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Chariho: District breakup on the table

CHARLESTOWN — All options are still on the table, from status quo to a full withdrawal from the Chariho Regional School District, even establishing a privately managed school district.

But given Hopkinton’s vote this week officially objecting to a new school building proposal –– probably derailing the plan that district officials had pitched as a last-ditch effort to capitalize on state aid that might be slashed given the state’s financial crisis –– the withdrawal options are gaining momentum.

“This is not a group that is anti-Chariho,” Richard Hosp, the vice chairman of Charlestown’s ad hoc withdrawal update committee, said yesterday.

“This is a group that feels that feels that we are being pushed into this [withdrawal] by some really unreasonable requests.”

The request: Hopkinton’s insistence that Charlestown agree to tax equalization, which would probably more than double Charlestown’s share of the Chariho budget.

(Talk of tax equalization has toned down in Richmond, which pays the highest share, at 36.03 percent.)

Hosp, who chairs Charlestown and Chariho’s finance committees, estimated that establishing its own school district would cost Charlestown nearly $3 million a year. Tax equalization, he said, would cost in excess of $7 million if the towns pool their state aid, $12 million otherwise.

Currently, state aid goes directly to the towns, which then apply it to their portion of the school district’s budget.

Moreover, Hosp said, all of the state’s regional districts –– Bristol Warren, Exeter-West Greenwich, Foster-Glocester and Chariho –– are funded on a per capita basis.

“It’s uneconomic for us to do that,” Hosp said of tax equalization. “For far less money, we think we could build a superior school system.”

Committee members said their goal was to form a “world-class educational institution” –– within or outside the Chariho Regional School District.

The seven-member committee is expected to present its preliminary report to the Town Council on June 9, including cost estimates of building its own schools –– updated figures prepared by Newport Collaborative Architects for the town’s 2004 failed withdrawal effort.

That plan would provide the backbone of a withdrawal plan –– if the committee ultimately decides to recommend that course to the council.

If so, Charlestown would proceed with a two-phase construction plan, giving room for adjustment given the town’s falling student-age population.

Mirroring the 2004 plan, the first phase would entail renovation of the existing elementary school to house pre-kindergarten through fourth-grade students and building a fifth- to eighth-grade middle school followed by the construction of a high school in phase two.

High school students would attend other districts or private schools on a tuition or voucher basis.

Construction could begin in the spring of 2010.

Committee members are considering various locations, including the preferred locations from the two previous withdrawal proposals –– Ninigret Park, a 25-acre portion of an open space site near Town Hall on Route 2, and a private lot at Route 1 and Kings Factory Road, currently subject to a controversial residential proposal called Ninigret Hamlet.

Ninigret Park remains the top choice.

The former Navy airfield, committee members said, would be the most central location for schools. It would fit into the park’s master plan that is currently being drafted and benefit from the existing sport fields.

Concerns remain over possible contamination and site constraints that would prevent any of the buildings from being certified as hurricane emergency shelters. Currently, the only hurricane shelter approved in the area is the Chariho Middle School.

“Charlestown as a town is really in a position where we have an opportunity to provide our students an excellent education,” said Giancarlo Cicchetti, the committee’s chairman who also serves on the Chariho Regional School Committee.

“We can afford to provide a good education to our kids. We would like to provide an excellent education.”

marmenta@projo.com

George Will: Education Lessons We Left Behind

If an unfriendly power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. -- "A Nation At Risk" (1983)

WASHINGTON -- Let us limp down memory lane to mark this week's melancholy 25th anniversary of a national commission's report that galvanized Americans to vow to do better. Today the nation still ignores what had been learned years before 1983.

Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan once puckishly said that data indicated that the leading determinant of the quality of public schools, measured by standardized tests, was the schools' proximity to Canada. He meant that the geographic correlation was stronger than the correlation between high test scores and high per pupil expenditures.

Moynihan also knew that schools cannot compensate for the disintegration of families, and hence communities -- the primary transmitters of social capital. No reform can enable schools to cope with the 36.9 percent of all children and 69.9 percent of black children today born out of wedlock, which means, among many other things, a continually renewed cohort of unruly adolescent males.

Chester Finn, a former Moynihan aide, notes in his splendid new memoir ("Troublemaker: A Personal History of School Reform Since Sputnik") that during the Depression-era job scarcity, high schools were used to keep students out of the job market, shunting many into nonacademic classes. By 1961, those classes had risen to 43 percent of all those taken by students. After 1962, when New York City signed the nation's first collective bargaining contract with teachers, teachers began changing from members of a respected profession into just another muscular faction fighting for more government money. Between 1975 and 1980 there were a thousand strikes involving a million teachers whose salaries rose as students' scores on standardized tests declined.

In 1964, SAT scores among college-bound students peaked. In 1965, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) codified confidence in the correlation between financial inputs and cognitive outputs in education. But in 1966, the Coleman report, the result of the largest social science project in history, reached a conclusion so "seismic" -- Moynihan's description -- that the government almost refused to publish it.

Released quietly on the Fourth of July weekend, the report concluded that the qualities of the families from which children come to school matter much more than money as predictors of schools' effectiveness. The crucial common denominator of problems of race and class -- fractured families -- would have to be faced.

But it wasn't. Instead, shopworn panaceas -- larger teacher salaries, smaller class sizes -- were pursued as colleges were reduced to offering remediation to freshmen.

In 1976, for the first time in its 119-year history, the National Education Association, the teachers union, endorsed a presidential candidate, Jimmy Carter, who repaid it by creating the Education Department, a monument to the premise that money and government programs matter most. At the NEA's behest, the nation has expanded the number of teachers much faster than the number of students has grown. Hiring more, rather than more competent, teachers meant more dues-paying union members. For decades, schools have been treated as laboratories for various equity experiments. Fads incubated in education schools gave us "open" classrooms, teachers as "facilitators of learning" rather than transmitters of knowledge, abandonment of a literary canon in the name of "multiculturalism," and so on, producing a majority of high school juniors who could not locate the Civil War in the proper half-century.

