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Hello again Kammy:

You very rightly bring up many of the same concerns that I have with Bob Cushman's analysis, the top one being that it is a selective reading of information that he uses to confirm his own preconceived conclusions.

I also take issue with many of the underlying premises behind those conclusions; as you correctly point out, pension are negotiated with unions, meaning there are two parties who participate. One of Bob's premises is that the city should be able to unilaterally slash those negotiated and legally-protected contractual obligations with no consequences. In reality, any city that tries to do that winds up in lengthy and expensive court battles, which typically wipes out any "savings" that are promised.

Another of Bob's premises, as you pointed out, is that Mayor Avedisian is solely to blame for the city's fiscal condition. This ignores the fact that the Democratic party has had a majority on the city council -- the body that approves the annual budget -- for many years and has apparently found the mayor's budget plans to be worthy of support.

One of the most troubling premises behind Bob's argument is that Warwick stands on the brink of financial disaster -- and if we all just wait long enough, it'll happen. Thing is, he's been arguing this for many years, and it hasn't happened. The city's bond rating has improved, its audits have been positive, and the city has not been hit with anything like the fiscal crises that have affected other communities of its size [Cranston, Pawtucket, Providence].

This leads to the real premise behind Bob's beliefs: He thinks that Warwick voters are so stupid, and that Avedisian has so effectively misled us for years, that we just don't realize that there's a financial collapse lurking around the next corner. Much of his argument is based on the idea that he, alone -- along with a small group of true-believers like "Reality" -- truly know what's happening "behind the scenes" at City Hall. The rest of us are just sheep who are falling for a nearly two-decade long scam -- or we're somehow connected to Avedisian.

I'm just not going to agree with someone who tells me and other voters that we're too stupid to understand publicly-available information because we reach the clearest and most common-sense conclusion, instead of the one they reach by viewing that same information through the narrowest and most negative filter.

As I've said, I agree with the Thecaptain that there are problems with the fire department, to use one example; the FY17 audit shows that the WFD finished the fiscal year something like $600,000 over budget. So, there are issues in Warwick -- but to me, they don't justify the doom-and-gloom that Bob Cushman and his friends continually try to push.