we're looking at a significant increase in your taxes, there's no question about it," said Land.
There are many people (elderly, disabled, disabled veterans) who will not be able to pay a "significant increase" and will result in leans or foreclosers. If the option is to pay higher rates because of no fault of the tax payer but in fact the fault CCFD or allow CCFD to go bankrupt I say let them go bankrupt.

Somebody needs to lose their job or job(s) over this mess!

@RJ: Let CCFD go bankrupt? I'm sure you'll be singing that tune until your house is a raging inferno and you wait 25 minutes for an engine or tanker truck from a neighboring town. oh wait better yet.. "Let them go bankrupt" is something I hope you keep reminding yourself when you or family member is having a medical emergency. You know, the stuff that CCFD responds to and aids people in as well as responding to fires. So when your sitting in your recliner, gasping for air and having crushing 10 out of 10 chest pain and having a widow-maker heart attack, just keep singing that tune of "Let them go bankrupt... La la la Let them go bankrupt!" Oh and don't even THINK of be pissed off at the responding EMTs when your OUT OF TOWN rescue that they came to you on, and is responding mutual aid, takes more then 10 minutes to get to you because oh yes that's right..."LET THEM GO BANKRUPT!" was the tune you were singing before! Well keep right on singing it all the way to the cath lab at Rhode Island Hospital and hope they don't have calls in their OWN town that they will attend to first. So then your call gets bumped to ANOTHER town, possibly farther away. But oh that's right..."Let them go bankrupt"

ETBox..over exaggerated.

No, be an EMT/FF for over a decade. It's a tragic reality in some cases.

I believe Mr. Land is referring to the treasurer Tom Lacolle . He quit abruptly a few months ago and no one has heard from him. I had friend ask a board member if anyone has seen him since he quit and they said no.

Is that the same Tom Lacolle who is the current treasurer and Coventry fire district(anthony)

Saving the CCFD is the only and right thing to do! Save it and it may save your life someday. Has all the past finger pointing been going the wrong way, looks it to me. The good old boys symdrone seems to have changed directions. Let the receivership take it's course find the wrong doers fix the issues and carry-on.

I say lets have a Boot Drive and Bake Sale, or any donations that good Coventry Citizens are willing to make just to keep the Fire Department afloat until this whole matter is resolved and put back into "affordable" account. Lets pay off our debts of error, and move forward. It took years, and our forefathers to make this Fire Department and all of Coventry (all Departments) what they are today. We've lost our Heritage by allowing higher powers to make decisions. We're all to blame. Pull together, Stop the Cancer before it spreads.

The good ole boy syndrome has not changed directions! Take the emotion out of the equation. This is a failed business. It has failed there is no more forgiveness for incompetance (sp.) . Just bailing out the dept. is the same as bailing out the banks. Bad decisions were made and now here is the result. If we allow this to be bailed out why wouldn't the next district do the same . Why wouldn't other entities in the town do the same. If the taxpayers don't send the message they will continue to be ignored and the same ole same will continue. Again let me make this clear I in no way find fault with the average firefighter. This is politics and back door treachery that has had this town in its grips for years. This is the largest town in the state in my opinion it can no longer operate as a town It has grown too large The budgets are in the millions. Whenever there is that much money involved greed and dishonest people will bend and manipulate to benefit themselves or there good old boys. Remember Mr. Land is not our savior. Twice at the meeting he referred to the taxpayers as "you people" and corrected himself and said "you folks" this guy is bellied up at the table and is collecting his 175.000 in legal expenses. With no respect for ' you people'. It's time to stand up and make drastic change so a precedent can be set. If you run it into the ground buried it will stay!

Sounds like Brady is throwing the baby out with the bath water, You find out who and what mistakes were made and you put the right people at the switch to stop this from happening again.

If you feel that you should let everything fail you obviously are part of the problem and not the solution.

