LETTERS

Mayor Fung’s ‘mistakes’ have been costly for Cranston

Posted 9/17/15

To the Editor:

During this “Ticketgate saga” due to Allan Fung’s fumbling in the Cranston Police Department, effectively putting it into receivership and first surrendering his management …

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LETTERS

Mayor Fung’s ‘mistakes’ have been costly for Cranston

Posted

To the Editor:

During this “Ticketgate saga” due to Allan Fung’s fumbling in the Cranston Police Department, effectively putting it into receivership and first surrendering his management rights to a political contributor (Captain Antonucci) and then to the Rhode Island State Police in January 2014, it seems Mayor Fung wants us to accept his apology because he has made “mistakes.” He somehow feels that he deserves forgiveness because he is still growing. First of all, Allan Fung has been a seasoned politician the better part of 20 years, and during that time he even managed a viable chance to be governor while at the same time managing to keep a lid on the 182-page state police report that indicted Mr. Fung’s credibility.

Let’s examine some of Mayor Fung’s “mistakes.”

Did he allow a police captain to be suspended with pay for the better part of 22 months at a taxpayer cost of something north of a quarter-million dollars? Incidentally, the Rhode Island State Police exonerated this captain of all wrongdoing. He has been promoted to major but still has a $5.3 million lawsuit pending against the city of Cranston.

This mistake on its own would be a very serious one, but there are more.

Captain Antonucci, IBPO president and political pal of Allan Fung, seems to think that his misdeeds while on the police force deserve no punishment. The Rhode Island State Police think a termination would be appropriate. Allan Fung disagrees.

The mayor feels that Mr. Antonucci deserves to be reinstated with a “slap on the wrist,” at full rank, salary, seniority and benefits. Mr. Fung also made this agreement with Mr. Antonucci while there was an agreement in place with the state police not to make any personnel changes. I forgot, this was a secret agreement between the captain and the mayor during Mr. Fung’s gubernatorial campaign. He made his intentions known to our new police chief after his unsuccessful bid for governor. When this deal couldn’t be achieved Allan Fung, decided that pensioning off Stephen Antonucci would be a great thing. The problem? Mr. Antonucci does not have the required 20 years of service to qualify for retirement. Allan Fung’s solution ? Let the taxpayers subsidize Mr. Antonucci until he would qualify for his pension and go on with as if an honorable pension was earned! The cost to the taxpayers? $3,000,000 plus! Another mistake?

Fung’s Follies continues, however. He allowed a police officer, on overtime, to follow a private, law-abiding citizen doing work for the police department. This citizen’s home was surveillanced by the police officer for a period of time and then was called to another location regarding an active investigation to cover their tracks.

Needless to say this citizen was in fear for his well being and wants nothing to do with Cranston in the future. Oh yeah, he was followed to his home that is located outside Cranston. Procedure dictates that the police department of the host city be notified when an investigation is under way. This was not the case in this instance.

Lots of mistakes here!

This is certainly just a small recap of Mr. Fung’s “mistakes.”

If you haven’t already, just read the state police report regarding Mr. Fung’s mistakes. If you already have, please give it another read. You may come to the conclusion that his mistakes cost the city of Cranston millions. Perhaps tens of millions. This fails to address the human toll his actions cost the fine police officers of our city who had to endure a hostile work environment for the entire six-plus years of his administration.

His failure to maintain his management rights in this case leads me to believe that, when more layers are pulled back, will there be more issues out there costing the taxpayers more money?

I remember another former Cranston mayor, and he did go on to be governor. He engaged in corrupt practices and went to jail.

Maybe, sometime in the future, we should hang Allan Fung’s portrait next to his in City Hall.

Seems fitting.

Steven Carrera

Cranston

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