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Richard please reread the article. No where does it say the position Mr. Silvia is hired to fill is titled "Internal Auditor". Rather the article states that he held the position as internal auditor for 5 years. He now has been hired as the City Treasurer. So please when you comment, gets your facts straight.

Also please stop with the absolutely false narrative you used in your campaign and again in your above comment that the city debt has doubled in 5 years. It has not. While I agree the city financial picture is getting worse as a result of increasing liabilities from the overly generous pension and lifetime healthcare benefits that we can no longer afford, what you are referring to is that the recent city annual financial statement reported an increase of $300 million in unfunded liabilities.

These liabilities have always been present and continue to grow each year. The real truth is that Warwick and all other municipalities around the country are mandated by the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) to report full pension liabilities on the city books and stop the ENRON type reporting that has masked the problem of decades.

These liabilities have always been there. I have decrying them for over a decade and the negative impact they have had on all other funding for city services and education in the city. It just now that Mayor Avedisian and the City Council leadership can no longer intentionally omit them from the city financial reports, further deceive the public and hide from the fact that they will have to address these issues at some point in the near future.

Soon additional GASB regulations will take effect requiring the city to record the real unfunded liabilities related to Other Post Employment Benefits (OPEB). That will add on tens of millions of new unfunded dollars requiring more and more new tax dollars each year to make these payments and diverting more and more dollars away from current services.

Don't hold your breath if you think anyone will dare to broach this crisis in the next two years.

From: Brian Silvia to return to city as treasurer

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