Pawtucket Mayor Responds To Governor Chafee
Saturday, August 06, 2011
Pawtucket Mayor Don Grebien says Governor Lincoln Chafee never talked to him before going on national television to suggest that bankrupt Central Falls should merge with Pawtucket and that the only way he would support such a plan would be if it were put to a vote.
In an interview with GoLocalProv, Grebien, who said he inherited a city that met at least two portions of the criteria required to go into receivership (back-to-back years running a deficit and a downgrade in its credit rating), said he is willing to work with the state and Central Falls, but that ultimately he needs to think about his city first.
“I was voted Mayor of Pawtucket and that’s what I need to be,” Grebien said Friday. “There is no way I’m going to let [Governor Chafee] force a merger without putting it to a vote in Pawtucket.”
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In an interview with MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer, Chafee said the economy of the once prosperous city has changed. He said the end goal is to, “get Central Falls in some way either merged with another community or shared services to get back on its feet.”
His suggestion: Merge the city with its neighbor.
"My best solution would be to merge with a neighboring community, in this case Pawtucket and I think that's where we really, seriously, want to look at,” Chafee said. “Shared services might be a temporary solution, but really eventually, I think Central Falls just cannot survive as a 1-square-mile city. That economy has moved on, those factories have closed.”
Grebien: I’m Willing To Talk
Grebien said that while he was surprised when phone calls started coming in about what the Governor had said, he didn’t take Chafee’s statement the same way a lot of the media did. He acknowledged briefly talking to Chafee on Monday, but said merger talk was not in the conversation.
The Pawtucket Mayor said he has stated from the beginning that he is willing to help Central Falls as much as he can, but that Pawtucket voters deserve to be involved in a merger decision. He noted that voters overwhelmingly disapproved of a school merger in 1990s.
“We’ve talked about shared sacrifice that makes sense,” Grebien said. “But this comes down to a business decision for us.”
All Options On The Table
Reached Friday afternoon, Chafee’s Communications Director Christine Hunsinger backtracked on the Governor’s national television remarks. She said the state is still reviewing all options.
“We are evaluating all options at this point, which includes a merger or shared serves,” she said. “There has been no decision from the Governor’s office.”
Asked if the Governor could force a merger without having approval from Pawtucket voters, Hunsinger said the office was still looking into exactly what the requirements would be.
Pawtucket’s Problems
Grebien said he has talked with Central Falls about sharing fire dispatch services and some zoning issues, but he maintains that he would need help from the state if a merger were to take place. Grebien said Pawtucket is still dealing with its own fiscal insecurity.
“We came into office with a $12 million deficit,” Grebien said. “We’ve cut that under $1 million and I’ve balanced the budget for fiscal year 2012, but we still aren’t dealing with the unfunded pensions. I’m just getting through the year right now. There are still a lot of decisions to be made and they may not be popular.”
For now, Grebien said he needs to focus on his work in Pawtucket.
“I was elected Mayor of Pawtucket,” Grebien said. “That’s all I can do.”
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