BY VINAYA SAKSENA

CENTRAL FALLS — One of the four remaining members of a board charged with overseeing a troubled local prison facility has announced his resignation, a week after the board's chairman was fired for making controversial statements.

A spokesman for the Central Falls Detention Facility Corporation confirmed to the Times that Kevin England had submitted a letter announcing his resignation from the corporation's board of directors. City Clerk Marie Twohey confirmed that notice had been received of England's resignation, but said she could not yet release the letter, as the remaining members of the quasi-public board had not yet seen it as of press time.
Last week, former board Chairman Daniel Cooney was fired by Mayor Charles Moreau for remarks he made likening the job of operating the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility to “running a Motel Six,” a comment viewed as insensitive by local activist groups due to the alleged mistreatment and eventual cancer-related death of former Wyatt inmate Hiu Lui “Jason” Ng last year.
It was Ng's death and a subsequent internal investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that led to several prison staffers being disciplined or terminated for the alleged mistreatment and the removal of all 153 ICE detainees from the facility, the latter creating a major loss of revenue that Moreau sought to restore starting in January with the appointment of four new members to the prison's board, including Cooney and England.
Cooney and England could not be reached for comment as of press time. Bill Fischer of True North Communications, who has been serving as a spokesman for the corporation since Cooney's firing last week, said it was not clear why England had resigned, and declined to comment on speculation that England's resignation- and his absence from a board meeting last week- were motivated by Cooney's termination.
0He did submit his letter of resignation to the mayor today,0 Fischer said Tuesday. 0He didn't cite a reason in his letter, which was one sentence long. And I'm not going to speculate on that.0
The board- now consisting of acting Chairman Bruce Corrigan, Eugene Racquier and Michael Golenia- is scheduled to meet in the City Council Chambers at Central Falls City Hall on Broad Street on Wednesday, May 6 at 6:00 p.m. According to the meeting's posted agenda, the board will go into executive session immediately following roll call, before taking a vote to authorize Attorney Margaret Lynch-Gadaleta to enter a contract with Fischer and True North on the board's behalf. The board is then slated to hear a report of Col. Joseph Moran, the chief of the city's police department, whom the board appointed last week as interim director of administration for the facility. In this position- created after the board fired former Wyatt Executive Director Anthony Ventetuolo and his company, Avcorr Management- Moran's responsibilities include serving as a liaison between city officials- including the mayor and the board- and the facility itself.
Replacements have not been named for England or Cooney. Fischer said he was not certain when this would take place, but that the mayor and others involved hoped to have name replacements some time in the 0coming weeks.0