In 1994, Congress grandly decreed that by 2000 the high school graduation rate would be "at least" 90 percent and that American students would be "first in the world in mathematics and science achievement." Moynihan, likening such goals to Soviet grain quotas -- solemnly avowed, never fulfilled -- said: "That will not happen." It did not.

Moynihan was a neoconservative before neoconservatism became a doctrine of foreign policy hubris. Originally, it taught domestic policy humility. Moynihan, a social scientist, understood that social science tells us not what to do but what is not working, which today includes No Child Left Behind. Finn thinks NCLB got things backward: "The law should have set uniform standards and measures for the nation, then freed states, districts and schools to produce those results as they think best." Instead, it left standards up to the states, which have an incentive to dumb them down to make compliance easier.

A nation at risk? Now more than ever.

West Warwick: Fired town manager sues to get job back

WEST WARWICK, R.I. -- A former West Warwick town manager who was fired in December has sued the town to get his job back.

Wolfgang Bauer was fired after town officials accused him of mishandling spending on a major development project. He had been town manager for nine years.

Town officials have said Bauer authorized more than $4 million in payments to contractors for the town's River Walk project, even though the project's account held only $3.2 million.

Bauer filed his suit Friday. Town Solicitor Timothy Williamson said he hadn't yet reviewed it.

The suit accuses the town of firing the 64-year-old Bauer because of his age and to prevent him from collecting retirement and pension benefits.

He's also a demanding a public apology because he says the town council made false statements about him.

Mike Hamel: West Warwick schools headed toward state takeover

  The West Warwick Town Council has done a good job - under difficult financial times - getting town spending under control. Twelve jobs have been eliminated, and the Town Finance Department will take over the tax collector's duties. They would have cut thirteen positions, but the Recreation Director's position was restored. Town Council Vice-President, Peter Calci (D-Ward 5), was very clear, however, that the recreation position would be taking on more responsibilities. He said,"We need to get more productivity out of that department."

Mohegan Sun Rises

Mohegan Sun's brilliance this year will rise and set on the grand opening of the Uncasville, Conn.-based gambling spot's Casino of the Wind in August--as its fierce competitor to the east prepares to strike.

Mohegan Sun, operated by the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority (MTGA), embarked on its $740 million expansion two years ago. The endeavor, dubbed "Project Horizon," features a 39-story, 919-room hotel, an additional 40,000-square-feet of retail space, a concert venue and, of course, the casino.

While the casino ribbon-cutting will happen this year, other phases of the project won't be completed until 2010.

Foxwoods Resort Casino, in Ledyard, Conn., meanwhile, is scheduled to open its MGM Grand hotel and casino in May.

But Mohegan Chief Executive Mitchell Grossinger Etess doesn't seem too worried.

"We still believe and know that we will be the market leader even after [Foxwood's] expansion," Etess told Forbes.com, "and then even more so when our expansion is completed."

Mohegan Sun's two existing casinos, Earth and Sky, receive more than 35,000 visitors daily, according to the company. But Etess said the business has, of course, felt the strain of a weakened economy: People are gambling less. Still, he maintains that Mohegan's appeal goes beyond the slots and tables, at least the way the boss describes the experience and soon-to-open third casino.

"When you go to Las Vegas, you'll see they spent $1 billion," Etess said. "They built a fake pyramid, a fake Venice, a fake New York, Paris--and then at Mohegan Sun, when we spent $1 billion ... we basically brought the culture of the Mohegan Tribe to life."

And if the richness of the presentation doesn't do it, the TV cameras might. Mohegan will re-open its poker room, which closed five years ago just as the game became a staple on sports network ESPN. This is why the game is back and the World Series of Poker is on Etess' calendar.

"The day we closed the poker room, poker showed up on ever TV station in the country and became ridiculously popular," Etess said, adding that professional cards' premier event will have a home at the Casino of the Wind.

He discussed that and more with Forbes.com.

Forbes.com: Once development is completed, will Mohegan Sun be the biggest casino in the U.S.?

Mitchell Grossinger Etess: It'll be 350,000 square feet of gaming. My guess is Foxwoods will still be bigger. It's all a matter of how you define what's the biggest casino in the world. We're definitely up there. The New York Times said we were two of the biggest, but I don't know which is which.

To what degree has the strain on consumer spending and a weakened economy affected your business?

A combination of the economy and more competition in the Northeast slot market really has declined our slot revenues for at least the last six months and probably a little before that as well. That's attributed to several things.

One is: There are 4,500 slots in Rhode Island in a pretty nice place now. They have 5,200 slots at Yonkers. But even those are people [who] are going for quick-hit slots. There is more slot capacity in the Northeast, and the demand hasn't quite matched the supply yet.

And two is: gas prices. Everyone drives to Mohegan Sun, basically, other than taking buses. I think how rich people feel is based on how much their houses are worth. People's houses aren't worth as much as they were. People are uncertain. I think we cater to people where gaming isn't really their primary entertainment choice. I can't quantify it for you, but let's face it, if it costs $10 or $15 more to drive, you probably are going to spend $10 or $15 less. So we've kind of been feeling that.

Honestly, relative to a lot of other places, we're only down 1.4%, and Atlantic City was down, [so] we're doing really well against the competition.

In what division of your business will you see the largest increase in revenues once development is completed?

I think it's probably going to grow somewhat proportionally. My gut is 60-40 in favor of gaming.

How many tables will be in the new poker room, and what events are going to make it the center of attention?

