By ETHAN HARTLEY Documents delivered to the Beacon - initially left anonymously and later discovered to have been supplied by Republican mayoral candidate Sue Stenhouse - have indicated inconsistencies in statements made this July by Mayor Joseph Solomon
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Documents delivered to the Beacon – initially left anonymously and later discovered to have been supplied by Republican mayoral candidate Sue Stenhouse – have indicated inconsistencies in statements made this July by Mayor Joseph Solomon regarding the City Hall Annex building.
During a meeting of the Warwick Rotary Club at the Radisson Hotel on July 12, Solomon gave a short speech as the featured guest where he was asked by a former city worker to provide an update on any impending solution for the closed Annex building, which had displaced city workers to the former Greene Elementary School following a severe pipe bursting incident this past January.
“Unfortunately, the records necessary to make those decisions were not made available to me,” Solomon said in response, adding that he was reaching out to the Rhode Island Interlocal Management Trust, the insurance agency for the city, along with two independent contractors hired at the discretion of former mayor Scott Avedisian’s administration (one a public claims adjuster and one a contracting company from East Providence) to acquire that information.
However, according to the documents received from Stenhouse, Avedisian actually sent a packet consisting of 135 pages of correspondence between the Trust, the contractors and other city officials outlining the entirety of the Annex issue to Solomon on April 27, 2018 – the first in a series of 47 so-called “transition documents” Avedisian provided Solomon in advance of his departure on May 15.
Stenhouse, who was also in the audience at the time Solomon made the above comment, said she looked into this statement and called Avedisian to see if he had truly not made Solomon abreast of the situation.
“Sue asked for the same information I had given to him because she was concerned that he had made an allegation that we had not given him any documentation,” Avedisian said on Monday. “I think he wasn't telling the truth at Rotary and he needs to stop saying that we gave him no information.”
“The Acting Mayor definitely had this information in hand months before the Rotary meeting,” Stenhouse said in a release. “And if he failed to read it, he surely should not claim to not have received the information to the business community at a public meeting.”
Solomon, when reached on Monday, said the timing of the documentation being released – about a week before the Democratic primary – indicated clearly the political motivation behind releasing of the documents. He stressed that he was looking further into the issue was focused on getting workers back into a healthy space and ensuring “just compensation for the taxpayers.”
Included in the documents was the Trust’s assessment that the city could be reimbursed in the net amount of $279,212.25 for the damages sustained in January. The report from East Side Construction indicated upwards of $1.78 million in necessary repairs that needed to be made to the building, compounded by the fact that the inspection found seven serious code violations in the building, including a lack of a fire sprinkler system and an insufficient number of exits from the building.
The documents also included the extensive report from Bill Depasquale – who at the time was the director of the Planning Department, and is now Solomon’s Chief of Staff – which presented the projected costs of renovating the existing building or replacing the Annex with a new building. It also presented multiple other buildings in the city that could potentially become the new Annex.
On Monday, Solomon said that the initial report was missing a “structural engineering report,” and that he couldn’t disclose more about what this report entailed or contained due to a possible lawsuit pending from a party involved in the matter. He did not expand further on what that entailed, but he said that the report would be made public in the future.
“I've seen a draft of it,” he said. “You and the general public will see the extent of the damage to that structure and the need to move as quickly as possible to resolve the situation.”
Stenhouse, however, perceived the situation as not moving quickly at all.
“I am concerned about the lack of action on this issue, as it greatly affects our city employees’ ability to deliver the best services to our constituents,” Stenhouse said in the release. “It seems as though this acting administration simply wants to pretend never receiving information on this issue, the school and city budget situation and several other issues, to cover for lack of vision and action. As a member of the City Council for the last 18 years and as council president four times during his tenure, it is time for Solomon to take ownership of issues and stop skirting his responsibility.”
