Cicilline Blasts Gary Sasse
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Congressman David Cicilline went on the offensive yesterday after the release of a report saying that dysfunctional management during his tenure as Providence mayor had worsened the effects of the recession and revenue cuts on city finances.
“This is a report that is authored by Gary Sasse who was ... Governor Don Carcieri’s chief budget architect who really led the charge in Rhode Island for devastating cuts to cities and towns and, for the City of Providence, it cost us more than $50 million,” Cicilline said in an interview with GoLocalProv yesterday.
“To have a report that was issued by him that criticizes the way we managed through and navigated through that incredibly difficult cut is galling to me and this is a part of that Republican ideology—just cut. It’s the same thing in Washington,” Cicilline said.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTHe added: “This is much like, you know, an arsonist complaining that a homeowner hasn’t called the Fire Department quickly enough to put out the fire.”
Yesterday, Sasse responded to the criticism, saying the cuts in state aid affected all cities and towns in the state—but those other communities, he noted, are not facing financial issues as severe as those in Providence.
Questions Sasse’s own management of state budget
Cicilline said that’s not a fair comparison. “There’s no city or town that had the kind of cut that the City of Providence has,” Cicilline said.
Sasse says the $50 million cut in state aid is still no excuse. In an interview, he said that simply cannot account for the magnitude of the deficit Providence is facing—$70 million in the current year and an estimated $110 million next year.
Cicilline pointed out that the state is now saddled with its own deficit—about $330 million, according to the latest estimates. “It’s sort of hard to take a lecture from him about financial management when you consider what he led in our state,” Cicilline said.
“Having said that, I think there are some recommendations that they make that are sound and that will improve the process,” Cicilline said. But, he added: “The best process in the world would not change those three external factors that really are causing the challenges we face—a really deep and long recession, the loss of federal stimulus, and the devastating cuts by the state.”
Cicilline not aware of the delay in annual audit
“There are things in this report that surprised me,” Cicilline admitted yesterday.
One of them was the revelation that the city was tardy in turning over more than a dozen documents necessary for the outside auditor—Braver PC—to complete the annual audit for the city. Cicilline said he was “not sure” what circumstances led his staff to hand in the documents past the deadlines. He said there were city officials who left at the end of 2010, but he wasn’t sure if those vacancies were the reason for the delay.
“Had I been advised by Braver that there were some delays that they considered unusual I would have obviously reached out to my staff and made inquiries,” Cicilline said. “I’m not sure for the reason for those delays.”
Asked when he first learned that the audit had been delayed—it ended up being released about a month late—Cicilline said he would not have found out about the delay until he received a formal copy of the audit. At the time of the interview, Cicilline was not sure whether he had actually received an official copy.
The City Council’s report lists all the original deadlines for the late audit documents and when they were originally turned in. All of them were due in September or October—before the November election. And all were turned in after the election—in one case one document being submitted the day after.
Cicilline denied any connection between the timing and his campaign for Congress.
Sasse: ‘Pathetic remark’
In an interview last night, Sasse—who also is the former longtime head of the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council—dismissed Cicilline’s claim that he is a Republican ideologue. He said he does not identify with either party and was not asked about his partisan affiliation when Carcieri hired him to be the Director of Administration.
And, Sasse noted that he left state office in February 2010—well before the 2011 budget was implemented.
He also defended Carcieri, saying the former governor had proposed a series of legislative changes that would have helped communities absorb the reductions in state aid. Those were not approved by the General Assembly and Sasse said he did not recall then-Mayor Cicilline lobbying for the changes when they were proposed.
As for the comparison to an arsonist, Sasse responded: “That’s a kind of pathetic remark. This conversation should be on the substance and the future of Providence.”
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