Former Acting Mayor John J. Lombardi ruffled plenty of feathers during his four-month reign at Providence City Hall. It appears that by doing so, he served the city well.
Lombardi’s early days as acting mayor were marked by widespread layoffs at City Hall and the removal of Acting Police Chief Richard Sullivan.
While the former helped the city shave nearly a million dollars off its operating budget, the latter remains a questionable move.
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But the political controversies that were indeed a part of the short-lived Lombardi Administration are overshadowed by the fact that he wisely assembled the 15-member Providence Management Task Force. That task force, a collection of business and civic leaders led by RIPEC’s Gary Sasse, has been conducting a detailed audit of the city’s finances for several months.
The first of three expected reports from the task force has been delivered to City Hall. The initial report contains some important recommendations for Mayor David N. Cicilline to consider, as he begins to wrestle with an operating deficit of approximately $33.8 million in fiscal year 2004 and a $479.4 million un-funded pension liability.
Some of the recommendations are predictable and broad in scope.
For example, the report points out health insurance costs are rising by about 18 percent each year and represent the “fastest growing budget driver” in the city. The city, the task force correctly points out, needs to aggressively pursue other options with regard to health insurance and negotiate co-pays with union employees. The task force also recommends that the city’s legislative delegation should arrive at the State House this session armed with a proposal to increase the reimbursement rate that the state sets for the city in terms of its payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) program. That reimbursement rate was scaled back by the state last year and the capital city simply cannot afford the ramifications of the move.
Other task force recommendations fall to the management of the city’s day-to-day operations. Clearly, Mayor Cicilline must make these decisions. But the input from the task force is truly valuable.
It points out, for example, that the city’s tax assessor’s office “is in serious need of attention,” with only two professional assessors among eight budgeted positions. And that in far too many instances, the city is not up to speed regarding technology issues, including the fact that too many managers within the city are not adequately trained in information technology.
The task force also suggests that there is significant work to be done in terms of human resource functions within city government. For example, there is a glaring need to establish an effective recruitment process for prospective workers and appropriate performance evaluations for workers once they are hired. As it currently exists, neither union, nor non-union workers have benchmarks or goals by which to guide their performance.
Lombardi now returns to his role as city council president. We look forward to seeing him work with his colleagues to reach consensus on issues that will move the capital city forward — and restart a renaissance.
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