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PaulHuff, one of the ongoing criticisms I've had of this city council is their repeated claims of "not knowing" what was happening. That's not a good look for a city council, especially one with several longtime members.

At the same time, as you note, they're complaining about the cost of contracts -- and then approving new contracts with raises.

I'm also getting tired of this "blame Avedisian" game they're playing. The new teachers' contract was all over the news for months, and they could have, at any time, held an executive session with Avedisian to get the information about the process.

Same thing with the police and municipal contracts: It should not have been a surprise that those unions were seeking 3-percent raises, and the cost of those contracts should not have been a mystery.

They're in charge now -- and they should start acting like it.

WwkVoter, thanks for your compliment.

As far as the city's accumulated surplus, the city council has already taken from it -- they're just trying not to admit it yet. You may recall the pre-primary article with Solomon, where he wouldn't put a dollar figure on the surplus.

Here's the relevant part of that article:

“I’d like to believe what was said earlier that we have $25 million in our reserve account. We never had $25 million in our reserve account…I wish we had $20 [million],” Solomon said. The mayor was not prepared to commit to a number.

http://warwickonline.com/stories/solomon-seeks-vote-from-fellow-democrats,136650

Now, here's what I think suggests that the council has already spent the surplus:

- Before he left office, Avedisian put the surplus at $25.4 million: http://warwickonline.com/stories/city-surplus-headed-to-254m-but-drawdowns-to-take-bite,131220

- That was in January, 2018 -- before the $4.2 million deficit that the council left in the FY18 budget and the $3.8 million structural deficit built into the FY19 budget.

- Taken together, those deficits equal $8 million.

- So, if Avedisian was correct in estimating a $25.4 million surplus and the council's last two budgets resulted in a combined $8 million deficit, that explains Solomon's statement that he "wish[ed] we had $20 million" and would not specify the actual amount.

Avedisian didn't approve the last two budgets -- the city council did. And those budgets, I would argue, just cost the city $8 million from the surplus.

Now that they know they can't take any more from it without risking even more damage to city finances, they're resorting to complaints about contracts -- which, as I explained to PaulHuff above -- are not entirely valid.