East Providence Councilman Faria Responds to Firefighter, Legal Issues in City

Sunday, March 05, 2017

GoLocalProv News team

 

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EP Councilman, Brian Faria

East Providence City Councilman Brian Faria has responded to legal and HR issues facing the city, which GoLocal reported on this week in,"Rhode Island's Most Chaotic City."

As GoLocal wrote:

Today, the City of East Providence is bludgeoned by lawsuits and a seemingly never-ending stream of controversies, after the city’s HR Director sued the city for sexual harassment in 2016 — and is now being sued for discrimination by a long time African-American employee, and a botched fire academy rollout saw a new class of recruits scrapped and the city restarting the process. 

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Faria Responds: 

Faria sent the following responses to the questions posed. 

The city has had five city managers in the last six years.  Has the high turnover, in your opinion, had an impact on city government?

"Of course the turnover of city managers has impacted our city in many ways. There is no denying that our past will effect our present. As a new fresh council, we came in with old stigmas from past councils because residents had felt that they were not heard and we needed to regain their trust and confidence. We needed to roll up our sleeves from day one and try to bring transparency into all of our difficult decisions. We may differ in our approaches as a council but agree on the majority of the standing issues. I think it's extremely important in moving forward as a new Council that we must work maturely together so that we can bring the morale back to the city. And our new council are quite capable of doing so," said Faria. 

East Providence has seen a number of high profile lawsuits in recent years.  Do you think that discrimination exists in city government?

"I cannot comment directly on any specific case, but I will agree to approach each individual case with an open mind and to weigh the all facts on all sides. These discriminatory lawsuits have come about before this new council was elected and could rightfully be a result of poor past practices and procedures. Although, it would not be healthy or productive to encourage any lawsuits against our city, and with hopes that these separate matters can be handled effectually, lawfully, and appropriately, we do have to remain fair and open-minded to these claims," said Faria. 

The issue of the firefighter class being postponed, despite a class having been selected -- do you think that a look into the matter will find the city operated legally, or not?

"Our personnel board had to ultimately base their decision to discard the fire recruit list according to law on procedures. Most of us have been very disturbed by the facts that have come forth. Again, we have the situation where this procedure began before we took office. Our effects on this matter come only after picking up the ball that was apparently dropped before us. We can only do our best, from this point forward, to provide more specific structural and procedural ordinances so that this can not happen in the future. It is necessary for our new council to do so at this point," said Faria. 

"My objective and focus as a newly elected Council member is to bring strength, integrity and optimism to our beautiful city and I will continue to work my hardest in doing so," said Faria. 

 

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