Central Falls receiver Flanders set to meet with Mayor Taveras
February 2nd, 2012 at 1:45 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
Providence Mayor Angel Taveras will be getting some guidance from Rhode Island’s leading authority on municipal bankruptcy.
Taveras is scheduled to hold a meeting Friday with Robert Flanders, the retired R.I. Supreme Court justice who has been Central Falls’ state-appointed receiver since last year, a person familiar with the matter told WPRI.com.
Flanders made Central Falls the first Rhode Island city ever to file for bankruptcy last August after he failed to win voluntary concessions on pension benefits from that city’s retirees. He was reportedly spotted leaving Providence City Hall.
Taveras warned Providence’s retirees on Thursday that he will reduce their benefits “one way or another,” even if it means following Central Falls’ example and asking a bankruptcy court judge to do so as part of a Chapter 9 filing.
Tim White contributed to this report.
(photo: Ted Nesi/WPRI.com)
Tags: angel taveras, central falls, chapter 9, municipal, providence, providence financial crisis, robert flanders
Nesi's Notes covers politics and the economy in and around Rhode Island for WPRI.com. (Twitter: 
Just file for bankruptcy and negotiate with them then. Negotiation always goes better when you have your foot on the other guys throat.
Cosmo, I concur. The sooner is done the sooner the taxpayers can start to recoup their loses. Once the contracts are voided, the taxpayers can pay a realistic taxes for exceptional services. Right now we get poor services for very high taxes.
Same in Cranston, take my word for it. Taxes too high and poor services.
[...] Taveras warned earlier Thursday that Providence is “on the brink of bankruptcy” and asked for ”shared sacrifices” from city retirees and tax-exempt institutions like Brown and the hospitals. The mayor is scheduled to meet with Central Falls receiver Robert Flanders on Friday. [...]
Ted, if the City were to go into Receivership, is there anything that says that Chafee could not appoint Taveras as the receiver?
Not to my knowledge – in fact, that’s one of the creative policy possibilities I’ve been hearing floated in the last 48 hours. Flanders has suggested it himself.
Where would that leave the City Council?
I believe, legally, they would become a purely advisory panel. In a sense, it would invest Taveras with emergency executive powers. I’m going to be taking a closer look at it for a post.