Update: Central Falls receiver strips mayor of power
1:09 PM Mon, Jul 19, 2010 | Permalink
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CENTRAL FALLS, R.I. -- The retired judge appointed by the state to run the city's finances notified Mayor Charles D. Moreau Monday morning that he was assuming the powers of the city's mayor, demoting Moreau to advisory status, cutting his pay to $1,000 every two weeks and ordering him to return his city vehicle, cell phone and any other city equipment. 
Journal photo/ Mary MurphyCentral Falls receiver Mark A. Pfeiffer, a retired Superior Court judge, answers questions at a press conference in the Central Falls City Council chambers Monday. "You should contact my assistant," the new receiver, retired Associate Justice Mark A. Pfeiffer, wrote in a letter that was to be hand-delivered to Moreau this morning, " ... to make arrangements to have your personal belongings delivered or otherwise made available to you." Moreau was drawing a salary of about $70,000 a year, or around $1,350 a week. Almost immediately, City Councilman James Diossa called for Moreau's resignation. ¨I am calling on the mayor to step down immediately for the sake of Central Falls," Diossa said in a news release. "Mayor Moreau has already done enough for our city. Now he needs to do what is best for the people of Central Falls: step aside and let the recovery begin.¨ Pfeiffer, whose appointment was announced Friday, took the actions on his first full day of work under the powers granted him by a new law that gives the state increased powers to manage the finances of municipalities with distressed budgets. At a noon press conference in the City Council chambers, Pfeiffer repeatedly declined to predict what future actions he might take to close the city's deficit. He had only been on the job for about four hours, he said, and didn't have enough information. He said he announced his assumption of the powers of the mayor's office because it was important for city employees, the state and the wider financial community to understand who was in charge of the city's accounts. "You can't have two leaders," he said. Pfeiffer's description of Moreau's new advisory role appeared to be a don't-call-me-I'll-call-you system.He said Moreau's future input would be "only such advice as I shall seek." Moreau and his administration have been the subject of an investigation by the Rhode Island State Police and federal prosecutors into Moreau's hiring of an old friend to board up or clean up some 200 abandoned or foreclosed buildings -- at a cost of about $2 million, according to city records. Detectives are looking into whether contractor Michael Bouthillette's fees were excessive, and whether Moreau accepted any kickbacks in return for awarding him the work. The law under which Pfeiffer acted allows a receiver, appointed by the state Department of Revenue, to assume the powers of a municipality's elected officials in extreme cases. Their posts are not abolished, and the officeholders remain in office, but they have no power to do anything related to the city's finances. Central Falls has been grappling with a $3 million deficit from last year and a projected $5 million deficit in its current year municipal budget of about $17.8 million. Pfeiffer also notified city Personnel Director Eugene Noury that he was being laid off as of Friday and relieved of his duties immediately, "so you should not report for duty." Pfeiffer said he would be bringing in outside staff to supervise the personnel department. Pfeiffer, 62, retired as an active judge in 2009. He is being assisted on the Central Falls assignment by Christy Healey, who, as a compliance manager in the governor's Office of Economic Recovery and Reinvestment, was responsible for the finances of the office and compliance with the federal economic stimulus law. Pfeiffer and Healey will be working with the staff from the University of Rhode Island and the Edward J. Collins Jr. Center for Public Management at the University of Massachusetts/Boston. Staff there participated in turnarounds in Chelsea, Mass., and Springfield, Mass., and currently are helping Lawrence, Mass., which is under Massachusetts state financial oversight. URI will provide data collection and analysis and other resources to Pfeiffer.
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I guess the mayor's downfall has begun.
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Some big changes going on in CF. I don't think we have seen the last of them though. I hope he can turn the city around.
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Bravo.
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Wow. Lynch pulls out of the race on Friday, and his buddy Moreau is stripped of power on Monday. Coincidence?
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Boy he had this coming....the mismanaging and fraud is now right there for all to see - I hope this is a clear lesson for all RI town and city leaders!!
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Remind me again, why does Central Falls still exist?
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This judge should be the next Governor.Moreau your getting exactly what you desrve
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The same should be done in Providence.
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It is about time! Bye, bye Chuckie!
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Lynch AND Moreau BOTH going out, in the same week, no less?
Is it Christmas already?
Couldn't have happen to a meaner, more corrupt individual. He is just a straight up, all around BAD person. Trust me, I know the guy, and have personally seen how he operates, over and over and over.
Now all we need is a prison sentence, and I will get happily, quietly drunk.
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I guess good Judge Pfeiffer had an H. L. Mencken moment:
“Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.”
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Welcome to the real world of pay cuts!!
