Segal Calls on Cicilline to Pull Down 'Misleading' Ad
Stephen Beale, GoLocalProv Politics Editor
Segal Calls on Cicilline to Pull Down 'Misleading' Ad
In the ad, “Jobs Now,” the campaign cites a newspaper editorial on Cicilline’s record on the First Source ordinance, which requires that companies receiving tax breaks or credits from the city hire unemployed Providence residents. Cicilline says he deserves credit for enforcing the ordinance. But Segal says Cicilline only implemented it after being forced to do so by a Superior Court order.
“This ad should laud the countless individuals who spent years pushing for the Mayor to enforce First Source, as it’s their work that secured these jobs for Providence residents,” Segal said. “It’s obscene that Cicilline would claim credit for something he did only after a judge forced him to do it.”
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTCicilline campaign manager Eric Hyers said Segal is the one distorting the facts. He said the ad was about much more than the First Source ordinance.
”Mr. Segal has his facts wrong,” Hyers said. “This ad is about David Cicilline’s relentless work to create jobs, bring new investment, and expand job training, and includes the views of a number of people who he has helped. The Providence Business News editorial that Mr. Segal cites actually applauds David Cicilline for one of his many efforts to get people back to work.”
As for the debate over who should get credit for First Source, Hyers has told GoLocalProv that Cicilline was the one who tried to implement the ordinance—after it sat on the books without being enforced for two decades.
But Segal campaign manager Rachel Miller said Providence Superior Court has set the record straight. “It’s not a he-said-he-said situation,” Miller said. “It’s a decision that a Superior Court judge made. The judge found the city to not be enforcing or implementing the First Source Ordinance.”
In making his 2006 ruling, Superior Court Judge Stephen Fortunato said the city was “in no way complaint” with the ordinance.
“Unfortunately, the City, through its bureaucratic apparatus has created a regime, and I so find and will explain as I go along, that is in no way complaint with the clear mandate of the First Source ordinance,” Fortunato said.