In the Providence Journal of July 20, Mayor Michael T. Napolitano broke another promise. His administration originally promised to fix the Natick Avenue bridge within two weeks of the April storm. Three months later the bridge is still closed, and the city does not have the $1 million to fix the bridge. The Napolitano administration is either incompetent or misleading the public once again. If Mayor Napolitano and a narrow 5-3 majority on the City Council could approve spending $750,000 on artificial turf at Cranston Stadium (with no definitive plan to increase stadium fees), maybe they could find the money in the capital budget to do a bridge repair. (ProJo 5/11/07). In particular, maybe Ward 4 Councilwoman Maria Bucci would like to reconsider her vote and spend the money on fixing a bridge in the ward she represents rather than spending money on artificial turf.

Also, the City Council has at least $680,000 in a contingency fund; maybe some of this money could be used for bridge repair (ProJo 6/27/07). Maybe Mayor Napolitano and the City Council can identify some of those short-term savings from the firefighters contract, which was recently approved, to help repair the bridge. (ProJo 6/21/07). There are many areas in the city budget where savings could be found, which could be used to repair the bridge, such as: the city payment to the union pension for the No. 2 staff member in the Napolitano administration (ProJo 6/26/07); not increasing the mayor’s staff, as Mayor Napolitano originally promised (ProJo 6/20/07); the savings in legal costs, in particular from firing respected labor lawyer Vincent Ragosta (Projo 2/13/07); the hospitalization buybacks given to the mayor himself and his administrative staff as a bonus for not taking city health insurance; and lastly, the expenses for renovating the mayor’s office after his supposedly health-threatening allergy attack. (ProJo 1/9/07)

More importantly, if the city does not have the money to pay for simple bridge repair, where is it going to get the get the money to pay the schools millions of dollars if the schools are successful in their upcoming lawsuit for school aid after Mayor Napolitano proposed to level fund the schools (ProJo 4/12/07 and 7/18/07). Is Mayor Napolitano going to continue to underfund the police and fire pension by approximately $1 million? Is he going to raise taxes again? Will he dip into the rainy-day fund as he promised he would not do? (ProJo 1/3/07).

If Cranston taxpayers believe anything coming from the Napolitano administration these days, as the old saying goes, I got a bridge to sell you … and it’s in as bad a shape as the one on Natick Avenue!

Bruce P. Saccoccio

Is it just me, or are the Cranston Democrats very quiet now that they have taken control of the local government? Where are all those angry letters from Democrat City Committee Chairman Michael Sepe?

For example, it was so funny when Mr. Sepe was full of outrage over the cost of the vehicle Republican Mayor [Stephen P.] Laffey leased for official use when it was nearly half the cost of the showboat that Laffey’s Democratic predecessor, John O’Leary was driving around in. Now that Mayor Michael Napolitano has a fancy new car with an increased cost in this year’s budget of $1,900 over Mayor Laffey’s SUV, I have been waiting anxiously for Mr. Sepe’s angry letter. I’m sure I am not the only one who has noticed the conspicuous void in the Your Turn section.

So, I thought I’d compile a list of the top 10 things Mike Sepe should write angry letters about. Here they are:

10) Napolitano tells voters Mayor Laffey raised taxes too much, campaigns against raising taxes,

then raises taxes to the maximum allowed by law.

9) Napolitano campaign tells voters schools need more money. His proposed tax hike — the biggest since 2003 when the city was near bankruptcy — includes no increase in school spending!

8) A lot more work was getting done on the Park Cinema when Mike Sepe was writing angry letters.

7) Mayor and City Council want to negotiate with the crossing guards union and almost “forget” to appeal the labor board decision.

6) Mayor fires state’s best labor attorney, Vincent Ragosta, then signs a firefighters contract that includes a tax-free disability pension, free family health care until age 65, and work-related disability status for non-job-related cancer — reversing gains of the Laffey administration.

5) Napolitano says he is going to cut legal expenses, then increases the legal budget!

4) Mayor fires country’s best municipal finance director, Jerome Baron, then the new team cannot even put the monthly city financial reports online (until the story hits the newspapers).

3) Mayor proposes underfunding the police and fire pensions by about $1.7 million, imitating former Mayors O’Leary and Traficante.

2) No noise from State Auditor General Ernest Almonte regarding number 3.

1) The Mayor is allergic to his office?

Maybe Mike Sepe is allergic to telling the truth.

George Lavoie

Cranston