We'll have 42 tables. We're going to be part of the World Series of Poker. There will be a lot of tournaments here, [and] we'll definitely have some televised events. We're already working on a few. Tournaments are critical in poker marketing, so you kind of need to do it.

How much spillover will there be from poker into your other businesses once Mohegan starts hosting these major events?

Poker is an attraction, and it does well on its own. There is limited spillover into some of the other gaming areas. Some people are just pure poker players. You have some poker players that will go play some blackjack. You have some poker players whose wives will come over and play slots. You have some women poker players whose husbands will go and play blackjack. There is some ancillary spillover.

When we took our poker room out the first time, we did a study and we didn't assess that we were going to lose a tremendous amount of business. Poker has changed somewhat since then, emotionally. It's more about the overall party-chaser type atmosphere that's really going to help us win.

You a poker player?

I'm not really a gambler per se. I'll play a little blackjack when I'm in Las Vegas or something.

What's Mohegan Sun's contribution to economic development? Is there an obligation? What impact does it have on jobs for the Native American Community?

All of our money goes to the tribe. They provide a tremendous amount of things to all members. They provide housing for the elderly. ... There are some cash payments made to tribal members, but it's mostly in other services. Like, they provide a college education for every tribal member. They provide health care for every tribal member. They provide housing for the elderly. They have a whole support system. We really do fund that government, all that development. There are a lot of things that are reinvested back into the tribe, which then helps the tribe [and] the Native American community.

On its Web site, Foxwood touts its relationships with Wall Street's financial institutions and its ability to raise a significant amount of capital. What's Mohegan Sun's relationship with these companies?

It's stronger. We were the first Native American casino to actually get money from Wall Street when we raised bonds for out initial casino. We are shaped and behave like a public company even though we're not [one]. In terms of our reporting, we [follow] the regulations, and we have excellent relations with the banking community.

You look at our history ... getting our bank credit facility just amended, in the credit situation today as it exists, with what's happening in the world, I think the way that got done was attributed to our relationship with the banks and how we're perceived on Wall Street.

We deal with the analysts. We have a bank meeting with our bank group once a year. So we are actively engaged with them.

How has the credit crisis affected Mohegan Sun?

It hasn't really, because our projects are funded.

Is there any room for tribal gaming to grow beyond what already exists in the Northeast?

There are a few places. New York ... Massachusetts could get one. I think it's all a matter of where there are recognized tribes with reservations in places where [you could have tribal gaming]. I'd say, with the exception of Massachusetts and the possibility in New York, I don't know how many more tribal casinos you would see.

What is the status of the MTGA Gaming Aqueduct bid for video poker in New York?

It's getting down to the end now. We're preparing make a final presentation. Hopefully it'll be resolved in a reasonable amount of time. I would be shocked if it isn't decided in a month.

What's going to be the benefit of having this business as part of the MTGA?

For us, we'd be part of the group. There'd be a management fee. I'm not sure that's public, but ... being in that, right in our market, it's a really logical extension for us.

What other similar relationships do you have?

We're in the state finals in Kansas for licensing Kansas City. We have two relationships, management and development, with two Native American tribes that are seeking to get their land put into trust and open casinos.

One of them is the Chehalis Tribe in the state of Washington, which is trying to put a casino about 50 miles outside of Portland, Ore. And the other one is the Menominee Tribe from Wisconsin, which is attempting to get some land put in trust at Kenosha at the [Dairyland Greyhound Park].

In those two cases, we're acting as developer, and then we'll manage the casino for them, just as Sol Kerzner and Trading Cove Associates had done with us at the beginning.

We've got a lot of irons in the fire. We're involved. People call us, and we look at a lot of things. I'm actually leaving here in a few minutes to go do some work on some potential ventures. So, we're actively attempting to extend the Mohegan Sun brand.

House approves Gallison plan on LNG

PROVIDENCE — In a near-unanimous vote Wednesday, the state House of Representatives approved legislation that would require a slew of additional approvals for any emergency response plan developed for the transportation of liquefied natural gas through Rhode Island waters.

The bill, introduced by Rep. Raymond E. Gallison Jr., would place more roadblocks in the path of a proposed LNG terminal in Fall River by giving the General Assembly and all Rhode Island cities and towns on Narragansett and Mount Hope bays authority over the emergency response plan being developed by the state Emergency Management Agency.

The local communities would have to sign off on the plan before it could go into effect, said Gallison, one of the leading opponents of the marine terminal in Fall River’s north end proposed by Weaver’s Cove Energy and Hess LNG.

“A community could say, ‘This is going to be a problem, so you should do this,’ ” Gallison explained in an interview yesterday. “If that can’t be worked out, then the community can veto the plan.”

The bill passed in a vote of 66 to 1. It must now go to the Senate, where Gallison will argue for its passage.

Under the plan put forward by Weaver’s Cove and Hess, massive tankers loaded with LNG would traverse Rhode Island waters to reach the proposed terminal, entering Narragansett Bay and then heading north in Mount Hope Bay.

If Gallison’s legislation goes into effect, the list of communities that would have say over the emergency response plan would include Newport, Jamestown, Middletown, Portsmouth, Tiverton, Bristol, and Warren. Gallison is a Bristol Democrat who represents his hometown and Portsmouth.

Those against the plan say that LNG tankers could be terrorist targets or could be subject to accidents that could result in devastating fires.

“Just about every state leader and municipal leaders in all the towns and cities along the bay are opposed to the use of the bay by dangerous LNG tankers. If Weaver’s Cove wants this project, it should be Weaver’s Cove’s responsibility to pay for the preparation of response plans for emergencies that its project could cause,” Gallison said in a statement.

Gallison goes on to state that the legislation’s vitality is not weakened by Weaver’s Cove recent assertions that it would also seek an offshore berth for LNG tankers if it can not win approval for its Fall River location.

