Report Inappropriate Comments

Yet another example of the cowardice of the mayor who will never allow himself to be asked direct questions from the taxpayers. Hidden under the disguise as a "civics lesson" to students, this sham debate is nothing more than a layer of protection for Scotty. As with the city council puppet finance director Wilkinson, her "bait and switch" resulted in the taxpayer not being able to ask questions to the city actuary on the pension debt (by order of her puppet master Scotty).

In reality, if the mayor was really doing a great job as he thinks and as his paid off employees think, why wouldn't he expose himself to his critics, prove them wrong once and for all with actual data, and get on with the business of righting the ship? So here are a couple of questions for both candidates:

Scott:

You have been mayor for 18 years in this city. The city is drowning in debt. Currently the city holds approximately $800 million dollars of debt. Of that , more than $300 million is in completely unfunded healthcare liabilities, yet we continually give away free lifetime healthcare, pension debt, and other post employment obligation debt. For the past 5 years, the city’s assets have been in decline while the liabilities have dramatically increased. With the lack of funding for improved educational facilities, roads, and general services, coupled with 15 years of continued tax increases, how can you possibly look at the city balance sheet and suggest to intelligent people who are paying attention, that the city is on the right path?

Rick:

As a mayoral candidate you should have certain fiscal skills that you bring to the table to institute corrective measures to financial difficulties which, as we are all aware, plague the City of Warwick. As a local businessman and mortgage broker, you lost your house on 177 Grand View Ave. due to delinquent property taxes resulting in tax sale, and delinquent mortgage payments. The result was that the property was confiscated from you, and for the past 2 years you have been in litigation with 2 acquisition companies that have tried to evict you. In the past 2 years you have lived at the location, rent free, property tax free, but remarkably, during that time, you were able to loan yourself $30,000 for a mayoral campaign. How does your personal obvious financial mis-management, bring any skill set to solving a municipality’s financial problems which currently amount to approximately $800 million dollars of debt?

I await your answers.