Could Taveras Have Improved Providence's 9.5% Unemployment? 5 Ways He Could Have Grown Jobs
GoLocalProv Political Team
Could Taveras Have Improved Providence's 9.5% Unemployment? 5 Ways He Could Have Grown Jobs
“The Providence economy needs to be the engine that drives our state’s economy, but under Mayor Taveras the engine is sputtering,” said Raimondo campaign spokeswoman Nicole Kayner. “Rhode Island is tied for the highest unemployment rate in the country and in Providence it is even higher. Providence is not a model for how to turn around our state’s economy and get people back to work. When he was running for Mayor he said he’d be a “jobs mayor” but now that he’s in office he ducks responsibility for the 9.5 percent unemployment rate in his city. That’s not leadership.”
GoLocal looked at Taveras' record and found a number of tangible ways Taveras should have been able to grow thousands of jobs specifically for Providence residents:
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST5 Ways Taveras Could Have Grown Jobs in Providence
Enforce First Source
1) Failure to Enforce First Source
DARE recently filed a lawsuit asking the court to appoint a moderator so that the Taveras administration would comply with the law that states that companies that get funding or special deals from the City of Providence make a best effort to employ people from the City.
A GoLocal investigation found the program is in chaos -- companies ignore the requirement (or claim that they they did not know about it). Worse yet, the City never enforced it.
Jobs Lost: 1,100 estimated
PEDP Reform
2) Providence Economic Development Partnership
All the problems with PEDP began before Taveras took office, but the "reforms" did little to improve the performance of the federally investigated and federally fined City agency. As GoLocal's Kate Nagle reported last October - three years into Taveras' administration:
"The Providence Economic Development Partnership (PEDP), which came under a federal investigation following a series of GoLocalProv reports, is still facing $2.8 million in loans past due according to documents secured by GoLocalProv through an access to public records request.
According to documents provided by the city to GoLocal, of 136 current loans with a total principle balance of $16.5 million, more than one-third -- 48 in total -- are more than 121 days past due.
The PEDP had voted to write off $2.1 million on loan debt in June 2012, but financial problems continue to persist as the city -- and its federal oversight agency -- determine how to proceed."
Jobs Lost: If the $2.8 million was collected and loaned, an estimated 80 to 120 additional jobs would have been created.
Port of Providence
3) Port Financing Delayed
The Port of Providence/ProvPort received a $20 million federal grant to add cranes and barges to the Port. The application was submitted by ProvPort in conjunction with the Cicilline Administration. The U.S. DOT awarded the grant to the City at the end of the Cicilline administration, but the Taveras administration dragged their feet and delayed the project until the State had to step in and take over the project.
The project was one year delayed and the barges are still not on site four years later.
Jobs Lost: 400 estimated
Prov Police
4) Providence Police
May be one of the biggest mistakes of the Taveras administration was his devastating cuts to the Police Department and the impact has not only been the number of police jobs, but the impact to police response and enforcement.
As GoLocal's Stephen Beale reported in 2012:
As of last week, the number of sworn officers stood at 428. A year and a half ago it was 494.
Joe Rodio, chief legal counsel for the police union, warns the city does not have enough officers. “The rank and file feel the strain because there’s not enough officers on the street,” Rodio said. “We’re feeling the hit from the number of people on the job.”
The numbers of sworn staff peaked at just over 500 during the Dean Esserman era. But during the 1990s the department functioned with a smaller complement, generally hovering around 440 officers. That makes the current force level the lowest it has been in two decades.
“It’s fair to say the numbers are the numbers. The staffing is at the lowest it has been in years,” said Chief Hugh Clements. “I would agree we need to start beefing up our numbers again.”
Jobs Lost: 80-95 Police Officers
(note: Taveras finally started a police academy class in May of 2014)
Downcity Vacancies
5) Businesses in Downcity
Providence now suffers from the 4th highest commercial real estate tax rate in the U.S. - a minimal improvement oover the last ranking. This is a fact not lost of businesses looking to locate in downtown. Providence is a long way from a city that was the HQ to Fleet Bank, Amica Insurance, Citizens Bank and hosts of others.
The Superman building is just one of the under-utilized office spaces downtown. According to CBRE's New England Report, "Overall, there was 81,000 of square feet of negative absorption, but 59,000 square feet this came from the vacancy at One Weybosset (Superman)."
Jobs Missed: 89,000 square feet of leased office space would deliver 445 jobs.
(Average manager position requires 150 office sq. ft., plus 50 feet common space)
