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@daydreambeliever: I found and have pasted excerpts from a letter Mr. Cushman wrote in the Beacon on 2/12/2012 explaining the teacher contract. It appears he did a better job holding down costs then the mayor did when he negotiated city contracts and that the financial problems during that time were caused by the mayor and city councils poor planning.

[While I do admit aspects of the teacher contract were not perfect, to our credit the School Committee remained steadfast over three plus years of difficult negotiations, refusing to adopt the "go along to get along" philosophy of the mayor, helpful in his reelection campaigns but costly to Warwick taxpayers.

The result, over six years, teacher raises will be 18.5 percent versus municipal raises of up to 21.25 percent. School retirees now pay for health benefits, something the mayor has never accomplished in any negotiations even though he acknowledge that "retiree benefits [are] the big issues of the future," Warwick Beacon, June 1, 2006.

In five years, municipal retiree health coverage has increased 42 percent to approximately $6.7 million, representing more than 5 percent of the city budget. Teacher retiree health costs represent a little more than 1 percent of the school budget. The reason for the wide discrepancy, teacher out-of-pocket prescription drugs expenses are not capped and single plan retirement health coverage terminates at age 65 with no supplemental lifetime coverage of any kind.

Compounding the city's current financial problem was the mayor's refusal to budget for the eventual settlement of the teacher contract, something he repeatedly did in the past for municipal contracts.

The October 7, 2003, Warwick Beacon states, while the amount of money for police raises was not budgeted, "Avedisian is reasonably confident that surpluses in the budget will allow the city to meet the additional cost."

The October 24, 2004, Warwick Beacon describes how the mayor requested more than $1 million to "... be reallocated to cover projected cost overruns in police and fire department overtime, as well as salaries and pension contributions."

The May 12, 2005, Warwick Beacon outlines the mayor's requested increase in spending of almost 9 percent along with a $2.4 million draw down of the surplus to "fund across-the-board pay increases of 3.5 percent, increased health care costs and pension contributions and three new positions."

The School Committee continually recognized the need to set aside funds for the contract maintaining several millions of dollars in the budget over three years while cutting spending and eliminating jobs.

On April 25, 2006, the Providence Journal reported, "Mayor Scott Avedisian has said that he strongly opposes allocating money when there is no contract settlement in sight." Two months later the Warwick Beacon on June 8 reported that the budget passed leaving the school department "without the funds for a future contract with teachers." Several members of the City Council had the courage to stand up and say that the failure to adequately budget for these anticipated expenses would create a financial firestorm in the future, voting against the mayor's budgets. ]

From: Ward 1 hinges on mail ballots

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