The Providence Journal
COVENTRY, R.I. — The president of the Coventry Professional Fire Fighters’ Local 3372 has issued a news release “sounding the alarm” that the Coventry Fire District “is in a very precarious and dire financial situation.”
Union President David Gorman said, “There is a very real potential that payroll will not be met and essential fire and emergency medical services could be interrupted in the upcoming weeks due to serious fiscal mismanagement.”
He said that at a budget workshop meeting last week, the newly appointed treasurer and certified public accountant Judith Hetherman released documents for which the district board had repeatedly asked Fire Chief Paul Labbadia, who has been suspended with pay pending an independent investigation.
The documents show that the fire district owes $464,896 to a Coventry Credit Union line of credit that was apparently used to cover general expenses. The data indicates that the district has not been paying bills, including money withheld from employee paychecks that was not transferred to the state employee retirement system.
As of Nov. 6, the district has nearly $150,000 in unpaid bills, including to the Kent County Water Authority, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island, National Grid and other vendors.
“To take money from our employees’ paychecks that should have been deposited into their personal 401K or retirement accounts and then use it to pay other bills is not only morally wrong, it’s criminal,” Gorman said in the news release.
Labbadia’s suspension was prompted by a Channel 12 investigation that allegedly shows him drinking during the workday and taking a department vehicle to a party on Federal Hill, where he drank and apparently smoked marijuana before driving the truck home.
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