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wwkvoter
Really glad Stenhouse is all about integrity now. She must have seen the light after her fiasco/charade in Cranston dressing up a man as a woman for a press conference celebrating teen volunteers! because if she would deceive the press and the public that way, what else would she lie to us in the public about?
http://www.providencejournal.com/article/20160114/NEWS/160119572
Tuesday, September 4, 2018 Report this
wwkvoter
oh, may as well add, that if true, this report does not speak well of Solomon. Didn't he play the Sgt Schultz card regarding the recent contract raises too?
https://youtu.be/kp9BJxFHDYI
Tuesday, September 4, 2018 Report this
CrickeeRaven
WwkVoter, we know that Stenhouse is running basically as Avedisian 2.0. So it's no surprise that Avedisian would pass along those transition documents, or that she would release them when it might do damage to Solomon.
Here's what I'm wondering: Will Solomon release everything he has and try to explain it on his own terms, or let Stenhouse dribble them out over the next few weeks?
I agree with you -- it's a bad look for Solomon to claim that he didn't know certain things, when he could have, and more importantly, should have.
Tuesday, September 4, 2018 Report this
Justanidiot
Interestingly enough, those documents were delivered to Ms. Stenhouse by a bus driver from the Pilgrim Senior Center who was dressed up in drag as an elderly woman. Some people just have a real hard time dropping fetishes.
Wednesday, September 5, 2018 Report this
Thecaptain
You will see that Solomon will not release anything or say much until after the election. That is the main reason why the 3rd party audit from YKSM is incomplete as of this date. The city has yet to provide YKSM with the payroll documents of the fire dept. to confirm payment of funds although all of the other documents confirm that.
Wednesday, September 5, 2018 Report this
Cat2222
According to Sue, he played dumb to cover for lack of vision and action. Would she rather Solomon parade a cross dressing bus driver around to distract others from what was going on?
"As a member of the City Council for the last 18 years and as council president four times during his tenure, it is time for Solomon to take ownership of issues and stop skirting his responsibility.” So Sue decided to do nothing about it in all that time and wait until it was a few days before a primary and then decided he should be held accountable!
Sue Stenhouse: Go low, forget about the high road.
Friday, September 7, 2018 Report this
patientman
Solomon insults the electorate by skipping the debate and lies to his constituents. Nice combination.
Friday, September 7, 2018 Report this
wwkvoter
Joe Solomon offers to very competently run the status quo with little imagination and an inability to overcome his own weakness to face facts and take a stand. But he wont get us in any trouble other than the slow boil of steadily rising taxes and slowly eroding services that we frogs have been in for years.
By contrast, Sue Stenhouse offers absolutely nothing.
My opinion.
Saturday, September 8, 2018 Report this
bloodhound
I believe Mr. Solomon is being conservative in what he knows. And with that it makes perfect sense not to release everything until all the facts are verified. I have been told that the city is looking at two alternatives,1) to repair the damaged building or 2) to replace the building with a newly constructed building. If you vote for Sue Stenhouse, who is claiming to follow in Mr. Avedisian's footsteps, all constituents should look at the mess that Mr. Avedisian has Left Behind... most of us know that that includes crumbling City infrastructure with no end, due to Mr. Avedisian not having the skills to appropriately manage the city, and one specific example, his not being able to implement a capital replacement plan for the assets of the city. Because of Mr. Avedisian's failure to have such a capital replacement plan, we have crumbling infrastructure, which includes our schools with leaking roofs and mold, our potholed roads, odor every time you drive on 95 by the Warwick Sewer Authority treatment plant, city vehicles that are outdated and need replacement, second and repeated event major sewer line breakages on Cedar Swamp Road, and the subject City Hall Annex Building where repairs may not be feasible because of building code violations and standard design practices that were not followed during construction of the existing building that was flooded, there is a trend and history of deception and concealing the truth by Mr. Avedisian and his supporter Sue Stenhouse... Cross-dressing people to deceive constituents is only a foreshadow of what will come with an Avedisian supported Sue Stenhouse for mayor, she has no experience whatsoever at that level needed to be an effective mayor and would continue in the same manner that has led to the city's crumbling infrastructure.