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Another PIG forced away from the trough....Burrrrrp
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Some democracy.
Appoint some yahoo and they think they are God.
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First of many sweeping changes throughout the state, I hope.
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Can't say as this was unexpected. What is going to be really interesting, though, is what Pfeiffer does about the union contracts. I can hear George Nee howling already!
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Hey maybe he can work as a plywood salesman.
Better yet Lynch could probably get him a job at the landfill with him!!!
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is this the same guy who used to serve breakfast? wow things have changed
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...demoting Moreau to advisory status, cutting his pay to $1,000 every two weeks and ordering him to return his city vehicle, cell phone and any other city equipment.
What are the CF taxpayers paying him for??? Certainly not his advice!! What does he do to get this pay check?
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It's about time for a "ghost" mayor who has had nothing to say about CF's calamity and hiding in the background.
The Judge is to be commended for not instituting the "old boy" system and continuing support for Moreau. $500 bucks/week means that Moreau will have to dip into his ill gotten Bahamas bank account. Moreau can probably get a job closing up abandoned homes from his buddies.
Don't let the door hit you butt on the way out, Chuckie.
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Tom Jefferson said:
"Some democracy.
Appoint some yahoo and they think they are God."
No no, Tom. Put someone in charge, and they think they're in charge. That's the way it's SUPPOSED to work. They put Judge Pfeiffer in there to get a handle on things, and by God, he is. If you want to clean up bullsh*t, the first thing you need to do is get rid of the bull, and that's what he did.
I say keep cleaning!!!
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Way to go, Mark!
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If I were a North Providence employee...I'd be looking for a new job on this news.
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Couldn't of said it better myself Zebulon.
The terms "accountability" and "professionalism" are foreign to RI, its unions and everyone who got a job working for a relative or friend in this state (or approximately 99% of the workforce). Not anymore. You all thought it could last forever but stupid people don't run things well and you can't hide incompetence forever. It was a good run though!
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Why is Mayor Moreau being paid $500 per week? To do what? Just to be on hand in case somebody has a question? What could anybody possibly want to ask him given the shape the city is in?
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Everyone keeps congratulating the Judge, this wasn't his idea, it was the Governors, he was just appointed....but either way, glad to see this is being done.
How about the police chief next?
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Maybe Moreau can sweep the streets or board up houses until someone has a question for him.
Lombardi and Polisena, get your brooms ready.
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Handing the city of Central Falls over to Pfeiffer is like handing a drunk driver's keys over to another drunk.
The state is so close to bankrupt it cannot even pay tax refunds in a timely manner.
Tax refunds represent a interest-free loan to the state by the taxpayer. ... See More
They have opnely stated that the Division of Taxation refuses to pay its interest-free lenders because of the demands of the interest-collecting lenders.
Pfeiffer is a former banker so we can bet his interests are not with the taxpayer but with the banking system that provided him with his career.
This will simply prove to be a bank bailout.. like the entire bit of legislation authorizing this action so obviously is.
Take note of how many legislators gain major contributions from banking interests.
If the city is bankrupt... let it default on its debt.. especially on the interest portion. The very best thing in the way of fiscal self-discipline will come from an externally enforced refusal-to-lend on the part of lenders.
We know full well neither major political party nor the appointed offiicials have the spine, savvy or self-discipline to skip heedless borrowing.... which tends to enrich bankers and en-poor the taxpayer.
Let wholly bankrupt entities go bankrupt.... and start over "fresh".
This "Gee, we don't want those poor put-upon banks to suffer in any way" mentality is a real problem.
After all.. interest-collectors are non-producers looking to skim a portion of our gross-state-product while doing nothing much in return.
It looks like they don't even take a risk of non-repayment.... which is why they claim interest is "due" in the first place.. a risk is supposedly taken.
It is real funny to see one group of fiscally irresponsible politicians try to divert from their own fiscal incompetence by taking over from other incompetents.
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Ok...So what is the new guy going to do now??
I hope we are not replacing corruption with complacency and incompentency.
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The judge probably just couldn't fire an elected official, so he just sidelined him... I trust a retired Supreme Court judge to do the right, legal thing.
I'm hoping that, with the big bully not intimidating city employees with his presence, more people will come forward with damning evidence about his activities while running CF into the ground. Between Bouthillette's kickbacks (and you just KNOW he was getting kickbacks... Bouthillette was fixing Chuckie's properties after the big floods, and do you think he was paying?) and the whole Wyatt scandal, that guy NEEDS prison time.
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I know! Instead of $500 a week, they can give Chuck a dollar, and he can buy back one of those city properties he sold his friends for a buck...
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