" If we do not learn from our mistakes then we are destined to repeat them"

Author unknown

Lets fix this problem the right way that people with some sort of intelligence would. I have not used CCFD yet but my family has and they are very grateful.

Sorry stop drinking the Kool-aid. There is money received its your taxes. I assure you the 700,000. dollar mistake was found the first year. If your tax bill came to you 7,000 higher than what you owed you would make sure someone knew. Please stop being so soft. Accountability please.! Two columns assets and liabilities. One decimal point. Your taxes are being pilfered and you turn the other cheek. Lambs to the slaughter! If we do a boot drive we are gonna need bigger boots. lol

Johnny is that you??? RJLE that b#llshit is right off the Assholone flyer. No I am not from the board, not a Firefighter never was..So don't throw the Kool-Aid on me!! By the way who is the one that spoke out that got voted off???

RJ, Coventry (Anthony) Fire District passed a rate of 28 cents on each $100 of property, not $1,000.

Eye in the sky, Glad you mentioned the Cambio Property. Do some investigation on why that property has such a hold on Coventry. May be we can connect some dots. Please keep a civil tone. Thanking you I am.

Realistic voter Thanks for the arrogant comment

" Chris" like many others you were not really paying attention, Answer this when was the last tax increase??

People are different and share different opinions. Both comments are true & I am paying attention. But I am a person who stands behind sheer principal and would rather pay more out of pocket to have the situation at hand fixed the right & correct way then to give in and take part in paying for a 3 million dollar mistake I did not make. Nothing in this world WORTH HAVING is cheap & easy. No matter who you are, what you came from or what god you pray to we all bleed red. We are all equal as a human race and in this case the people on the bottom were taken advantage of. There is no way a 'clerical error' of that size can go undetected for 2 years without someone knowing about it. Yet not a single person could do anything about it except stretch spending right to the last penny. I wish I could make a clerical error in my check book then when people come to collect say opps sorry cant pay it. How bout you just jack up your rates and let the rest of the people who use this lending institution pay for it. A bit far fetched but you get the idea. It will be interesting to see how much 'fat' can be trimmed off the budget at hand. They keep asking us to pitch in well before I say yes or no I want to see how much they are willing to give back first. An interesting point was the above comment asking how much the district taxes have gone up in the past 3 years. I'll answer that ... not much. That said why has the spending gone up so much knowing the increases were so slight ?

Correct me if the following information is wrong:
1.) CCFD is currently $2.6 million in debt
2.) CCFD will have to issues credits to all commercial property owners because the current law does not allow a two tax tier structure system and therefore all commercial properties owners in the CCFD were over billed by the difference between commercial and residential rates.
3.) The CCFD will also have to issue credit to some residential properties owners who assessments have fallen because the law states the CCFD has to issue tax bills using town of Coventry's current real estate assessment values. Using the old assessments, which were higher, allowed the CCFD to increase the tax rate per $1000 even though the increase was never approved by the residents of CCFD.

If the above information is correct, what are the total liabilities of the CCFD, we have to be talking millions more than $2.6 or does the $2.6 million account for these errors.

A link to the law is provided below.

http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/BillText12/HouseText12/H8104A.pdf

1.) So basically any commercial property owners who want a credit will have to sue CCFD for a refund or will a judge in the BK rule on the refunds?
2.) If a motion is made and the people of the district approve it, it does not have to follow the law? Does this apply to minimum manning, pay rates, overtime and pensions?

These exact questions were asked at the past meeting. Richard Land answered them the best he could. Not in his exact words but this is what he had to say ..
1.) Yes
2.) This will be looked into and be a court issue later on , Yes the law was broken
3.) Possibly , this question piggy backs question 2 and needs to be looked into.

"If the above information is correct, what are the total liabilities of the CCFD, we have to be talking millions more than $2.6 or does the $2.6 million account for these errors."

