job I ever had, even if I haven’t loved the past six months, but that’s all part of the job,” Menard said in reference a bumpy period of her administration beginning with the departure of long time supporter and administration member John R. Dionne prior to her reelection and then the quick departures of both Police Chief Michael L.A. Houle and Deputy Chief Richard Dubois two weeks ago under the police testing controversy.
  Menard’s own remarks were followed by those of some city residents such as Kenneth Landry of Third Ave., who described her explanations of the recent controversies at City Hall as a “smoke and mirrors” show as he pleaded with the council to continue its effort to open an investigation to City Hall’s recent flaps.
 “You need to go forward with the investigation, you are our voice and you must be loud and persistent,” Landry told the council.
  But Menard also heard support raised in her favor from others such as School Superintendent Maureen Macera, who while updating the council on her school budget, said the school department “will very much miss Mayor Susan D. Menard.”
 The mayor had always been supportive of local education during her own nine-years of service to the district, Macera said, “as you can see in the new school building and additions that we have here.”
 Menard, herself, also stepped forward during the meeting to defend her administration’s handing of the city pension fund bonding and the $450,000 deficit in the current budget that may result from a delay in selling land off Diamond Hill to Wal-Mart.
 The city still has a $4.5 million surplus overall Menard said and while the shortfall in expected revenue may force the use of some of that funding as a stop-gap measure she remained confident that city will collect on the Wal-Mart sale eventually.
 Menard said she leaves office feeling like “it’s been a great ride,” even if it has been one that left her feeling tired of late.
 
 As for her appearance before the Council Monday night, Menard said that was nothing atypical at all.
“I guess one night is as good any other,” Menard said while explained she went to the meeting to put some “misconceptions” about her retirement to rest.
 She also plans to be back before the council before she retires, she said. “Oh yes, I’ve got a budget to finish with Leo,” she said.
 Menard, 60, said she plans to continue living in the city after her retirement and will be available from time to time to help out with city affairs if called upon by Fontaine’s administration.
 She was elected to her first term in 1995 following the retirement of then Mayor Francis L. Lanctot by defeating then city councilman Vincent Ward.
 Menard admitted Monday it has not been easy being the longest consecutive serving mayor in city history nor the only woman holding a mayor’s office statewide.
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