Adventures in Town Government
And things just get worse for the town of Tiverton: Three discrimination suits against the town filed by female employees in Police Department resurrect the controversy involving former Town Administrator W. Glenn Steckman 3rd and his failed attempt to fire Police Chief Thomas Blakey. Blakey was reinstated by the Town Council nearly a year ago.…
Reading news of Providence Mayor Cicilline’s intention to borrow money from the federal government to deal with foreclosed neighborhoods brings to mind, once again, the fact that debt is excluded from municipalities’ spending increase maximums. Standing on a sidewalk lined with boarded-up houses in the city’s West End, Mayor David N. Cicilline yesterday announced plans…
A Sakonnet Times story that does not appear to be online confirms my suspicions: Tiverton’s going to raise my taxes even more than the previously suggested maximum. Apparently, “the big jump is in the debt service on school bonds” (a 45% increase), followed by an estimated 3.2% increase for the school district. Of course, Rhode…
A cost-benefit analysis of sorts has led me to give up on the Tiverton town council. I simply can’t afford to devote that much time to such an unprofitable activity (especially if my taxes are going to continue to climb). Still, the school committee remains sufficiently interesting and important that I’ll continue to make the…
Woonsocket Mayor Susan Menard will be retiring on June 15. The Providence Journal got that much right. And they kindly mentioned her accomplishments. What they left out was that an ethics complaint had been filed against her this week. Yes, the same newspaper that repeatedly and breathlessly speculated about some not-so-nefarious reasons for Bev Najarian…
Of course, it’s always more pleasant to have surpluses, rather than use them, which is a question that the Newport school department is facing: Last week, Supt. John Ambrogi proposed hiking school spending 2.12 percent next year to $38.5 million. But the budget would require the city to increase its education appropriation by 5 percent,…
A bout of cynicism kept me from last night’s town council meeting. Here’s one of the revelations that I missed (emphasis added): Also last night, the council received a warning from its auditor that the town’s rainy day fund is too low. Standing at about $1.2 million for the fiscal year that ended last June,…
Superintendent William Rearick of the Tiverton school district just announced that federal grant funding is being reduced $200,000. He’s gone back through the budget and found $27,513 in reductions (e.g., $4,000 from high school textbooks). Another $77,464 can be saved by reducing a middle school Math Literacy position by 4/5. Now begin the pleas for…
Although I missed the budget discussion, I’m glad that I stopped by the Tiverton Town Council meeting, because discussion of a particular contract for an administrative assistant turned into debate of the contract policy overall. (My money’s on the likelihood that the position will remain unfilled.) Some key highlights that councilors throughout Rhode Island ought…
It looks like I’ve made it to the town council meeting just in time to miss the budget discussion, and I’m still shaking a bit from the school committee meeting. (Although, to be honest, I’m not sure what emotion is the cause.) School Committee member Leonard Wright made one of the union’s talking points by…