Richard Land was going over the proposed tax hike and the years that reflected the totals. It went from 1 year to 5 years , I forgot the exact figures. But right before the break the stenographer asked for (due to her fingers cramping up) someone asked if those figures also included paying off the 2.6 million error. He responded with a very quick low tone "No". Then rolled the talk into something else right away. I do not know if he heard or understood the question right before he answered but the the question was loud & clear and his response was direct and quick.

Maybe someone else could shed some light on if that was a true statement.

As far as homeowners is concerned you may want to look into your policy and shop around. My house is assessed by the town at 207K (CCFD has it as 257K) and my premium is only 450 a year with a 1K deductible. Structure is written at a 200K then all the other things are separate. This is an honest policy also with nothing on my end hidden. The main thing that keeps it down I will say is I have no hurricane on it. I feel how my house & property sit I won't have tree falling issues and any other mishaps I can take care of myself anyhow. Some may not be comfortable with that and need the added protection. It pays to shop around and get out of the "RI" based agents & go with an interdependent. Everything has it's pro's & con's , all depends on what your comfortable with. So in my case if CCFD is no longer my increase HO will be in the same area as the hike. Keep in mind central Coventry can not go without emergency care for long. This is not a forever & always venture if worst case happens. Like stated above everything has pro's & con's and you go with what makes you comfortable and able to sleep at night.

Someone finally said it!!!

Coventry Resident

8:03 pm on Thursday, December 13, 2012

Here are your crooks
Treasurer: Tom LaColle
Tax Collector – Jeanne Graemiger
Chief Seltzer

And don't forget Bob Crowe who I found out was alway's defending Tom LaColle and missed most of the meetings!! Quit the board after the audit was started HMMMMMMMMM!!!

Central Coventry is in financial disaster.We do not need any additional expense (gas!!) and/ or wear and tear on our Fire Engines which get approximately 5 miles or so per gallon . Residents are already facing tough times trying to control their budget as it is. Most towns would never allow this or any other wasteful spending. Why cant we have a Santa outside of the Arnold road station which is a highly traveled road, allowing Santa to take donations to help needy families affected by the hard economic times we are currently facing, instead of the wasteful spending being incurred by people who seem to be oblivious to the hardships of others.

The scare tactics from CCFD needs to stop!! Misinformation of higher insurance costs and meetings being postponed or scheduled for a Monday night Patriots football night do not go unnoticed!! We need to dissolve this union which seems to be more focused on money that is not there than serving the public. We need to go back to the basics of what we can afford and base it around that budget. Right now we have firefighters who get paid a salary much like city firefighter's. We are a small town community that should operate with a basic non unionized fire department that is affordable by the people much like our other districts who work just fine that way. If our current firefighter's do not agree, and as far as I'm concerned they knew exactly what they were doing with the budget by rewarding themselves with more than they should have been, we need to dissolve this current corporation like they do in the private sector and rehire non union that are willing to be paid according to the budget which the taxpayer's are able to afford. As far as people's insurance increasing, these firehouses will only be temporarily unmanned because of the high unemployment rate and the long list of people waiting to be employed as firefighters who will be more than willing to be paid what the taxpayer can afford. The tax payers will once again be in control of this district and not controlled by over rewarding union firefighters thinking only of themselves and not what the community can afford. .

Need some facts. Is it true that the town of Coventry owes CCFD the 700,000 in taxes for some property they purchased . Times three years. Is it SOP for the town to pay taxes to the depts. on property within each depts. territory?

The state or town itself will never leave any station unmanned. There are more than enough unemployed people to fill those positions. There's no excuse to reward bad behavior on the part of CCFD. Insurance companies cannot just assume those positions will not be filled. It's a joke to justify doubling fire taxes under the false pretense of insurance increases. The truth of the matter is that more than likely it will never happen. Those stations will be remanned immediately under state law. Those firefighters who do not agree with the new circumstances will be replaced with new firefighters willing to cooperate with the new budget. There's a list a mile long of firefighters waiting to become fireman.