White powder sent to councilman was sugar

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I.—Police said white powder contained in a letter sent to an East Provience city councilman was sugar.

Brian Coogan told NBC 10 on Thursday that the letter directed him to resign from the council.

The incident follows a heated City Council meeting last week in which Coogan voted down two proposed budgets that contained tax increases.

“What East Providence resident would be upset that I didn’t vote to raise their taxes?“ he said. “That doesn’t make any sense to me.“

Copies of the letter were sent to other members of the council and the mayor, but none contained the powder.

Coogan said the letter appeared to be politically motivated. 

Coogan and Mayor Joseph Larisa have had a long-standing political feud.

“But that doesn’t excuse by any stretch what happened today to the councilman and his family,“ Larisa said.

The FBI is involved in the investigation.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.