MIDDLETOWN — After criticizing the Town Council for inflaming tensions in recent months, Barbara A. VonVillas, chairwoman of the Charter Review Committee, announced Monday that she will be running for the council.

The council must return civility to its meetings and disabuse itself of self-interested, partisan politics, VonVillas said in a prepared statement read aloud at Monday’s council meeting.

“I’m looking forward to being part of the solution,” she said.

The announcement and pointed comments mark a return to local politics after a more than decade-long hiatus for VonVillas, who is retired after most recently serving seven years as Burrillville’s schools superintendent. She served on the Middletown School Committee from 1990 to 1996.

VonVillas said Monday that the Town Council “tends to promote improper conduct rather than to de-escalate it.” The council’s behavior, she said, is “embarrassing” to the town.

While it’s expected that council members will sometimes disagree, they must do so respectfully. Instead, VonVillas said, “some on this council regard differences of opinion as divisiveness as if a difference of opinion is disruption.”

Some council members also “react to differences of opinion childishly by bullying, which sets a tone for interaction among council members as well as for the public,” VonVillas added.

VonVillas particularly singled out council President Paul M. Rodrigues — although not by name — for his behavior during a recent debate on the continuing dispute over former Town Administrator Gerald S. Kempen’s departure.

“The discussion about a motion was ended when one councilor [Rodrigues] had a temper tantrum, accused others of casting blame on him for wrongdoing, and made a motion that everyone in attendance and those who read the papers recognized [it] was a sham,” VonVillas said, referring to Rodrigues’ motion to compel Kempen to return his severance payment before the board would agree to speak with him.

The council modeled offensive behavior, VonVillas said, causing some in the audience to issue “catcalls, insults, and gutter language.”

VonVillas said she supports nonpartisan elections — one of the major proposals by the Charter Commission, now under council review — to “level the playing field for all Middletown voters.”

“The citizens of Middletown are conscientious, decent people who expect a government that they can be proud of,” she added. “They want to express their opinions. They want you to hear them and to appreciate their concerns. They know that you have to make hard decisions with which they may not always agree. But they want you to behave respectably, and they need to respect your motives. The Middletown Town Council has to do better.”

Council members listened, but did not react, to VonVillas’ comments.

mwims@projo.com