PBN: What would be your top priority as mayor?
LOMBARDI: There are three top priorities, at least, in order to jump-start this economy and get this city going in the right direction. The economy and jobs is No.1, [then] education and city services, these seem to be the overriding issues among everyone in the city.
PBN: What would you do to bolster the economy and create some jobs?
LOMBARDI: We need an infusion of capital for small businesses, we need a uniform licensing and permitting process, and we need to maintain our trained and educated work force.
Just the other day, I proposed the Providence Main Street Business Exchange program to serve as a rapid business orchestrator, as well as offer very low interest rate startup loans to Providence entrepreneurs who have a business plan and want to start a new business in the city.
No. 1 and No. 2, we have 1.2 million to 1.4 million square feet of empty office space in downtown Providence. … We need to look to some type of entity to fill that office space to make this economy thrive. And I think the only place where we can go immediately is to the tax-exempts. My opponents are talking about taxing them. Those are the only entities where I think we could sit down and negotiate with them. … They are the only entities that have the actual capital or that have shovel-ready projects or the ability to move into those areas. … We have to sit down and renegotiate the payment in lieu of taxes.
I don’t think you have a choice. Under the current plan, the 20-year plan that was signed into law four or five years ago, it is a voluntary payment.
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PBN: Should we make it mandatory?
LOMBARDI: That will be decided through negotiations.
PBN: What are your thoughts about creating a well-recognized brand to better market the city?
LOMBARDI: Three questions we need to answer. Who are we? Where were we? Where do we want to be? We’re more than just a “P” by the way [referring to the Creative Capital marketing campaign marked by a capital “P” for Providence]. To me, that was probably one of the worst ideas. … at an expenditure of $135,000.
That’s something for which we should have collaborated with the Rhode Island School of Design, Brown University, Johnson & Wales University. We’ve done that for the Providence Animal Control Center. I chaired the commission for the opening of the new facility and, once we came out with our 30-, 40-page document, we asked RISD to design a cover for us and it cost the taxpayers a grand total of zero.
PBN: On education, would you be in favor of regionalization?
LOMBARDI: I was glad to see Marcia Rebeck [president of the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers] talk about regionalization, one school district for the entire state. I think that’s forward-thinking, I think that’s progressive-thinking and I think that’s the way to go. Obviously, there are boroughs in New York that have fewer students or just as many students as we have in this entire state. So, it just makes sense.
PBN: Is there anything specific you have in mind to help small businesses?
LOMBARDI: The Providence Economic Development Partnership that the city currently has, I think it’s an abysmal failure. What we need to do is separate that from the planning department and put it right in the mayor’s office because I think that’s vital to turning this economy around.
But most importantly, in my conversations with the [Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce], the [R.I. Economic Development Corporation] and certain business leaders in the city and the state, I’ve come to believe we have to get away from the top-down mentality, we need to go from the bottom up.
We need Providence-for-Providence hirees. We need to utilize as a first source MBE/WBE programs [to ensure equal opportunity for women- and minority-owned business enterprises] with a preference for Providence individuals. Hopefully, that dynamic will represent and reflect the composition of the population of the city of Providence.
Because what we need to do is restore self-esteem in this city. You know, this city has become a city of haves and have-nots and, as I go door-to-door, there are clear lines of demarcation in how the economy is affecting people, it’s affecting people differently.
PBN: What would you do about the unfunded pension liability?
LOMBARDI: Here’s the sad thing about it. The Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council said about four months ago that it was $598 million. The internal auditor said it was $775 million. Someone else said it was $804 million. And recently it was reported … that it was $1.2 billion and then, just the other day, someone said it may be $1.4 billion.
We need to create a blue-chip commission that has [a limited period of time to do its work, 90 days, 120 days or 150 days].
Who should be on that board? We have some of the best actuarial firms in the country here, so some man or woman from one of those firms. We need an economist, preferably from Brown University. … Now, why Brown University? Because they’re also a tax-exempt, so they can speak from an economical as well as a tax-exempt stand. We need someone from the legislative branch, someone from the executive branch and we need someone from the union.
Now, how do you address the problem? There are a couple of ways that we don’t want to go. I don’t want to use the “b” word, but I think you know what I am talking about [bankruptcy]. Secondly, we don’t want to raise taxes because that’s regressive.
So what do we do? We talk about increasing the copay. We talk about raising the age of retirement. We talk about raising the number of years required before one is eligible to retire. We get away from the defined-benefit, defined-contribution system. [We consider] a hybrid type, which is similar to what the federal government has. … And we also think perhaps about a raise freeze and utilizing that money to pay it [pension liability] down.
Now, it’s not going to take a year, it’s not going to take two years. It’s got to be a long-term plan. But we need to address it now. Not to address it, to put it on the side, is foolhardy and it’s truly going to create the demise of that particular fund and no one wants to see that.
I know some unions are talking about lowering the pension payouts for some retirees, which is truly unfair.
PBN: So resolving the problem of unfunded pension liability would involve a combination of different factors?
LOMBARDI: Right, but it’s only going to work if you have all the players around the table.
PBN: Do you have any plan to help the affordable housing situation in the city? PBN: As a former teacher, what can you do as mayor to improve the school system? PBN: What do you think of the Knowledge District proposal, with Brown’s medical school as the anchor?
LOMBARDI: We need to work in partnership with some of these housing agencies to create affordable housing. We need to [offer incentives to] anyone who is in that industry. We need to say, “Look, if you want a tax credit, tax benefit, tax stabilization or a tax incremental financing plan, a portion of your development needs to go for affordable housing.”
LOMBARDI: We have approximately 23,700 children in the Providence school system. Some 82 percent are living at or below the poverty level. Some figure it’s as much as 88 percent, so I’m giving you a low number. Some 18 percent of those children have some kind of learning disability. There are 42 or 43 different languages spoken in the Providence school system. It is clearly an entity where minorities are the majority, with nearly 88 percent [of the students] minorities.
We need to start hiring people from Providence. The school budget is a little over $313 million. It is laden with consultants. For example, we have a consultant making $650 a day who lives in Chicago. There are plenty of people from within who can handle that position.
We need to be educating our children at the ages of 3- and 4-years-old and increase our investment in early childhood education, to begin to address learning disabilities and language barriers. … Children need to have equal access to education. We’ve seen that just in this neighborhood alone, [there is a school where] they don’t have computers, they don’t have Smartboards, where other schools do. … The Latino community, they’re at the bottom of the reading and math classes, so we need to address that. … We need to make these school committees understand how important their role is and the power that they have, so they can implement a strategy to increase proficiency and graduation rates. Currently, [the city’s public school graduation rate] is 66 percent. That’s just unacceptable. We need to get that number up to 100 percent.
LOMBARDI: Again, I talked about what I think is the importance of tax-exempt institutions. They have the capital, they have the shovel-ready projects, but we need to incorporate some viable corporations, hopefully some Forbes 400 companies. That’s why we need to get away from the top-down and move to the bottom up.
With this brand that I would certainly create, I would work with EDC, with the PEDP, with the Chamber of Commerce [to bring] entities there that are paying taxes to the city of Providence, which are so sorely needed. … This is a great opportunity. You’re going to have a new governor, you’re going to have a new general treasurer, you’re going to have a new mayor, you’re going to have new council leadership. So this is a golden opportunity. •