It would still see LNG tankers in the bays and so shoreline communities need to be protected, Gallison said. His statement noted a Government Accountability Office study that, according to Gallison, said liquefied natural gas can not be safely moved using tankers as they are vulnerable to terrorism.

Co-sponsors of the legislation include Rep. Amy G. Rice, D-Portsmouth, Middletown, Newport; Rep. J. Russell Jackson, D-Newport; Rep. Douglas W. Gablinske, D-Bristol, Warren; and Rep. Jan Malik, D-Warren, Barrington.

Gallison said yesterday he will continue to do all he can to stop the LNG terminal from being built.

“They just won’t go away,” he said. “But we’re not going away either. We’re going to do everything we can to stop this.”

akuffner@projo.com

House bill cuts polling hours

PROVIDENCE — If you’re planning to vote this September, you might want to mark your calendar.

The House last night passed a bill that would, if approved by the Senate, require all polling places statewide to close at 8 p.m. instead of the regular 9 p.m. cutoff that’s been in effect for decades.

The goal is to make Election Day less taxing for poll workers and local boards of canvassers while allowing Rhode Islanders to find out the results of local and national elections at a more reasonable hour.

Bill sponsor John Patrick Shanley Jr., D-South Kingstown, said communities are having increasing difficulty recruiting poll workers for a day that begins before breakfast and ends close to bedtime.

Nationally, Rhode Island is one of just two states –– the other being Iowa –– that keep polls open until 9 p.m. The polls in this state close a full hour later than any other New England state.

Shanley and local officials say the number of voters who cast ballots between 8 and 9 p.m. isn’t sufficient to justify the late closures.

House lawmakers last night approved the proposal in a 53-10 vote with no discussion. The legislation now moves to the Senate.

Polling places were just one of several items House legislators passed last night. Also in the spotlight were military families, musical con artists and even religious wine.

A Republican-backed bill that would allow spouses or parents of active-duty military service people to obtain unpaid leave from work saw unanimous approval. The Senate passed an identical bill on Wednesday and both chambers are expected to take up the other version next week.

The idea is to allow family members who have exhausted their vacation and personal time to take up to 15 days of unpaid leave provided they work for an organization with more than 15 employees, and up to 30 days if they work for an organization with more than 30 employees.

“We’re not asking employers to pay anything, it just gives them an opportunity to take some time out of work,” said sponsor Rep. Victor Moffitt, R-Coventry.

House freshman Frank G. Ferri, D-Warwick, sparked some of the evening’s most spirited debate when he asked if the proposal would apply to domestic partners as well as spouses. Ferri, who is openly gay, said he supported the bill, but wanted to see it open to all active duty service people. Lawmakers ultimately passed the legislation as is.

The House also approved the music-related bill made famous this session by a visit from Jon “Bowser” Bauman, the former baritone singer of the doo-wop revival group Sha Na Na.

The plan would regulate the confusing and often illegal use of a musical group’s name in deceiving the concert-going public. Musicians would only be allowed to bill themselves under a group’s name if their performing ensemble includes at least one member of the recording group.

And then there was the red wine. Having passed the House last year but dried up in the Senate, the proposal to allow the sale of sacramental wine won unanimous House approval last night. If passed by the Senate, the law would allow Rhode Island’s religious supply stores to sell religious wine that liquor stores generally don’t stock, eliminating the need for out-of-state purchases by the clergy.

cneedham@projo.com

Audit faults Providence meal program

PROVIDENCE — The director of the city’s summer lunch program has been fired and the entire administrative staff will not be brought back after a state audit has found that the program falsely claimed it had served far more lunches than it actually had over the past several years, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of improper federal reimbursement payments, according to city officials.

A criminal investigation conducted by Providence police is under way, but city officials would not divulge the details or the targets of the investigation, or exactly what happened to that extra money.

Program Director Jane Shugrue has been fired, according to Providence Chief of Operations Alix Ogden. Her entire 11-person administrative staff will also not return for the summer season. The city will now hire a new director, and subcontract out most of the summer lunch program to a private food-service provider.

“We don’t know all the answers, except that there was real serious mismanagement of the program that we needed to respond to immediately in order to make sure that we provide the meals we want to this summer,” Ogden said.

The program serves free lunches to city children 18 and younger at more than 100 facilities such as parks, community centers and daycare centers during the summer months. The program is financed with federal dollars, but administered at the local level. The city prepares and distributes the food, and then files reimbursement requests for the number of meals eaten.

Shugrue, 58, of Smithfield, was a seasonal employee who was paid $25 an hour to run the program for the city. She was hired as a program assistant in 1984, and took over the program in 1991. Ogden said that Shugrue was fired for mismanagement of the program, but would not say if she is a target in the criminal investigation.

“Given the information that we have at this time, we felt that the city’s steps and response were appropriate, because it’s very clear that the program is mismanaged,” Ogden said.

Shugrue has retained a lawyer, Thomas J. McAndrew, and he said that she has nothing to do with the over-billing, and is the victim of a “witch hunt.” Told police are investigating, McAndrew said that Shugrue has not spoken to the police.

“Then that’s a criminal investigation of other people. It has nothing to do with Ms. Shugrue… Jane never had any access to any money,” he said.

He said that Shugrue was terminated without a true chance to argue her case, and that a pre-termination hearing March 25 was over before it started.

“I was just stunned. I’ve been involved in labor and employment law for 37 years and I’ve never seen anything as summary without giving a chance to respond,” he said.

As a temporary employee, Shugrue has little legal recourse. McAndrew speculated that perhaps her firing is political in nature, or that the city is trying to cover up other wrongdoing.

“Maybe someone there did something wrong and let’s get rid of Jane and draw the attention away from someone else,” he said.

