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To clarify the fire fighter sick time. Title 45 allows for unlimited sick time for on duty injury or illness. The WFD contract does not circumvent Title 45, it is an unnecessary perk in addition to Title 45. In particular the WFD contract states (ridiculously), that "any employee who contracts an illness on the job shall not be docked of his sick day. In other words, virtually any illness is reported as job related so no fire fighter ever loses any of his 20 days per year, hence, they are all monetized at the end of the year. Huge scam perfected by 3 members of the WFD who all lived together on 1 Royal Dr. in Narragansett.

More importantly, any firefighter can take off days under "the sick day scam" , his replacement is brought in at time and half, and the "sick" firefighter is paid and does not have the day counted against him. It is a scam that has been taking place for years. In addition, the contract also states that additional sick time can be allocated at the discretion of the chief. What sense does that make? As an example, there is a WFD member that owns a painting company and bids on state projects. He has done lots of projects at URI. How does he find the time to work on a full time construction job in addition to being on the WFD? Answer - he takes days off and does not lose any time as he uses "sick days" or has someone cover for him. The sick days are not counted against him because he says, as an example, I got a cold from that lady we took out who was coughing. Also, substitutions are allowed only if done in writing. Interesting that the APRA request shows no substitutions in writing.

The fact of the matter as the chief illustrated on Monday is that no one is accounting for firefighters being out "sick". No records are kept. If there is a line item in the budget for the sick time used by the 9 civilians on the department, why isn't there a line item for the sick time used by the uniformed fire fighters? Because the system has been gamed for years and the council is too incompetent to realize it. It was hysterical when the chief didn't understand that any information entered into software can be printed as a document. Unbelievable. Where is the finance director Wilkinson on all of this? Not one question was asked. And the Oakland Beach dummy sat silent which makes 10 years of budget hearings without one question.

Every service line item in the budget has been cut but every employee has received step increases, longevity increases, and raises. Some raises $10 - $20,000. Its called the Scotty buy off. If you paid attention you will remember that in the last election cycle, in May, Avedisian hit the rainy day fund for $850,000 to give all employees a $1000 bonus just before he declared his re-election campaign. The fire fighters declined the bonus stating that they felt they could do better in contract negotiations. Well guess what, here is the Scotty quid pro quo. Your mayor is bought and paid for by the unions. The city continues to decay and Scotty continues to increase the liabilities, decrease the assets, and give away the store.

Its time to pay attention folks. Wait till July 1 when you all get your tax bills. I cant wait to see the angry mob at the annex building. Also, if anyone would like the documents indicting the above numbers, just e-mail me at cartaxrevolt@aol.com and I will forward copies of the official city documents.

By the way the city engineered testified that under the current road repair budget it will take 60 - 100 years to repair all of Warwick's roads. Nice.