Democratic candidate for mayor Richard Corrente has issued a report card on the five years Mayor Scott Avedisian served on the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority board of directors, concluding the agency was ripped off" by the mayor"
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Democratic candidate for mayor Richard Corrente has issued a report card on the five years Mayor Scott Avedisian served on the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority board of directors, concluding the agency was “ripped off” by the mayor and giving him an “F.”
Corrente based the grade on RIPTA financial reports, claiming that RIPTA assets plummeted, liabilities skyrocketed, and income crashed during Avedisian’s tenure.
Avedisian served as board chair for nearly all his time at RIPTA. He resigned in May, saying Gov. Gina Raimondo asked for him to consider another term, but he thought it was time for a change.
Avedisian asked RIPTA to check out Corrente’s claims, but said RIPTA is in a much better place than when he was named to the board in 2011. As for some of the comparisons Corrente makes and ones he used to base the grade, Avedisian said some numbers have been used out of context and fail to support the claims Corrente makes.
Corrente reports that RIPTA assets dropped from $179.9 million in 2011 to $165.2 million in 2015, a drop of $14.7 million.
“What our records show,” RIPTA spokeswoman Barbara Polichetti answered in an email, “is a normal decline in assets which is a result of required depreciation of physical assets including all our buildings and other properties and our rolling stock (buses). Regarding the buses – while we do try to replace some buses every couple of years, our fleet is always depreciate (like other vehicles), and we would have to get a large shipment of buses for that to offset vehicle depreciation and we have not had a large shipment recently. So nothing has gone wrong or changed. It’s just that materials, buildings and so often depreciate and our assets value has, and will continue to, reflect this.”
Polichetti is more emphatic about Corrente’s claim that liabilities “skyrocketed” by $79.6 million. Corrente notes that according to RIPTA financials, the agency had liabilities of $56.4 million in 2011 as compared to $136 million in 2015.
“This is not true. The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) has – and may continue to – change the types of outstanding liabilities and financial obligations that public entities such as the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority are required to report and incorporate when calculating their gross liability,” Polichetti writes. She explains the increase as a result of reporting requirements, the largest being pension debt. She said the pension plan “remains fairly healthy” and is funded at 70 to 80 percent. She reasons what Corrente is seeing is “a change in accounting procedure, not a change in the money we owe.”
On the income side of the ledger, Corrente points to a decline of $2.5 million in revenues annually from $6.8 million in 2011 to $4.3 million in 2015.
“He failed at RIPTA,” Corrente writes in his report card. “He failed as mayor. Warwick can’t afford Scott Avedisian.”
Polichetti acknowledges that revenues fluctuate, but that is largely a result of how the state has changed services rendered to passengers with Medicaid. The state retained LogistiCare to manage the system.
“Prior to that change,” Polichetti writes, “RIPTA sold packages of tickets (called Rhody Ten tickets) to these clients for travel to non-emergency medical trips such as doctor’s appointments, physical therapy, pharmacy trips, and so forth. These trips are 100 percent reimbursable by Medicaid.”
She goes on to explain: “LogistiCare has the latitude to buy RIPTA tickets for the clients or use other forms of transportation, such as private people driving their cars, or taxis. This has cost RIPTA millions of dollars a year in revenue and we continue to discuss this issue publicly. This was a change instituted by the State in response to Medicaid’s request for more oversight on the Medicaid trips. It is not a reflection on RIPTA’s operation or performance.”
In his May 23 letter of resignation to Raimondo, Avedisian outlined agency accomplishments in the last five years.
He notes with the support of the board, former Gov. Lincoln Chafee brought in the Rhode Island State Police for an oversight of the agency to conduct security breaches and other deficiencies resulting in staff changes.
“Working together, we have accomplished a lot. Long plagued by annual deficits, RIPTA is now on course to end the current fiscal year in the black,” he writes.
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Thecaptain
Hmmmm, does anyone know how Barbara Polichetti got the job at RIPTA? Appointed by Scott Avedisian. During her time covering the City of Warwick when employed by the Prov. Journal, who was Avedisians greatest ally? Barbara Polichetti. What reporter was it that never wrote one negative word about Scott Avedisian? Barbara Polichetti. No nepotism there is there?
Tuesday, June 14, 2016 Report this
richardcorrente
For the record my facts came from RIPTA's own financial reports on the RIPTA web site. You can see them for yourself.
Here are the facts from that website.
FACT: During Avedisians tenure, assets plummeted by $14,703,460.
FACT: That's bad.
FACT: During Avedisians tenure, liabilities skyrocketed by $79,579,486.
FACT: That's real bad.
FACT: During Avedisians tenure, income crashed by $2,554,279 annually!
FACT: That's devastatingly bad.
FACT: Scott Avedisian cost RIPTA, ON A PER DAY BASIS ...
$8,056 in assets - $43,605 in liabilities - and $1,400 PER DAY in income. That's $1,400 PER DAY! EVERY, EVERY DAY!!!
This is the honest record of Scott Avedisian as Chairman of the Board at RIPTA according to RIPTA's own public financial reports. Barbara Polichetti calls it a "normal decline in assets which is a result of required depreciation..." Barbara! Are you kidding??? Assets are good. Liabilities are bad. Income is necessary to survive. Do the math!!! Avedisian patted himself on the back saying RIPTA is "now in a much better place" but the facts show that he lied. He destroyed RIPTA. And that is NOT according to me. That is according to RIPTA!
Barbara! Please read your own financials. Thank you.