Sunday, September 9, 2018 Report this
wwkvoter
Great post and "being conservative in what he knows" is in my opinion imprudent. Anyone running for mayor should not be playing dumb/keeping secrets about public issues that we all have to pay for. He did it with the saying he didnt know about the cost of the new public safety/dpw contract, and then again with the annex. He's running the risk that some watchdog like Cote will apra the emails and documents and show that he was hiding (being conservative) with information instead of just spelling out what he knows, and that there's more to gather, and when he develops options he'll bring those forward too. WE are paying the bill for all this after all.
Despite this bad habit of playing Sgt Schultz, I will be voting for Solomon this week and again in November because he is the best qualified and most experienced candidate for Mayor available to us, by far.
Sunday, September 9, 2018 Report this
WW7564
Joe Solomon should be addressing things that he is aware of if he knows about them, straight out lying and stating that he is unaware of things is unacceptable. If Joe wins as Mayor this city will be in a lot worst shape than it ever has been. Sue Stenhouse would be a fantastic candidate for Warwick, her knowledge of issues is best in class.
Sunday, September 9, 2018 Report this
wwkvoter
It bears reminding that Stenhouse told the ultimate lie while in her relatively low level position as a senior services manager in Cranston.
Interesting that you would criticize Solomon for not being forthright with the voters regarding how much he knew about two particular issues, while simultaneously ignoring the unbelievable fraud Stenhouse attempted to perpetrate upon the public with that ridiculous charade that got us into international news.
That doesn't look like somebody who's competent or aware of the issues, or even takes the public seriously for that matter.
This was a fiasco/charade in Cranston dressing up a man as a woman for a press conference celebrating teen volunteers! If she would deceive the press and the public that way, what else would she lie to us in the public about? What does such an attempt at deceiving the public say about her judgment?
Stenhouse lost her job over that. Now she works at a Mini-Golf which I'm sure is a respectable job. But I've seen nothing that would point to her being a competent mayor of Rhode Island's third largest city. Quite the opposite. in my eyes will be open during the general election campaign to see if any new information Services regarding her capability, but it would be hard to get past the charade that she tried to pull on the Cranston voters in any case.
http://www.providencejournal.com/article/20160114/NEWS/160119572
Sunday, September 9, 2018 Report this
patientman
I can't help but wonder if Mayor Fung had anything to do with dressing the guy up as a woman. She falls on her sword and if she loses the Mayoral race she'll join the Fung Administration if he wins the Governors race. Lord knows Fung has no integrity.
Monday, September 10, 2018 Report this
richardcorrente
I agree with most of your comments about Joe Solomon and especially liked the Sgt. Shultz reference.
You also said he has "the most experience". I agree. That "experience" includes
1. voting for every tax increase this century.
2. paying far less taxes on his real estate than the rest of us. (his car dealership at 1129 West Shore Rd. has tax assessments that are less than what Joe paid for the real estate 29 years ago!)
3. flip-flopping on issues like the beach fees, the above annex report, and the debate. (he was a no-show)
4. promising in his mail-outs "first class service while keeping taxes down." (right AFTER he max-raised taxes)
5. Slapping the taxpayers with the largest tax increase allowed by law, giving the money to his political insiders to buy their votes (with taxpayer money) and not even being honest about where he lives. (He "claims" to live in ward 4 but actually lives in ward 5 where that house (21 Crawford) only went up in tax assessed value over the last two years by $4,400 when his ALL of the other 5 houses on Crawford went up by $61,100, $38,000, $46,200, $21,700, and $23,400) Did Joe rip off his second floor or is he ripping off the taxpayers?
