Warwick
Citing various rules, laws and those pesky “open meeting” requirements, the Warwick City Council moved to consider the tentative agreements between the City and the members of the municipal, police and fire unions at a later date so that the public would have a chance to review. The Finance Committee will hold a hearing on…
Here’s a snapshot analysis of the tentative agreement between the City of Warwick and the fire, police and municipal unions, based on info from various sources. The Good: Pay cuts: Pay cuts of 5% for police, 3.5% for firefighters, 3% for municipal employees for the duration of this fiscal year. No raises in FY 2010;…
Warwick Mayor Scott Avedesian was on WPRO with Jim Hummel (filling in for Dan Yorke) to explain the recent tentative agreement between the City of Warwick and the municipal, fire and police unions. (What follows is a raw, running liveblog) Mayor Avedesian stated that the negotiations started before Christmas based on how it looked economically.…
Following up on Justin’s post “Avedesian Locks in…Savings?“, only a government official would consider “savings” to be a reduction in the “normal” INCREASE that the public sector has come to expect as essentially a birthright. Despite what Mayor Avedesian says, this isn’t a “savings” of $10 million, it is a reduction in what the “normal”…
Out of Warwick comes a “tentative agreement” with the municipal unions in which Mayor Scott Avedisian purports to have secured $10 million in savings between March 2009 and June 2012. The dollar amount is measured against the current contracts, expiring at the end of June, and an assumption that a subsequent contract covering the next…
With reference to his native Warwick, Bob Cushman makes a call applicable to all of Rhode Island’s cities and towns in varying degrees: Those who wail and gnash their teeth in response to the governor’s proposals are more interested in playing the blame game than recognizing the reality of the situation and making the tough…
In anticipation of the Governor’s address tomorrow, in which it is likely he’ll announce some pretty deep cuts in aid to cities and towns, it seems like a good idea for communities to embark on the sort of potential cost-saving projects that Warwick, East Greenwich and North Kingstown appear ready to try (couldn’t find link…
Following up, the ProJo has their report on the situation today: School officials said that few members of the union that represents custodial, maintenance and secretarial employees — the Warwick Independent School Employees (WISE) –– responded to calls to come to work late Sunday afternoon even though union workers had showed up for snow duty…
[BUMP] UPDATE: Mayor Avedisian called Dan Yorke and unequivocally stated that there was a concerted effort on the part of the school maintenance union (WISE) to not come to work. The union president is claiming that 11 of the 15 people involved didn’t get a phone call from the school administration. Avedisian stated that, phone…
As John Howell reports in the Warwick Beacon, cities and towns are going to be clamoring for a reduction in unfunded mandates (ie; rules or laws imposed by the state on municipalities without the concomitant funds). “There’s slim hope that the legislature would relieve schools of providing textbooks for non public schools or special education…