Richard Corrente
Democrat for Mayor
P.S. Hey Rob. Thanks for being "subtle". I owe you one.
Tuesday, June 14, 2016 Report this
wwkvoter
two harsh critics. how many large public agencies have you chaired? point being, it's not as easy as it may look to you. and according to the report, RIPTA is actually in decent shape.
Wednesday, June 15, 2016 Report this
richardcorrente
Dear TaxPayer,
You're right! I am being "harsh". At the rate RIPTA is losing money, how long do you think it will be before their income drops to zero? I calculate it to be about 7 years. What does your calculator say? Please refer to RIPTA's own financial reports so accuracy won't be an issue and get back to me.
Thanks.
By the way, if chairing RIPTA is "not as easy as it may look" as you say, maybe the Mayor of the second largest city in Rhode Island shouldn't have taken it on WHILE he was Mayor. I'm just saying.
Oh, and one more thing; you said that "according to the report, RIPTA is actually in decent shape." What part of the report said THAT?!?? Are you sure you read the same report the rest of us did? Please get back to me. Thanks again.
Richard Corrente
Democrat for Mayor
Wednesday, June 15, 2016 Report this
RISchadenfreude
Call me kooky, but Mayor of the second-largest city in RI sounds like a full-time job; will Mr. Avedesian be returning a prorated portion of his salary for those five years, based on his hours working for RIPTA, or do the citizens of said second-largest city pay for absentee leadership?
Another "Empty Chair" leader, like the charlatan in the White House.
The mayor stepped down from RIPTA due to criticism, damage control, and to focus on his re-elec...er, I mean, job.
Sounds like RIPTA got a taste of his financial wizardry, which Warwick's taxpayers are already all too familiar with.
Thursday, June 16, 2016 Report this
richardcorrente
Dear RISchadenfreude,
I promise you, and the other 80,000 taxpayers that I represent, under my administration, the "citizens of the second largest city" WILL NOT "pay for absentee leadership", and you're right. RIPTA got a gut full of Avedisian's "financial wizardry which Warwick's taxpayers are all too familiar with".
"Financial wizardry!" Ha! Yeah, that's Avedisian.
Thanks for the input RISchadenfreude.
Enjoy your Summer.
Richard Corrente
Democrat for Mayor
Thursday, June 16, 2016 Report this
Scal1024
Ok Rick, what would you have done differently at RIPTA? Would you cut services to the elderly or low income riders? That is part of the cuts that were being proposed a couple years ago. RIPTA is public transportation, it's not meant to be a cash cow.
It's easy to criticize someones record when you don't have one. This isn't a race for chairman of RIPTA, this is a race for the mayor of Warwick. As mayor when you cut car taxes for seniors, give tax breaks to new homeowners, tax breaks for new businesses that will create a sizeable hole in revenue. You have also said you would like to buy municipal employees out of their pensions. Has there been any studies conducted of what that would cost? How much will your tax breaks cost taxpayers? How many seniors would be eligible to receive this tax credit of 50% of car taxes? How do you replace lost revenue when you cut those taxes?
It's easy to say cut taxes, cut spending. It even fits nicely on a poster. When you put pen to paper reality sets in. The city cannot afford these types of giveaways. Services would have to be cut, pensions/ benefits would have to be trimmed and property taxes may even have to go up (unless you're a new homeowner, in that case the city will give you a tax cut). I was open minded about this election but your lack of specifics, some of your unnecessary cheap shots at the mayor, and your unwillingness to answer questions I've posed to you on here has me rethinking that.
Thursday, June 16, 2016 Report this
Bob_Cushman
Scal1024 your comment, "Services would have to be cut, pensions/ benefits would have to be trimmed and property taxes may even have to go up" is exactly right. However based on these statistics there really is only one area where expenses need to be reduced.
Over the last ten years from 2008 budget through the 2017 just adopted budget, the total increase in city spending will be $24,411,540.
Of that total $12,772,206 or 52% of that money is spent on Active employee benefits (salary, healthcare, sick pay bonus, longevity bonus, etc).
$12,261,646 or 50% is spent on Retired Employee Benefits (pension and healthcare).
Now anyone looking at these two figures will say 52% + 50% = 102%. That doesn't make sense. It does because all the other line items in the budget have been cut $622,312 or the 2% figure over the last ten years. So what is happening and will continue to happen is that unless property taxes increase at higher amounts or non-tax revenue increase enough to cover the annual increases to benefits, all other areas of the budget will have to be cut.
The only way the city can begin to address increasing funding to everything else beside retired and active employee benefits, is to enact reforms to cut those expenses.
Thursday, June 16, 2016 Report this
Bob_Cushman
Oh, and I forgot to add, over the last ten years property tax dollars to schools have increased by $1.4 million while on the city side they have increase by $40 million. That means 97% of new property taxes went to the city and 3% to schools. So for all the problems the schools have, they are not responsible for the annual tax increases.
And even when the state cut aid to the city, the city recouped those cuts by taking almost all of the new property tax dollars collected. That's why in my previous post I wrote of the $25 million in new spending, but here am saying that the other $15 million ($25 + $15 = $40 mill total) supplemented the amount of money cut from the city budget by the state.
Thursday, June 16, 2016 Report this
richardcorrente
Daer Scal1024,
Great question! Best you have ever asked!
Here's what I would have done different. If I was the mayor of the second largest city in the State of Rhode Island I would never have taken the job at RIPTA in the first place!
Thanks for your interest.
Richard Corrente
Democrat for Mayor
Wednesday, June 29, 2016 Report this