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Jimmy,

There is no doubt that there are many city workers (the majority I expect) that work hard. However, there is a significant element that has been screwing the pooch for a very long time. Massive theft has taken place at DPW over the years. It has been documented by major news sources and there have been arrests made as well.

Here is the point. If you go to the ATM to get $100 and $1000 comes out, do you notify someone or do you go back the next day and do the same thing? If you think for one minute that there is no manipulation of scheduling within the WFd then you are sadly mistaken. If you can somehow justify the scheme that was contrived between LLoyd, Armstrong, and Ruggerio as legitimate, then we certainly have a problem with each other in terms of ethics. I know for a fact that the change of shift has been utilized greatly for men to go to work on other jobs. for example, Firefighter TP who owns a painting company and did numerous COS to work at URI Green hall and other state jobs as well. 2 WFD men remodeled a close friend of mines basement. Most of their time there was due to COS. This happens all the time and it simply is not in the best interest of the taxpayer. If you are on the dept. you know damn well that the COS form typically was never filled out until after the fact if it was filled out at all.

The stipulation that Avedisian put in the public safety resolution was that men could shop for "essentials" only coming back from a call with permission from the battalion chief. You know that is not the case as Engine 6 is at Daves Hoxie every single day at the same time give or take 10 min. Same with Engine 9 and Engine 3 at the stop and shops.

It is issues like these that are perceived by the taxpayer that these workers are waving the middle finger at us. These cases are not isolated but have been the norm for a very long time. You sound like a smart guy so I am sure that you understand that the supreme court of the United States has consistently upheld the premise that a public sector worker has no expectation of privacy while in the performance of their duty.

Do you think that there would have been any changes whatsoever if residents like myself dd not make this stuff public? Do you think that the WFd would have stopped scheming the unused sick time had it not been made public by me? By the way, I can assure you that the audit is not good. I can tell you that the unused sick time is in the vicinity of $400K - $430K. This was carefully contrived by a group that knew that for years the council was bought and paid for, and they were allowed to do this. By the way, its commonly referred to as stealing. And yes I have issues when people steal.

There is no difference between David Laplant who stole $100, 000 in merchandise from the school department, and Ed Armstrong and Bill Lloyd who concocted a secret scheme to steal close to a half million from the taxpayer.