I just received a letter in my mailbox from George Nee, President RI AFL-CIO. Only good news! The Union, after spending thousands of dollars in full page advertisements stating that I, and the taxpayers lied about the deficit and the mismanagement at Central Coventry Fire District, etc., the President, Mr. Nee, says “Unfortunately, due to mistakes and mismanagement of past administrations, the financial situation in the Central Coventry Fire District is in dire straights.”

I didn’t expect him to mention the outrageous millions in overtime or budget busting salary increases and we can all understand that. But he does go on to say “Working together the firefighters of Local 3372 and the Special Master have negotiated a restructuring of the collective bargaining agreement that will save the Central Coventry Fire District nearly $2 Million over the next three years, but more money is needed to make up for past mistakes and mismanagement.”

He also said that the special master has been running the department for over a year…he is off over eight months on that one because the master was appointed in the middle of October, 2012, so I hope he has better math skills on his $2 Million savings!!

Speaking of the $2 Million savings in “restructuring the collective bargaining agreement” (aka… UNION CONTRACT) how could there have been $2 Million to spare in this contract and still have been fair to the tax payers?? But in the spirit of cooperation, I would only ask that he immediately publicize this magnanimous compromise, because there is no way that this can be factually explained at the budget hearing on Feb. 11th (next Monday) unless it is going to be more smoke and mirrors.

George urges all union members to attend the meeting and pass the budget no matter what the increase. I urge all union members along with the taxpayers at large to attend the same meeting and use their good common sense. We are very fortunate in this community to have a direct say in our finances and that’s the way it has been for a couple hundred years. I for one do not want to see that changed by a Special Master that has been called in because of the deceit and betrayal of the CCFD’s board of directors.

Let’s have new elections, send the Special Master back to Providence and save $3 Million dollars in the next three years! $1 Million that has been estimated for the special master, and now $2 Million that the President of the AFL-CIO said he can save. This should be one heck of a meeting!!!

Sincerely,

John R. Assalone

401-226-4114  or calljohn@assalone.com