Shugrue, a former math teacher at Providence’s Bridgham Middle School, was once an executive board member in the Providence teachers union.

The over-billing was discovered as the result of a state Department of Education inquiry into the program. The Department of Education oversees the summer lunch programs across the state, and conducts regular inquiries into their operations. Last summer it looked into Providence’s program and found several irregularities, which it codified in a draft audit given to the city in January.

In addition to the over-billing, described as “submission of false information,” the state inquiry found that non-eligible adults were being served food, that meals were eaten off site and past the time that regulations allow, and that record-keeping was poor or absent, according to the preliminary audit report.

All told, the state audit found that a total of $741,836 worth of unallowable reimbursement requests were submitted over the past three years, though some improper activities were only documented in 2006 and 2007.

The city may now need to repay the program the amount that was falsely claimed; Chief of Administration Richard I. Kerbel said that the dollar amounts in play are not yet exactly clear.

The program’s annual expenditure is about $673,000 each year, according to an average of the last five years computed by the city.

“It’s likely that these actions are going to cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Ogden said.

Shugrue’s lawyer, McAndrew, argues that these problems are not Shugrue’s doing — the record slips submitted by employees regarding the number of lunches served are riddled with errors, he said, and are difficult to depend on. He also stated that while program employees are told not to serve lunches to adults, they have been threatened by adults when they do not hand over the meals.

Once the city was informed of the state’s audit, it began its own internal investigation, and commissioned an outside audit of the program by its auditor, Braver, a certified public accounting firm based in Massachuetts. At the beginning of March, Providence police opened a criminal investigation, Kerbel said.

“We were notified by [the Rhode Island Department of Education]. RIDE came to us. We briefed the mayor, and he told us to implement these actions immediately,” Kerbel said.

Providence now plans to contract out the food preparation and delivery functions to a private agency. The city will still retain some seasonal workers to distribute the food at the sites. Extra levels of oversight will also be added to the reimbursement process, Ogden said.

dbarbari@projo.com

Union pulls out of efforts to reform pension plan

PROVIDENCE — Incensed that Providence officials have helped state Sen. Stephen Alves, D-West Warwick, put together a sweeping statewide package of pension changes, the business manager of Local 1033 of the Laborers’ International Union is pulling out of ongoing pension reform talks with the city and says the union will sue if Providence tries to unilaterally change pension rules.

The city and the union have been working together to make incremental changes to the badly underfunded pension system for the past several years. But in a letter to City Council members and officials of other unions sent this week, Local 1033 Business Manager Donald S. Iannazzi said he learned that Providence was working with Alves to help him draft his pension-change package, and he’s done talking pensions with the city as a result. Iannazzi sees Providence’s involvement with Alves as betrayal.

“What fools we have been!” Iannazzi’s letter proclaims. “Kindly accept this writing as notice that Public Employees’ Local Union 1033 shall no longer participate in deliberations to modify any provision of the Employees’ Retirement System of the City of Providence.”

It later refers to “secret” meetings between the city and Alves, and states that “the underlying purpose was to camouflage the city’s true intent of diverting our attention and focus while a political backroom deal was made with no input from the members of the system.”

The city’s chief of administration, Richard I. Kerbel, acknowledged that at Alves’ request, he had met with Alves on four or five occasions in the last few weeks and provided data about the city’s retirement system. But he said that Iannazzi’s characterization in the letter that the city was involved in drafting the package is untrue.

“I provided technical support, facts and figures about the city pensions system. Union contracts. Senator Alves led this process. Senator Alves deserves full credit for the legislation. But, controlling pension costs, controlling municipal costs has always been a mission of the mayor to protect the taxpayers. When asked by the head of the Senate Finance Committee to provide information, we provided information,” Kerbel said.

Kerbel said that Mayor David N. Cicilline was aware of the talks, but was not involved in the sit-down discussions.

Iannazzi tore into Kerbel, saying that this would not have occurred if Kerbel’s predecessor, John C. Simmons, was still involved.

“Simmons would not do this … I think it’s amateur hour over there,” Iannazzi said. “I don’t believe it’s the mayor, I just don’t believe that there’s anyone who appreciates the ramifications of this act.”

Alves yesterday confirmed Kerbel’s account, saying that the city was involved in an advisory role, not in molding the intent of the bill.

“I did speak with the mayor and ask him if he’d give us the information,” Alves said. “We were working on what we’d like to see in the bill; they were giving us numbers.”

Alves said he has also requested information from his home town of West Warwick, but that no city has been as involved as Providence.

Alves’ package has been met with anger by state labor leaders, both for its contents and because labor believes that pension changes should be decided through negotiations, not through state legislation.

Alves’ package would apply to municipal employees not currently in the state-run Municipal Employees’ Retirement System of Rhode Island.

It would establish minimum retirement ages for municipal employees, and reduce retirement benefits for municipal employees with less than 10 years of service. It would cap annual pension increases at a simple 3 percent per years. And it would introduce restrictions stipulating that police and firefighters must be at least 55 years old with 25 years of service to qualify for a full pension, while non-public safety employees would need to be 59 with 29 years on the job for a full pension. Retiree health-care benefits would begin only at age 55, and would expire when the retiree becomes eligible for Medicare.

Alves is still putting the finishing touches on his bill and said that he expects to submit the legislation at the end of next week.

The City Council has been working with the city’s unions for the last two years to reform the city’s pension system, which has nearly $700 million less than it should in assets to pay off all the benefits owed to former and current employees.

In the past year, the council has approved changes to the pension system that require disabled retirees receiving pensions to periodically recertify their disabilities; require disabled retirees to submit their income tax information, and reduce their pensions if they hold a second job and earn more than the salary for the position they previously held with the city; and convert retirees receiving disability pensions to often less-generous “service” pensions once they reach retirement age.

