EXCLUSIVE Interview: Mayor Taveras Dishes on First Year in Office

EXCLUSIVE Interview: Mayor Taveras Dishes on First Year in Office

He inherited a $110 million structural deficit, fired every teacher in the school district and is now dealing with a growing scandal at the city’s top anti-poverty agency. But he also received high marks for his handling of several snow storms and tropical storm Irene, negotiated contracts with four major unions and has helped put the city on a path to firm financial footing.

So how does Providence Mayor Angel Taveras assess his first year in office?

“It’s been a challenging, challenging time. And it continues to be a challenging time,” Taveras said. “We have Occupiers outside and we’re trying to deal with that issue. We’re dealing with ProCAP and making sure that people can give assistance for heating and weatherization and other things. That’s all important.”

GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST

In a wide-ranging interview with GoLocalProv, Taveras broke down both the successes and failures of his first year as Mayor and offered his vision for the city’s finances, its failing school system and public safety, which all still face major question marks as he enters year two.

Success/Failure

When he first took office, both the media and the public focused on the fact that he was the first Latino Mayor of Providence. Now more than 11 months into the job, Taveras said his ethnicity is rarely referred to, something he proudly attributes to the fact that people now have confidence in his ability to run the city.

For Taveras, it is the increased level of trust among residents that he considers to be his biggest success.

“The biggest success I think is gaining the confidence of the people of the city and the state of Rhode Island,” he said. “To let them know that the city is in good hands and that we will make difficult decisions and do what we have to do. I think that people have confidence in the mayor of the city of Providence and I think that’s important.”

Taveras did face intense scrutiny for his decision to fire every teacher in the school district, something he still says was a decision he was forced to make because of state law. The city subsequently rescinded all of the terminations.

But the Mayor said he still thinks about the way the firings were messaged and considers that to be his biggest misstep during the first year in office.

“I regret that teachers found out on TV that they were being issued termination notices,” Taveras said. “We could have done that better. No one should have to find out through the media that they’re being issued termination notices.”

Finances: “We’re Still in a Storm"

When Taveras referred to the city’s fiscal situation as a “category five fiscal hurricane” early this year, he didn’t realize that it would become the sound bite most often repeated throughout his first year in office. But despite taking steps to address the city’s fiscal problems, Taveras warned the storm has not passed. He said he wants to avoid another tax hike next year, but he can’t make any guarantees.

Asked about the projected deficit for the upcoming year, Taveras said he couldn’t point to a definitive number because the city is still waiting to reach agreements with several nonprofits to increase their payments in lieu of taxes. Taveras expects those institutions –mainly the colleges and hospitals- to pay about $7.1 million more to the city. He said if all sides can’t reach an agreement, the city will again seek support from the legislature to impose a service charge.

Taveras said the city continues to watch its spending and noted that fixing the city’s broken pension system is now a top priority, because "we’ll never have a secure Rhode Island if the cities and towns are insecure.”

“Until we reach agreements with the colleges and universities and have a little bit more time to look at that issue and the overtime issue, I can’t really tell you the deficit for the coming year,” Taveras said. “I said we were a category 5 hurricane. I think the eye has passed and it’s been downgraded. But there’s still heavy winds. We’re still in a storm.”

Pension Problems

Despite efforts from Taveras and other mayors across the state, municipalities were forced to sit on the sidelines as the state was praised for its pension reform efforts last month. While he believes the reforms pushed by Governor Lincoln Chafee and General Treasure Gina Raimondo and enacted by the General Assembly were a step in the right direction, Taveras said he was let down by the fact that cities and towns were not helped.

“The issue I have is simple. I said look, if you want to have comprehensive reform, you’ve got to address cities and towns,” Taveras said. “You can’t have a healthy body of 24-36 organs and fail. And that’s basically what you have.”

Taveras said the biggest issue in Providence is the 5-6% compounded COLAs given out in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Taveras said that even though the current contracts are affordable, the city is paying for past mistakes.

“We spent $58.9 million on pensions this fiscal year,” he said. “Our current contracts, the ones we just signed, the cost for those are $9.5 million. We are in a situation that we are going to be examining every conceivable option even if they’re not our not our strongest options, I believe our strongest option is to get the state to have done the enabling legislation, but that didn’t happen.”

Taveras continued: “This is not something you can contract your way out of. And you can’t tax your way out of it either. You can’t contract your way out of it because the contracts we signed do not apply to the retirees. And the Supreme Court says the union doesn’t represent the retirees.”

The Mayor credited Governor Chafee for standing up for cities and towns and said he believes Chafee will be proven right, “as he has been in the past on many of the things he did when he was in the Senate and other things.”

Must Improve Schools

But it’s not all finances and pensions the Mayor is dealing with. Taveras said it is unacceptable that in only three out of 22 elementary schools, half of the students are proficient in reading, writing and math. He said his goal is still to address the public schools.

“It’s not something that I can live with,” Taveras said of failing schools. “It’s something we have to change.”

Taveras said his hope  is to focus on third grade reading and parental engagement and said he plans to reach out directly to the business community and colleges to help address those issues. He also praised the Achievement First charter management organization, which hopes to open a Mayoral Academy in the city in 2013.

Another major focus, Taveras said, will be to address student and teacher absenteeism, which he believes has gotten out of hand.

“Excessive absenteeism is not acceptable and that’s something we need to focus more on from the city perspective, because if you’re not effectively doing your job, there’s a problem,” Taveras said.

Crime: This City is Safe

Noting that a struggling public school system can be directly related to crime in the city, Taveras said he hopes engaging youth will be one way of addressing some of the problems, which hit a tipping point last week when a 14-year-old boy was murdered in his home and a woman was shot and killed in a car.

Taveras said that while the 12 murders in the city remains the same as last year, there were “no murders during the first several months” of this year.

But he suggested the uptick in crime has nothing to do with the city still searching for a police chief or a reduced police force.

“Look, any crime is too much crime,” Taveras said. “The bottom line is, is it safe? Yes. But could it be safer? Yes. And we’ll always work to make it safer and make it as safe as possible.”

Occupy: They Can’t Stay Indefinitely

Taveras also said the city is currently in mediation with the Occupy Providence protesters and he hopes to reach an agreement with the group soon. He said they haven’t cost the city much money (around $10,000) but said his stance has remained the same.

“They cannot stay there indefinitely. That’s always been my position and continues to be. I think that most reasonable people can understand why,” Taveras said.

Taveras said he does respect the Occupiers' right to protest.

“I’ve said before, and my stance has always been that they have a right to protest,” he said. “It’s really an international movement. It’s not just national. I’ve seen it in Rome, in London, other places. That’s pretty amazing given how it started and I respect that.”

The Future

Asked for a vision moving forward, Taveras said he has high hopes for his city. He said he believes the city will be able to balance its budgets without one-time fixes moving forward and noted that he will do anything it takes to address the failing schools.

“Education is the key. It affects everything that we do. When we talked about three out 22 [proficient elementary schools], I’d like to see 19 out 22,” Taveras said.