WARWICK, RI - Mayor Frank J. Picozzi and the city's firefighters may have a dispute on their hands.
Picozzi has decided to pursue reimbursement of what one accounting firm reckons was $386,000 improperly paid firefighters when they cashed out sick time that, under their contract, they had already exhausted.
Their method was based on the terms of a 2013 "side agreement" reached with the fire chief but never approved by the City Council.
The late Mayor Joseph Solomon ended the practice in 2018, calling the practice "improper" and starting a conflict with the union. After that, an arbitration process, a legal settlement and new contract language resolved the disagreement over the practice itself, according to the union.
But now Picozzi has determined that firefighters owe money that they collected before all of that.
Completion of a long-awaited accounting report helped him make that determination, according to a spokeswoman, Elizabeth Tufts, who refers to the 2013 side deal as having "amended" the contract "contrary to the proper process and was not binding."
"The city must seek reimbursement of any monies paid out under that amendment," Tufts said in a statement."
She also said that representatives of the union "dispute" Picozzi's opinion.
"They will present documentation to corroborate their view," she said, "When received, the administration will review it with the solicitor and decide how to proceed."
The president of the firefighters' union, Michael Carreiro, said Monday that firefighters also had accountants examine the situation.
Experts at Ward & Fisher company looked at how the firefighters received their sick-time benefits during the period in question.
"We feel it was correct to our understanding," Carreiro said, emphasizing that the practice did rely on what he refers to as "a memorandum of understanding" that firefighters had reached with the city. He is referring to the 2013 side agreement.
Carreiro said he wasn't ready to give that report to The Providence Journal.
While Picozzi and his administration await that report, they have their own report from a different accounting firm.
That accounting report, which calculated the excess payments to firefighters at $386,000, arrived at City Hall earlier this year.
This was after the accounting report itself came up at the state Ethics Commission.
The commission found that a former City Council president, Steven Merolla, had violated ethics codes by hiring an accounting firm, which was known as YKSM before its acquisition by Marcum. Merolla's own business associates had worked at the firm, according to the commission.
The ethics complaint was filed by Robert Cote — the same resident who helped bring attention to the firefighters' method for cashing in their sick-time benefits back in 2018.
Cote doesn't believe the city is ready to go after the money.
Cote says Picozzi should simply recoup the money by appropriately garnishing what it pays to firefighters and retired firefighters.
The city is on firm legal ground but if the employees and former employees disagree they can sue, Cote said.
That might create some legal fees, he said. "In situations like this it doesn't matter ..." Cote said. "You have to send a message."
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