Providence
Like fairness, objectivity is a generally positive principle that needn’t be — shouldn’t be — the guiding principle in every circumstance. One circumstance in which a degree of subjectivity is appropriate, applied to a collection of objective criteria is the hiring of teachers, whatever their argument might currently be in Providence: The union claims that…
Mayor Cicilline has repeatedly expressed concern for the burden of the taxpayer. I’m sure I speak for taxpayers everywhere when I say “thanks”. My question is, does his concern manifest itself anyplace other than the expired firefighters’ contract? Let’s be clear. I’m the first to ask for a fair contract between municipality and valued public…
Without coming down on either side of the particular issue on the table (which, whatever else its effects, has helped to highlight the multiple dumbnesses of Rhode Island politics), I have to express an objection to something that Andrew wrote earlier today: … Vice-President of the United States of America is not a union job.…
I guess I’m to the left of Bob Kerr on this one. I agreed with him in 2007 (and thought he wrote the best single item on the subject) when he wrote that the Providence Firefighter’s Local 799 threat to picket a statewide disaster drill, which could have shut down the drill, was wrong. I…
Under Marc’s post concerning the lawsuit filed by former Providence Tax Collector Robert Ceprano against Mayor David Cicilline et al, commenter Damien Baldino observes I don’t know if Richard Bready is a generous contributor to the City, but he is a generous contributor to Mayor Cicilline. Indeed. Richard and Cheryl Bready have made the following…
Be wary of who you throw under the bus. Like, say, a city tax collector who may know some things (via 7to7): Fired tax collector Robert P. Ceprano….Ceprano alleges that Mayor David N. Cicilline pressed him in 2005 to waive back interest on unpaid property taxes by Richard Bready, the CEO of Nortek. According to…
Matt Allen asked a good question this evening: would this be acceptable if it does, in fact, focus solely on cars involved in real crimes? The Police Department is going to try out a new gizmo installed on its cruisers to automatically read motor-vehicle license plates and give officers a quick read-out of whether a…
The conventional wisdom is that Nick Gorham lost his seat in the Rhode Island House of Representatives because of his support for regionalizing Exeter, Foster, Glocester, Scituate, West Greenwich and part of Coventry into a single town of Westconnaug, offending the delicate parochial sensibilities of his constitutents. I wonder what Mr. Gorham’s former constituents from…
Here’s an eye-popper: Cranston spends more than a fifth of its total budget on pensions (not including teachers). Nine municipalities spend over 10%. While Rhode Island’s political leaders wrestle with state pension reform, there’s another big pension headache out there — the soaring cost of municipal pensions. A new study by the business-backed Rhode Island…
On the one hand, the concessions requested by Mayor Cicilline from 5,000+ city employees sound reasonable and necessary given the constraints on both local and state revenue faced by budgeters. [Side note: Local 1033, the city’s largest public labor union, is to be applauded for signing on.] An increase in the health insurance co-share to…