It also removed a firefighters-only benefit known as “Option 4” that allowed city firefighters who qualify for a disability pension to retire with their pension, tax-free, and then take back the money they have contributed to the city pension fund, plus interest.

City Council President Peter S. Mancini said the council didn’t know that Kerbel was talking with Alves, and that council members are unhappy with the situation — and displeased that their pension reform efforts may now be over as a result.

“The biggest problem is that they didn’t inform anyone. How can you talk about pension reform and find a solution if you don’t have all the parties involved?” Mancini said.

If a solution can be worked out and the union tempted to rejoin the pension reform talks, Mancini said, he’s hopeful the city administration will understand the need to inform the council of what it’s doing.

“I hope they realize that we have to be part of this going forward,” he said.

Kerbel said that it wasn’t his place to notify the council members, the union, or anyone else.

“It’s up to Senator Alves to decide who he wanted to communicate with at which time. It wasn’t the city that was controlling this process. The city was providing support,” Kerbel said.

Talks are also under way between Local 1033 and the city on a contract for the current fiscal year and the following two years. Both Kerbel and Iannazzi said it remains to be seen how this incident will affect negotiations, though Iannazzi said that this one moment “negates the years of labor relations progress we have enjoyed.”

Kerbel said that, considering Cicilline’s commitment to finding solutions to fix the pension system, he’s not sure the city would do anything differently if it had to do it over.

“The mayor has been concerned about pension costs since day one. I think tomorrow if there was another group formed on pension reform, the mayor would want us to be at the table,” he said.

dbarbari@projo.com

Editorial: Change through charters

Rhode Island parents are desperate for a choice in public schools. That was apparent on charter-school lottery day recently, when 4,154 students applied for only 501 openings.

More than 200 applications came for 25 kindergarten slots at Providence’s Paul Cuffee School; more than 250 for 19 spots at the Compass School, in South Kings- town, 12 of which automatically went to siblings, as federal guidelines mandate; and 620 applications for 32 openings, 20 of which were for kindergarten, at Highlander Charter Elementary School, in Providence.

Clearly, there is a hunger out there for alternatives to Rhode Island’s troubled public schools, which, despite some of the highest per-pupil expenditures in the country, generally perform poorly, as measured by standardized tests of students. Parents who can’t afford private-school tuition and whose children are trapped in poorly performing urban schools are often desperate for alternatives. Some 78 percent of the students attending charters in Rhode Island live in the urban core: Providence, Pawtucket, Woonsocket and Central Falls.

Yet the General Assembly, pressured by powerful interests, has maintained a moratorium on charter schools, making it impossible for new ones to open. It’s long past time to end the moratorium.

Charter schools are schools that are supported with public funds yet are able to operate without much of the red tape inflicted on other schools, often through negotiated contracts. With greater freedom to try out best practices instead of being locked into rigid, failing models, they can do a better job helping students learn. Some of the schools are built around educational themes, such as the arts and the environment. Some require school uniforms. Some encourage accountability and give principals the authority to hire and fire.

All in all, parents like them because they are focused more on the needs of students than are standard public schools, and because they build a sense of community and cooperation.

Since 2004, the General Assembly has blocked the expansion of this promising approach to public education, instituting a freeze and then extending it through the current school year. It is vitally important that the politicians let that freeze expire this June, rather than extending it, and lift the cap on the number of charter schools, currently set at 20.

The Assembly’s focus should be primarily on students and parents, not those who might feel threatened by fresh ideas and new approaches in public education. Rhode Island’s students, particularly in the state’s urban communities, should not have to rely on the luck of the draw, with the odds stacked heavily against them, to get into desirable schools.

Bruce Lang: Query for officials

I think that everyone would strongly agree that, in America, all duly elected politicians and organization officers cannot be in favor of and/or promote anything that is illegal.

If true, then how can Rhode Island legislators, general officers or mayors and officers of public- employee unions and nonprofits disagree with Governor Carcieri’s efforts to drive out illegal immigrants? Tolerating illegals is hurting our state and costing us huge money in our hospitals, schools and prisons. By the way, no one is or should be against legal immigrants.

I’d like to see all of the above officials in the Ocean State commit in writing whether he or she is in favor of or against illegal immigrants being allowed to stay in our state.

BRUCE LANG

Newport

C. Christopher Sirr: More diversionary tactics on alien issue

The 16 April Commentary piece by Ramon Martinez (“Leave immigration to Feds”) does exactly what he claims Governor Carcieri has done — it distracts Rhode Islanders from the real issue with a false history about Italian immigration.

His statements about Italian immigrants are simply inaccurate. Mr. Martinez attempts to make the reader infer that most Italians sneaked across our borders and entered the United States as illegal aliens. This notion is absolutely false! They came as legal immigrants and retained their status as legal aliens until they later became citizens.

They also arrived in an orderly manner and did not demand free services from the government. They did not engage in a disruptive raid on the state capitol building.

They did not create multiple aliases for themselves with false documentation supported by multiple drivers’ licenses.

When some of them fell upon hard times, they turned to family and church for support rather than to the government.

The fact that many Italians suffered discrimination is unfortunate and it was wrong. But this does not in any way justify the current illegal invasion. This should not prevent citizens from complaining about the current illegal flood, a tidal wave that will not ebb unless something is done.

Instead of whining about the governor’s activities, Mr. Martinez should examine his own actions. As president and executive of Progreso Latino he should convert his organization to a law-abiding membership of legal aliens and citizens, who would subscribes to the motto “Progreso United States of America.”

He should encourage his members to obey all of the laws of the United States and Rhode Island in their quest for citizenship. And he should stop creating phony excuses for illegal aliens when they break the law by invading our country and stealing our tax dollars.

