Guest MINDSETTER™ Tom Kenney: Commissioner Pare Should be Fired

Guest MINDSETTER™ Tom Kenney: Commissioner Pare Should be Fired

Well, it’s happened again in the City of Providence. Once again our leaders have shown an ignorance and arrogance that is beyond comprehension to most people. Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare has lied, misled and bullied his subordinates in order to retaliate against anyone who has the audacity to question him. This time he actually fired a 27 year Captain on the Providence Fire Department and is attempting to strip him of his pension. It seems that Pare’s statement reporting why this Captain was being fired and the actual reason he was fired are two entirely different reasons, but this is consistent with the political double speak that many of us have come to expect from this political pawn.
 
Unsupported accusations, untruthful reports and personally vindictive attacks are his forte. Some would think that someone is his position of power and responsibility would be above this type of behavior. He certainly expects his subordinates to be. I speak from personal experience. This man called a reporter from the Providence Journal to his office and told him a fairy tale that made me look like I was scamming the Injured on Duty system of the Providence Fire Department. He also provided this reporter with personal information and actual reports regarding my personal injuries in a blatant disregard of Federal HIPPA laws. I am currently weighing my options as to litigate but I’m worried how a person with his power in this state and apparently no hesitation as to using it against any individual who opposes him might retaliate.
 
Having this reporter write a hurtful, and intentionally (Pare), untruthful front page article was not enough. The Commissioner then wrote his own Op/Ed Commentary in which he stated more lies regarding my work record and my character. This man knows no bounds when he feels as if he’s been personally attacked.
 
And I am not the first one on the PFD who has been bullied, punished and threatened with having our pensions taken away over the past two years. The cases that I am familiar with on the PFD involve at least 2 Chiefs, 3 Captains and 1 Firefighter – all with over twenty-five years service and no previous blemishes in our personnel files. All these cases involved petty infractions which would have previously been handled by a written reprimand which would be held for a year and then expunged as a result of continued good conduct. To think that these infractions would warrant a senior officer being fired is ludicrous, to imagine that they would result in the loss of a service pension based on a lack of honorable service is beyond comprehension!
 
This man has personally, along with Mayor Elorza, brought this once great fire department to its knees. Pare alone runs the fire department and he knows absolutely nothing about the fire service. There are no senior firefighters or fire officers making any decisions which don’t have to be approved by him personally. I have watched time and time again as he spews lie upon lie to the media. Personally I’m tired of it and I know that every single man and woman presently on the PFD feels exactly the same way. I’m tired of people believing that he has personal integrity. He is a political hack with a long list of enemies on his retaliation list. Listening to him speak to the media and waiting for the actual truth is like hanging out at Nardolillo’s waiting for a party to spontaneously break out.
 
I beg the Providence City Council to investigate his unethical actions as Commissioner of Public Safety in Providence and terminate him immediately. And don’t forget to strip him of his pension….