WwkVoter, look up YOUR house on the Warwick Tax Assessors database and see if you agree that Joe is paying way WAY less than he should. Then read The Corrente Plan to see my solution. Hint: Send the appraisal findings to The Warwick Beacon FIRST, so they can't be "adjusted". Joe NEEDS to pay his fair share. You're right. This used car dealer has "experience". Maybe we need "change" instead.
Happy primary everyone.
Rick Corrente
The Taxpayers Mayor
Monday, September 10, 2018 Report this
CrickeeRaven
Honest, taxpaying voters in Warwick who wish to learn more about the make-believe mayor before voting on Sept. 12 should read the entirety of this comment.
In addition to his use of this website for free political advertising, which has been his primary way to promote his once-failed candidacy, the make-believe mayor has a history of making false claims that he hopes readers will forget.
For their benefit, I include the following information, so that within approximately 20 minutes, they will have a clearer picture of the failed 2016 candidate and his intent to fool voters into supporting him.
- He began his 2016 campaign by issuing claims about his property evaluations: http://warwickonline.com/stories/running-on-a-platform-to-cut-taxes,115119
These claims were investigated by a local news website and found to be untrue:
https://warwickpost.com/correntes-attacks-fail-on-the-facts/
- Also during the 2016 campaign, he issued false claims that Warwick “lost 4,666 businesses” over 10 years: http://warwickonline.com/stories/corrente-gop-chair-differ-over-meaning-of-the-numbers,113096
Once again, his claims were reviewed and found to be false:
https://warwickpost.com/numbers-game-corrente-claims-of-lost-businesses-dont-add-up/
These two claims were central to his 2016 campaign — and they were both lies. And yet he continued to repeat them until his eventual 65-to-35% loss.
- A Nov. 3, 2016 article in the Beacon reported that he had, in fact, lost his former residence to tax sale. To quote: “Corrente continues to live in a house that was sold in a tax sale for taxes due the city.”
http://warwickonline.com/stories/mayors-race-hotter-than-usual,119296?
In spite of his own admission, the make-believe mayor continued to not only claim the opposite, but also claim his mortgage lender was to blame and that he had “won” a court case — yet he moved from that residence in 2018, indicating that he did not “win.”
City records, accessible at the following website, show that three different parties have paid the property taxes on his former residence since 2015. Enter “177 Grand View” to see this information:
https://www.citizenselfservice.com/MSSProd/citizens/RealEstate/Default.aspx?mode=new
For the 2018 campaign, he has again been twisting facts and making claims that are later proven to be untrue:
- He has frequently claimed that the Warwick school population has fallen by half, from 17,000 to 8,500, “in the last 10 years” — but the actual figures show nothing of the kind. As shown on the following website, Warwick’s school population in 2007-8 was 11,139 and in 2017-18 was 8,953 — a drop of 2,186, not half:
http://www.eride.ri.gov/reports/reports.asp
- He paid for a political advertisement that claimed his losing 2016 campaign led the Warwick City Council to cut taxes and spending for the FY18 budget, and that former Mayor Avedisian submitted “29 tax-increasing amendments” to the budget among other claims — that were all found to be untrue:
https://warwickpost.com/digit-spinner-richard-corrente-fudges-numbers/
- He failed to report that advertisement in his campaign finance report for the 4th quarter of 2017, and has refused to answer why he is paying office rent to the same individual who previously paid the property taxes on his residence:
https://warwickpost.com/gop-chair-files-election-board-complaint-against-corrente-for-failing-to-report-ad-hq-spending/
- On his new campaign website, he at first claimed that he was an “Endorsed Democrat for Mayor” — before the local Democratic Party had endorsed any candidates in the 2018 campaign. He lost his bid for the endorsement, forcing him to remove that false claim from his website.
This is the person calling himself “the taxpayers [sic] mayor” — someone who has admitted that he lost his home due to tax delinquency, repeatedly made false claims about the school population and business community in Warwick, refused to answer questions about his ethically questionable campaign finance activities, and claimed an endorsement that he did not have.
