Guest MINDSETTER™ Kenney: Elorza & Pare - Make ‘em an Offer They Can’t Refuse

Saturday, April 29, 2017

Guest MINDSETTER™ Tom Kenney

 

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Mayor Elroza and Stephen Pare

In accordance with their elected and appointed duties, Jorge Elooza and Stephen Pare respectively, seem to have taken a chapter directly out of the mafia’s extortion playbook. These guys are so good at this approach to doing business that to most of the state their shady dealings never make the radar. For the sake of transparency and good, ethical government this needs to change. 

Mayor Elorza’s administration has been dealing with a mass exodus of city employees ranging from his administration’s COO, department heads and many of his political appointees for a number of reported, and some not reported, reasons in a shockingly rapid manner. Some have been exposed as having received a special deal in severance or compensation. Many have not been reported. Thus is the way of doing ordinary business with this administration. 

In a shockingly similar manner Commissioner Pare uses these same extortion-like deals to rid his Public Safety Department of those employees he has personal issues with. He wields his power like a saber as he threatens to take away the hard earned pensions of those who find themselves in his office on a disciplinary matter, most times a fairly minor first offense. He regularly crafts deals with these individuals to circumvent the collective bargaining agreements of their respective unions, signing away their contractual rights. 

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If the individual signs the agreement he allows them to walk away and file for retirement. If they refuse to do so he promises to fire them and strip them of their pension. While this might seem like an idle threat to someone who has had a spotless record for over 30 years service and a single minor infraction the commissioner will undoubtedly attempt to do just that. The member, with the backing of his/her union, would almost certainly prevail after a lengthy fight in the court system. This, however, is exactly the problem. These members would be fired from their jobs, even if only during the judicial process, with no income during this entire time. Most members simply cannot afford this process even if the outcome is almost certainly going to be in their favor…and he knows it. 

In the past couple of years he has done just this to at least 3 Fire Captains of which I am aware (sometimes these things are secret deals that no one ever talks about). Two had over 30 years service with no previous infractions in their personnel file and the other with 25 years of spotless service. He, Pare, has had many firefighters and officers sign away their union rights in deals that have stripped them of their rank, forced them off promotional lists and forcing them out of their rightful positions on the department. This has become an ordinary occurrence on the PFD. 

Mr. Pare has also engaged, as Mayor Elorza has, in using promotions and raises as payoffs for employees who they believe will act in the manner in which they (Pare & Elorza) approve. At least three Battalion Chiefs have been promoted to the highest office of the department, Chief of Department, under this Commissioner who the commissioner believed would be a rubber stamp for his decisions. When these men made it clear that there were lines they would not cross they were unceremoniously told to retire. I have absolutely no idea what type of threat Pare used to force them out but I am sure that they didn’t want to leave when they did. 

Recently a Providence Police Officer with over 20 years of faithful and spotless service on the job made a politically incorrect mistake at call and was called to the Commissioner’s office for reprimand. He was told what the Commissioner expected him to do as a punishment. I don’t have the details but it was not a punishment that would normally be handed down under union contract. Once again Pare attempted to coerce a member to a written agreement outside the context of the CBA under threat of stripping this member of his pension. The officer refused and, instead, chose to file for the pension and walk away from the department. 

For two meetings in a row of the City’s Retirement Board Commissioner Pare went before the board requesting that this officer’s pension be denied. The members of the board criticized the commissioner for attempting to strip this employee of his pension for such a minor incident after twenty-some spotless years service and reminded him that he had offered to allow this member to remain as a member of the Providence Police Department if he went along with Pare’s original punishment. The board saw right through his personal attempted abuse of power and denied his request to stop the pension. 

In the situation of Captain Joe Fontaine being denied a rightfully earned promotion to Battalion Chief on the PFD which I wrote about earlier here on GoLocalProv, Commissioner Pare took it on himself to attempt to cut deals with two captains taking the test. Both deals were outside the realm of what is the covered rules and regulations of the PFD or the context of the union CBA. One captain signed away his rights and was allowed to take the test and be sworn in as Chief right away. He agreed, however, to voluntarily retire (sound familiar) the very next day with no compensation for this rank. This captain is going to do just that come this Friday. 

The other captain, Joe Fontaine, signed no deal with Pare. He took the test because there was nothing in the rules and regulations that prohibited this and passed it high enough to be sworn in right away with the first group from the list – this Friday. Not surprisingly, since Capt. Fontaine didn’t play ball with him, the commissioner had Joe’s name dropped from the list. 

This is all in the name of business as usual in the Elorza Administration and the Stephen Pare commanded Public Safety Department. 

Sound like it’s transparent and ethical? 

