Cranston Mayoral Candidate Sepe Responds to Senior Enrichment Center Incident

Cranston Mayoral Candidate Sepe Responds to Senior Enrichment Center Incident

Cranston Mayoral candidate Michael Sepe released a statement on Friday regarding the incident that took place at the Cranston Senior Enrichment Center in which a male bus driver was dressed up as an elderly woman. 

In the statement, Sepe says that he is tired of seeing the City of Cranston being embarrassed and that this is just another example of the disconnect between Mayor Fung and the city departments. 

Read Sepe's Statement Below 

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“This is more than just the backfiring of a PR stunt. To me, this is just another example of the disconnect between Mayor Fung’s office and the city departments that the Mayor is ultimately responsible for.

First it was “Ticket Gate” and his involvement within the Cranston Police Department, that was widely reported by the media and followed up by a scathing state police report detailing Fung’s mismanagement. Now this. One can only guess where else in city government, Mayor Fung’s heavy hand is present.

Proper protocol would suggest that the Mayor’s office and department heads coordinate events such as this, especially when it is being covered by the media, during a high-profile news conference. Both offices should know the topic, who will be on the dias, who will be speaking, remarks, and what props, if any, that will be used. A sign off/approval by the Mayor’s office should then be tendered to make sure that everyone is on the same page, and the event goes off without a hitch. This just makes sense.

I for one, am tired of seeing the City of Cranston being embarrassed over and over again. The announcement of a new program to help the elderly shoveling snow during the winter months, is commendable. Unfortunately, in my opinion, because of the lack of coordination, it now turns into a side show resulting in the so called “resignation” of the Senior Services Director and another black eye for the city.

It’s time for a change.

Editors note: Typos in the original article have since been corrected. We apologize for the errors.