Please join me and thousands of honest, taxpaying voters in rejecting the make-believe mayor’s candidacy again on Sept. 12.
Monday, September 10, 2018 Report this
WarwickDemocratVoter
Honestly, I'm a Democrat, and those of you who blindly follow Solomon are a huge part of the problem. You aren't following what's going on! He raises taxes, ignores the school committee, lies about what he does and doesn't know about, and bullies city workers into supporting him.
He is a lazy disgrace of a mayor. Do you know he spend thousands to re-print tons of Warwick tourism cards and posters with his picture on them, instead of using the ones that had already existed? Shame on him and you for supporting him.
I know what happened at the Senior Center and you're all blindly following the press, who blew it out of proportion completely. Stenhouse needs to make a public statement clarifying what happened. She did not deceive anyone.But until she does that, keep picking on her for it. Obviously it's all you've got on her.
Tuesday, September 11, 2018 Report this
Cat2222
WarwickDemocratVoter, Stenhouse doesn't get to stand on moral high ground over Solomon.
On her watch a male bus driver dressed up as a female senior citizen. Whether or not Fung was involved in the deception has not been validated. The fact remains that it was a media stunt that backfired and someone had to take the hit. Her name is connected with the deceit. This is the report on the issue by NBC 10.
"When NBC 10 visited Stenhouse's Warwick home Wednesday evening, she at first told a reporter to go away. Then, she opened her door and exchanged a few words with NBC 10. I've been in a meeting all night being a great public servant for the city of Warwick," Stenhouse said. "Now, I get this (expletive.) And you guys did not reach out to me. And that was a big lie on the news. Stenhouse was complaining about NBC 10's original story that aired on the 6 p.m. news. She claimed the station did not contact her beforehand. NBC 10 maintains it reached out to Stenhouse ahead of the broadcast and she knew the story would be airing."
The story on NY DAILY NEWS:
"The head of a senior citizens center in Rhode Island has resigned for dressing up a male bus driver as an elderly woman in a press conference — because she thought the fake lady made for a better photo op. Sue Stenhouse, the ex-executive director of Cranston's Senior Enrichment Center, presided over a seemingly innocuous presser in early January about high school kids shoveling snow. While talking to media, Stenhouse stood by the city's mayor, some high school kids — and one clearly uncomfortable woman, wearing a handmade tag reading, "Cranston Senior Home Resident." Turns out that woman was a man — a driver for the center, who was decked out in a dress, a gray wig, earrings and lipstick for the camera, according to NBC 10 News. The station said Stenhouse believed having the apparent old lady by her side made for a better image. "
Now if she had another side of the story, why hasn't it ever been stated or published? If you were wrongly accused of something, wouldn't you want to clear your name? She is literally running on "Integrity, Strength, Results". INTEGRITY?!?
I am also suspect of her latest move of attacking Solomon regarding the Annex Building. She stated: " As a member of the City Council for the last 18 years and as Council President four times during his tenure, it is time for Solomon to take ownership of issues and stop skirting his responsibility,"
She anonymously sent the letter and then later owned up to it. She claims to have all this experience and knowledge of the inner workings of Warwick. Why did she wait until now to point fingers at Solomon? This is only happening now because they are running for the same office. It is just another politician trying to kick up dirt on a rival. Nothing more, nothing less.
I can't say I am 100% behind Solomon for Mayor but I will say he had a lot thrown at him all at once. Being on the city council and running the city are two different things. There is a learning curve and it is understandable. He is also running a campaign so I am really not going to go toe to toe with them man about not reading or reporting on a memo regarding the Annex Building.
Sue sold her integrity out when she chose to have a cross dressing bus driver stand next her for a photo op. I have no guarantee she won't try to do something similar depending on the circumstances. She is not the right person for the job.
Tuesday, September 11, 2018 Report this