 

Tom Kenney 

Captain, PFD – Retired 

Author of “Working Class Hero: Memoirs of a Providence Fireman” 

 

Related Slideshow: Winners and Losers in Raimondo’s FY18 Budget Proposal

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Winner

Criminal Justice Reform

Per recommendations from the Justice Reinvestment Working Group, the Governor is proposing nearly $1 million in investments such as the public defender mental health program ($185,000), improved mental health services at the ACI ($410,000), recovery housing ($200,000) and domestic violence intervention, in her FY18 budget. 

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Winner

English Language Learners

Under the heading of “promoting 3rd grade reading,” Raimondo proposed adding $2.5 million to make English Language Learning (ELL) K-12 funding permanent.  The Governor’s office points out that RI is one of four states that doesn’t have permanent funding.

The suggestion was one made by the Funding Formula Working Group in January 2016, who said that “in the event that Rhode Island chooses to make an additional investment in ELLs, the funding should be calculated to be responsive to the number of ELLs in the system and based on reliable data, and include reasonable restrictions to ensure that the money is used to benefit ELLs — and promote the appropriate exiting of ELL students from services.”

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Winner

Car Owners - and Drivers

Governor Raimondo wants to reduce assessed motor vehicle values by 30% - a change that would reduce total car tax bills by about $58 million in calendar year 2018. Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello, however, has indicated that he might want to go further in its repeal.  

In her budget proposal, Raimondo also put forth adding 8 staffers to the the Department of Motor Vehicles to "address wait times."

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Winner

T.F. Green

The “Air Services Development Fund” would get an influx of $500,000 to “provide incentives to airlines interested in launching new routes or increasing service to T.F. Green Airport.” The Commerce Corporation set the criteria at the end of 2016 for how to grant money through the new (at the time $1.5 million fund).

Also getting a shot in the arm is the I-195 development fund, which would receive $10.1 million from debt-service savings to “resupply” the Fund to “catalyze development & attract anchor employers.”

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Tie

Minimum Wage Increase

An increase in the state minimum wage is part of Raimondo’s proposal, which would see it go from $9.60 an hour to $10.50 an hour.  Raimondo was unsuccessful in her effort in 2016 to bring it up to $10.10 — it was June 2015 that she signed legislation into law that last raised Rhode Island’s minimum wage, from $9 to 9.60.  

The state's minimum hourly wage has gone up from $6.75 in January 2004 to $7.75 in 2013, $8 in 2014, and $9 on Jan. 1, 2015.  Business groups such as the National Federation of Independent Business however have historically been against such measures, citing a hamper on job creation.  

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Tie

Cigarette Tax

Like the minimum wage, Raimondo is looking for an increase - in this instance, the cigarette tax, and revenue to state coffers.  Raimondo was unsuccessful in her effort to go from a tax of $3.75 to $4 last year. Now she is looking for an increase to $4.25 per pack, which the administration says would equate to $8.7 million in general revenue — and go in part towards outdoor recreation and smoking cessation programs.  

The National Federation of Independent Business and other trade groups have historically been against such an increase, saying it will hurt small businesses - i.e. convenience stores. And clearly, if you’re a smoker, you’re likely to place this squarely in the loser category instead. 

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Loser

Hospitals

As often happens in the state budget, winner one year, loser the next. As GoLocal reported in 2016, “the Rhode Island Hospital Association immediately lauded the budget following its introduction, and addressed that while it is facing some reductions, that it "applauds" this years budget after landing on the "loser" list last year.”

This year, it falls back on the loser list, with a Medicaid rate freeze to hospitals, nursing homes, providers, and payers — at FY 2017 levels, with a 1% rate cut come January 1, 2018. 

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Loser

Online Shoppers

The taxman cometh — maybe.  Raimondo proposed an “Internet Sales Tax Initiative” — which would purportedly equate to $34.7 million in revenues.

"Online sales and the fact that online sellers do not collect sales tax has created a structural problem for Rhode Island's budget — our sales taxes have been flat," said Director of Administration Michael DiBiase, of the tax that Amazon collects in 33 states, but not Rhode Island. "We think mostly due to online sales, we’re able to capture the growth. The revenue number is $35 million dollars — it improves our structural deficit problem. It’s an important fiscal development."

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Loser

Long Term Care Funding

The Governor’s proposal recommends “redesigning the nature” of the State’s Integrated Care Initiative, by transferring long-term stay nursing home members from Neighborhood Health to Medicaid Fee-for-Service and repurposing a portion of the anticipated savings (from reduced administrative payments to Neighborhood Health) for “enhanced services in the community.” “The investments in home- and community-based care will help achieve the goal of rebalancing the long-term care system," states the Administration. 

Cutting that program is tagged at saving $12.2 million; cuts and “restructuring” at Health and Human Services is slated to save $46.3 million. 

 

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