Brian Silvia to return to city as treasurer

Posted 12/8/16

Mayor Scott Avedisian has named Brian Silvia, who served as internal auditor for the city for five years and currently is the director of finance for Cumberland, as Warwick City Treasurer. Silvia will start in the job that has been vacant since David

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Brian Silvia to return to city as treasurer

Posted

Mayor Scott Avedisian has named Brian Silvia, who served as internal auditor for the city for five years and currently is the director of finance for Cumberland, as Warwick City Treasurer. Silvia will start in the job that has been vacant since David Olsen retired earlier this year on Dec. 19.

Silvia began his work in Cumberland in February 2013 and says he's "really enjoyed his time here," according to the Valley Breeze newspaper.

Prior to working in Cumberland, Silvia worked as finance director in both West Warwick and North Smithfield. From April 2005 to March of 2010, he was an internal auditor for Warwick. Silvia has an accounting degree from Rhode Island College. He lives in Warwick.

In a Valley Breeze story, Silvia notes the following successes during his tenure, when he served both Cumberland Mayor William Murray and his predecessor, Mayor Daniel McKee, who is now the state's lieutenant governor: Pension and OPEB ("other post employment benefits" to town retirees) funding is now on a much more sound footing; Bond upgrade; A strong town surplus; Upgrades to technology in his department. This includes new computerization hardware and software, safe information backup, and firewalls to protect data.

“We are happy to welcome Brian back to the City of Warwick, and look forward to his thoughtful stewardship of city finances,” Avedisian said in a statement.

Silvia’s salary is set at $97,000.

Comments

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  • richardcorrente

    I, and many others, have been demanding for years, an unbiased audit of Warwick's books from an impartial outside source with all findings printed in the Warwick Beacon. What the taxpayers are paying for, at a cost of $97,000 a year (plus benefits; plus pension) is an internal auditor chosen by, and accountable to, Mayor Avedisian. (That is like IRS allowing you to audit your own tax return!)

    There is no way this auditor will be impartial or unbiased in my opinion and I can give you 97,000 reasons why.

    According to Warwick's own books, our debts have doubled in the last 5 years. I deeply fear what will happen next.

    To the 13,278 voters that supported me, I am truly sorry I let you down but you are now my base and 2018 is right around the corner.

    Merry Christmas everyone.

    Rick Corrente

    Thursday, December 8, 2016 Report this

  • Thecaptain

    OH PLEASE

    Friday, December 9, 2016 Report this

  • Bob_Cushman

    Richard please reread the article. No where does it say the position Mr. Silvia is hired to fill is titled "Internal Auditor". Rather the article states that he held the position as internal auditor for 5 years. He now has been hired as the City Treasurer. So please when you comment, gets your facts straight.

    Also please stop with the absolutely false narrative you used in your campaign and again in your above comment that the city debt has doubled in 5 years. It has not. While I agree the city financial picture is getting worse as a result of increasing liabilities from the overly generous pension and lifetime healthcare benefits that we can no longer afford, what you are referring to is that the recent city annual financial statement reported an increase of $300 million in unfunded liabilities.

    These liabilities have always been present and continue to grow each year. The real truth is that Warwick and all other municipalities around the country are mandated by the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) to report full pension liabilities on the city books and stop the ENRON type reporting that has masked the problem of decades.

    These liabilities have always been there. I have decrying them for over a decade and the negative impact they have had on all other funding for city services and education in the city. It just now that Mayor Avedisian and the City Council leadership can no longer intentionally omit them from the city financial reports, further deceive the public and hide from the fact that they will have to address these issues at some point in the near future.

    Soon additional GASB regulations will take effect requiring the city to record the real unfunded liabilities related to Other Post Employment Benefits (OPEB). That will add on tens of millions of new unfunded dollars requiring more and more new tax dollars each year to make these payments and diverting more and more dollars away from current services.

    Don't hold your breath if you think anyone will dare to broach this crisis in the next two years.

    Friday, December 9, 2016 Report this

  • richardcorrente

    Dear Bob Cushman'

    3 comments:

    1. You're right. I should have said "Treasurer".

    2. You're semi-right. I should have said "reported liabilities". We all know that they were there all along and if they were reported openly and honestly in the first place, the GASB would not have had to force Warwick (and other municipalities) to report ALL of their debts, instead of just "some".

    So here is my revision. "Warwick now is forced to report liabilities that are more than double what they used to report." The fact remains; Warwick is deep in the red, much more than when Avedisian became Mayor. That is the main point and I don't want the reader to miss it by explaining all the complicated details.

    3.As far as "daring to broach this crises in the next two years"... only people that want the public to know the truth will mention it; people like you and me. Keep up the good fight. 80,000 taxpayers deserve to know the truth.

    Merry Christmas

    Rick

    Friday, December 9, 2016 Report this