C. CHRISTOPHER SIRR

Warwick

Jane S. Nelson: The work ethic

Judy M. Aubin, the auditor for the City of Cranston, recently described the work that she does (“How cities can save taxpayers millions,” Commentary, March 31). Would that all city, state, and federal employees had the same work ethic and high standards as she has set.

Everyone would be grateful and the benefits are endless.

I admire her diligence.

I thank her.

JANE S. NELSON

Providence

Citizen’s alliance invites Charlestown residents to meet

I would like to invite all Charlestown citizens to the Second Annual Citizens Meeting this Saturday, April 26th from 9:30 to 11 a.m. at the Quonnie Grange on Route 1 in Charlestown. The focus of the meeting will be promoting Good Government in Charlestown. Last year we had over 250 citizens attend and participate in the dis­cussion of how to improve the gov­ernment of Charlestown. We hope that this year’s attendance and participation will be just as good.
Some of the activities we have planned include a review of the results from the Charlestown Citizen’s Survey, which measured what issues were important to Charlestown citizens and what was the citizen’s vision for the future of Charlestown. We also plan to focus on the elections of 2008, and dis­cuss what issues should make up the citizens’ priorities list for 2008 and what roles citizens can play in electing the next Town Council of Charlestown.
We also plan to discuss a couple of major changes in the role the Charlestown Citizen’s Alliance plans to play in both educating vot­ers and its role in the 2008 elec­tions.
I also want to thank the citizens of Charlestown for having the courage to stand up and express your views and expectations for good government in Charlestown this past year.
Your sacrifice of personal time to attend commission hearings, public meetings, and to be willing to speak in public at Town Council meetings makes an incredible difference in the quality of our local government. Without your concern, your partici­pation, and most of all your willing­ness to raise your voice to express your views, there would be no hope for good government in Charlestown.
We hope you will be able to join us Saturday, April 26th, at the Quonnie Grange from 9:30 to 11 a.m. and bring a friend who wants to see good government in Charlestown.
The Quonnie Grange is next to the new fire station on Route 1 just north of Michael’s Garage. If you need further directions or have any questions about the meeting, please e-mail us at mail@CharlestownCitizens.org.

Daniel Slattery President, Charlestown Citizen’s Alliance

Open letter to Charlestown council regarding health of salt ponds

The following letter was sent to the Charlestown Town Council
A letter by Town Council mem­ber James Mageau that was pub­lished in the Westerly Sun on March 14th makes a number of statements that we feel need clar­ification.
Ninigret Pond, which is the largest of the Rhode Island salt ponds and wholly within the town of Charlestown, is a wonderful resource that not only helps define the character of Charlestown, but is also, in fact, one of the major producers of rev­enue. This revenue is generated through tourism and taxation of coastal properties, as well as through commercial fishing and marinas.
The pond, however, is suffering from elevated levels of nutrients and in some areas, such as the northeastern section, high bacte­ria counts. Elevated bacteria lev­els result in closure of shellfishing beds and beaches; high nutrient levels can cause algae blooms, which look bad, smell bad and deplete oxygen from the water. High levels of nutrients also con­tribute to the loss of eelgrass beds, which are important habitats in the salt ponds. In severe cases, nutrient pollution results in fish kills. Chronic contamination can effectively kill a pond.
Properly designed and well­maintained septic systems do a good job treating bacteria and pathogens, but do little to remove nutrients, which eventually leach into the groundwater and move toward the salt ponds. The Salt Ponds Coalition has been moni­toring water quality in Ninigret Pond for some years now, docu­menting increasing levels of nutrients.
Because of these high nutrient levels, the consequences of ongo­ing nutrient contamination, and ever-increasing utilization of the coastal areas, we believe DEM has taken an important and responsible step toward restoring and ensuring the water quality we all expect to see in our coastal ponds and beaches. In fact, the Coastal Resources Management Council has required nitrogen reducing technology within its jurisdiction since 1984, as part of the Salt Pond Region Special Area Management Plan. Therefore, the new DEM rule complements the pre-existing CRMC requirement.
The first of Councilor Mageau’s points we’d like to clarify is that not just any home addition trig­gers this ruling — only the kind of additions that already require applicants to file a OWTS (on-site wastewater treatment system) application.
A typical example would be the addition of a bedroom. Likewise, standard maintenance of a system does not require a whole new sys­tem. The rule kicks in when the work includes the expansion or replacement of the leaching fields. What’s more, the DEM rule does not require replacement of func­tioning systems on any set time frame. If a septic system contin­ues to pass local inspections, and the owner does not expand the house in ways that require a sys­tem modification, it can continue to be used indefinitely.
The cost of installing nitrogen­reducing technology is, indeed, more than traditional systems. But in the case of new construc­tion and the replacement of mal­functioning systems, the true cost is the difference between a tradi­tional system (which the property owner would have to install any­way) and a denitrifying system. For example, if a traditional sys­tem cost $20,000 and a denitrify­ing system for the same residence costs $30,000, then the true cost of this regulation to that property owner is $10,000.
People who want to expand their houses in a way that requires the expansion of an oper­ational system are the ones who will face greater expense. In the salt pond region, many such proj­ects involve small seasonal cot­tages that are being expanded and upgraded to much larger and more expensive homes, which will be utilized for larger portions of the year.
In such cases, it is important to upgrade the systems so they are balanced with the new use of the structure.
The people who pay the highest price are those who want to add on a bedroom and have to replace an otherwise functioning system. Low-cost loans are available through a state program (RI Clean Water Finance Agency) to help reduce the burden. Charlestown seems to have missed the opportunity to file for such funds for the 2008 year, but is free to file for future years.
Councilor Mageau worries that these regulations could have an impact on property values in the area. To the contrary, cleanliness and health of the salt ponds have a far greater economic impact. Fishing and tourism (and often a combination of the two) are the major economic forces in South County.
Why are people drawn here for recreation? Because the waters are perceived as clean. Why do people come here from dozens of states to fish? Because the fish here are feeding on food produced in the ponds. Why can we collect or purchase local shellfish? Because through effective regula­tion, many areas still support native clams or cultivated oysters. But the viability of these stocks is in peril. Already we have lost our scallop and native oyster popula­tions and some ponds are loosing clam stocks. Changes brought on by nutrient contamination are part of the problem.
Municipal sewer systems cer­tainly have some appeal. They could collect the untreated waste and move it to a less sensitive area for treatment, and the pros who staff such facilities are on duty all the time to ensure full functionality.
The down side to such systems includes a huge municipal cost incurred in year one; the need for residents to trench to the road and hook into the system; the potential for increased develop­ment as lots that couldn’t support infrastructure now can; potential unbalancing of the aquifer as water is drawn from wells in one part of town, then piped miles away for treatment and release; and questions about where the large quantities of treated water would be released. Sewer out­flows typically empty into a run­ning stream or well-flushed bay. Where in Charlestown would such water be discharged?
Installation of private denitrify­ing systems, as existing septic systems become obsolete, offers the most affordable way to get control of nutrient pollution in Charlestown groundwater. In some areas, small-scale package systems that handle a certain neighborhood and treat the wastewater close by in a common system might make sense. The development of vegetated drainage swales and other mod­est landscaping improvements would also offer benefits.
Thankfully, much engineering work on this subject has already been done. In April of 2007, a watershed management plan was prepared for Green Hill Pond and eastern Ninigret Pond.
This plan documented the lev­els of contamination in the two water bodies and suggested meth­ods by which the ponds could be brought back to a sustainable level. The report was developed under a grant from Rhode Island DEM and the U.S. EPA and was overseen by a technical advisory committee that included repre­sentatives from state agencies, local municipalities (including Charlestown), non-profits, uni­versities, and more.
Salt Ponds Coalition hosted an educational session on this report last fall for town officials (includ­ing Charlestown Town Council members), but unfortunately it was not well attended.
We would be happy to set up another session to review this informative document this spring.
In closing, nutrient damage to the salt ponds is real. It has already done severe damage to many areas of the Rhode Island salt ponds, it is present in Ninigret Pond, and, as it grows, the desirability and economic via­bility of the area will be dimin­ished.
Mark Bullinger Salt Ponds Coalition Board of Directors

