To the Editor:

As a candidate for mayor, I have promised citizens that I would be honest regarding Warwick’s finances. For that, the mayor and his supporters have belittled me. Their wish is to continue to envelope the city in a shroud of secrecy and hide the fact that Warwick is heading in the wrong direction.

Recently while on a radio talk show, Mayor Avedisian refused to acknowledge to a caller that the cost of new sewers in Ward 5 would be over $20,000. The mayor stated the figure was too high, yet never mentioned the fact that he attended a meeting with residents when that cost was disclosed or the cost of new sewer construction per project has been posted on the city website for over nine months.

Clearly something is wrong when our neighbors in Cranston have gone three years without any tax increase, while we in Warwick have endured 14 straight years of tax increases under Mayor Avedisian.

Now the mayor is saying those tax increases were small. Tell that to the small businessman on Post Road whose taxes went from $6,000 to $14,000 in eight years. Tell that to the Ward 9 resident whose property tax increased $8,000 over the last decade. In the last seven years alone, the local tax dollars to support the city budget have increased over 50 percent.

This year the mayor took his uncontrollable spending to a new level. With city employee wages frozen and schools once again level funded, he not only increased our property taxes, but tapped the city rainy day fund for $3.6 million. That’s the eighth time he has done that in the last decade and the mayor has the audacity to proclaim a surplus each year?

I think we all can agree city services in Warwick are not the same as they were a decade ago. Our school buildings are a mess because the mayor broke his promise when he said he would fix them. Our roads are in terrible shape and the mayor’s plan to float a $5 million bond, as reported by the Beacon this week, won’t happen since he didn’t make sure it passed a City Council vote to get it on the November ballot. Again, failed leadership by the mayor. 

In an article the other day, the mayor stated that the city isn’t responsible for the debt of the Warwick Sewer Authority (WSA) but the city had to loan it $7 million a few years ago. To me, that screams responsibility for its debt. I guess I would also disavow any responsibility if my appointees to the board of directors were responsible for over $100 million in debt and usage rates that have increased over 100 percent in six years.

In another recent example of hiding the facts, Alfred Marciano wrote a letter to the Beacon claiming my campaign literature on the city’s billion-dollar debt problem is wrong. It’s frightful to think that Mr. Marciano, who is chairman of the Municipal Retirement Board and a CPA, doesn’t know these numbers.  What is more troubling is the fact the he doesn’t find it unfair that the municipal retirees in the plan managed by him have not received a cost of living adjustment (COLA) in five years while other retirees are receiving a compound 3-percent COLA each year. I guess pension inequality is OK with Mr. Marciano. And it’s also OK not to give active employees wage increases for three years, too?

Yet, the most troubling aspect of Mr. Marciano’s political appointed chairmanship is the fact that under his leadership, the municipal pension plan’s unfunded liability has increased 90 percent and its funding ratio has dropped below 70 percent and is nearer to being considered in “critical status” by the state.  With a record like that, is it any wonder he is attacking me for exposing the truth?

There’s an old saying that the past is a good indication of the future. With 14 straight years of property tax increases, a vote for Mayor Avedisian is a vote for two more years of tax increases.

Warwick needs a new direction, and a vote for me is a vote for positive change.

As to Mr. Marciano, your actions are just another example of why I reiterate my campaign pledge to bring transparency and new ideas to confront Warwick’s financial problems. 

As to the billion-dollar debt, here is the breakdown: General obligation bond, $50,992,040; Police/Fire I Pension, $309,774,579; Police II Pension, $182,130,783; Fire II Pension, $41,218,696; Municipal Pension, $130,992,110; City Health Care (OPEB), $246,036,471; School Health Care (OPEB) $39,359,679 for a total debt of $1,000,504,358.

Stacia Petri

Republican candidate for mayor