PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Rep. Karen L. MacBeth, D-Cumberland, fought a long and bitter fight late Monday to change legislation providing for the merger of four of her town's fire districts into one.
She lost overwhelmingly, over and over, and ended the session slumped in her seat wiping her eyes with a handkerchief.
MacBeth began the struggle with a motion to send the bill back to committee, which failed, 9-59.
Then she put forward what she said were 16 amendments, which she introduced in succession. The response from her peers was repeated rejection with her amendments failing by votes such as 9-59 and 7-57.
Her arguments ranged from the detailed to the sweeping -- that "shall" should replace "may" in one place, that the unified fire district should get to keep interest earned on its money, and that one provision in the bill would end up causing all of the town's fire fighters to be laid off.
They ran into a stone wall of opposition from the Democratic leadership.
Rep. John J. DeSimone, the chairman of the House Committee on Municipal Government, which handled the bill, repeated what proved to be an ironclad argument: that all of the interested parties, the Town Council, the firefighters union, all four of the town's fire districts, had already agreed to the language in the bill.
Disturbing that delicate structure of compromises could bring it down.
The much-amended bill had originated in the Senate, sponsored by Sen. Ryan W. Pearson, D-Cumberland. In the end, the House passed it, 61-4.