Middletown: Attorney general rules town violated public-records law

MIDDLETOWN — The state’s attorney general has ruled that the town violated public-records law by refusing to release details on former Town Administrator Gerald S. Kempen’s departure last December.

The attorney general’s office, in a ruling Wednesday supporting complaints by a local activist and newspaper, ordered the town to release the requested public records within 10 days, or potentially face penalties. The town’s separation agreement with Kempen includes details on fringe benefits paid to the former leader that should be public, the ruling says.

The attorney general’s ruling found that the town did not willingly, or knowingly, violate the law and should not be fined.

Antone C. Viveiros, who heads the Concerned Island Taxpayers Association, had appealed to the attorney general’s office after the town denied his request for access to “all documents, papers, letters, tapes, photographs, films, sound recordings, magnetic or other tapes, electronic data processing records, computer stored data … in connection with the termination of employment of former Middletown Town Administrator, Mr. Gerald Kempen.”

The Newport Daily News filed a similar appeal to the attorney general.

On Dec. 9, a split Town Council approved a separation agreement with Kempen that sources have said included an undisclosed payout of more than the six-month severance package outlined in Kempen’s employment contract.

The council had held a series of closed-door meetings last November and December with Kempen, to whom the council had refused to grant a pay raise after an October performance review. Subsequently, Kempen, through a letter written by his lawyer, accused unnamed council members of meddling with how he did his job — a violation of the council’s duties under the Town Charter.

Details of the Town Council’s separation pact with Kempen have remained shrouded, with both sides refusing to provide details. Kempen said he was bound by a confidentiality agreement, but indicated that he’d talk if the council questioned him. Attempts by Councilmen Louis P. DiPalma and Edward J. Silveira Jr. to force Kempen to publicly detail his reasons for leaving were squashed by their colleagues on the board.

The town’s lawyer, Francis S. Holbrook II, denied requests to release the agreement to Silveira, Viveiros, The Journal and the Newport newspaper. Holbrook told Viveiros and the newspapers that the requested documents are “not deemed to be public records.”

The state’s Access to Public Records Act, however, requires public bodies to disclose an employee’s “name, gross salary, salary range, total cost of paid fringe benefits, gross amount received in overtime, and other remuneration.”

Holbrook, in the town’s defense of the two complaints, disputed that the separation agreement’s payout be considered “other remuneration,” and contended that most of the seven-page agreement’s language is boilerplate wording “inserted to protect the Town against the possibility of claims later surfacing.”

The agreement, Holbrook said, was drafted “with a certain amount of overkill, in an effort to negate even the remotest possibility of a claim ever being raised against the Town by Mr. Kempen.”

Holbrook also argued that the separation agreement shouldn’t be public because the pact itself prohibits disclosure.

But Adam J. Sholes, special assistant attorney general, rejected that claim, saying that “no matter what the terms of the agreement may be, the agreement cannot violate Rhode Island law, and in particular, the APRA [Access to Public Records Act].”

Sholes said that the separation agreement contains information on retirement contributions, sick-time pay and health insurance, all of which are fringe benefits and should be made public.

Viveiros was heartened yesterday afternoon by his successful appeal to the attorney general’s office.

“I didn’t think we asked for anything personal, just what was pertinent to this situation and his termination and how much it cost the people,” Viveiros said. “The people should know as much as they can, by law, about what went on.”

Holbrook could not be reached for comment yesterday afternoon.

mwims@projo.com