NEW: Harrop Claims Mismanagement of Cianci Scholarship Fund
Monday, September 22, 2014
Following last week's Providence Mayoral debate at Laurelmead, where Republican Dan Harrop attacked former Mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci on his scholarship fund, Harrop released the following on Monday.
Harrop said, “Mr. Cianci has continued with one public trust over the last few years, that of being a trustee for the “Vincent A Cianci Jr. Scholarship Fund,” which is a public foundation owned by the people. Yet, there are disturbing trends in the public records of this Foundation. We know that Michelle Smith, of the Associated Press, has already detailed that the “Mayor’s Own Marinara Sauce,” which promises that sales are “Benefiting Providence School Children,” from 2009 to 2012, made a total of $3 in income. It is not clear even where that $3 went, as it is not listed under revenue and contributions in recent years."
“Worse still,” Dr. Harrop notes, “is the mismanagement evident in this public foundation, which parallels Mr. Cianci’s mismanagement of the city during his terms in office. Even putting aside that because of bad management the corpus of this Foundation provides little income (and actually a loss in principal during the years examined), expenses of this Foundation typically run well above what is distributed to students. Such expenses include employee salaries averaging $3500 per year, phone expenses averaging about $2000 per year, “outside” expenses averaging about $2600 per year, and total expenses averaging above $15,000 a year to give out an average of $10,000 in scholarships."
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“Who these days spends $2000 a year on a telephone? What are the “outside” expenses? Who is the $3500 a year employee kept around to give out $10,000 in scholarships? And what are the “other” expenses (meals? travel?)… Mr Cianci continues to say we should not discuss the past although he is constantly saying he moved the rivers, which were actually moved during Mayor Paolino’s term. His failure to properly fund the pensions during his terms, and instead artificially running up city “surpluses” in the budget, has left the city near bankruptcy. His current participation in the failing “Vincent A Cianci Jr Scholarship Fund” is further evidence, from right now, of his incompetency in managing, or understanding, financial issues, and failing to even surround himself with competent financial advisors,” continued Harrop. “He takes $25,000 in revenue, and turns it into $10,000 in scholarships.”
“The people of Providence need to realize that, over and above Mr. Cianci’s past indiscretions, he continues to mismanage funds in the public trust. This alone speaks to his being rejected by the voters in November,” Dr. Harrop concluded.
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