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Subscribe to RSSThe mayor of Central Falls, R.I. -- a city that made news in recent years over its bankruptcy and teacher firings -- resigned on Wednesday and has agreed to plead guilty to corruption charges of accepting gifts in exchange for a city contract, federal prosecutors said.
Charles Moreau had been under investigation since 2009 when he told NBC10 in Rhode Island that he gave lucrative contracts to board up abandoned homes to a friend without anyone else bidding.
The friend charged $14,000 to $16,000 for each home, NBC10 reported, when local contractors said it should only cost about $5,000 per home.
The friend, Michael Bouthillette, was also charged and has agreed to plead guilty, prosecutors said. He was also a donor to Moreau's campaign.
Central Falls is one of the most financially troubled cities in the country.
It did, however, take a big step toward exiting bankruptcy earlier this month when a judge signed off on a plan that balances the impoverished city's budget for the next five years by hiking taxes, cutting employees and pensions and revising labor contracts.
The case has garnered attention for its treatment of the city's bondholders, who remain unscathed while pensioners took a huge hit, in contrast with some other recent U.S. municipal bankruptcies.
The quick resolution of Central Falls' bankruptcy, filed in August 2011, may be one for the record books.
"In my limited knowledge, this case is the fastest case in the history of Chapter 9 ... to go from filing to confirmation. It's a record time and a record efficiency," Judge Frank Bailey said from the bench. "I think that this is an example for not only Rhode Island but maybe the nation on how to run a Chapter 9."
Central Falls and several other local governments across the United States have sought refuge in bankruptcy court in recent years as sinking revenue in the wake of the economic recession, escalating pension costs and big debt loads have stretched their budgets to the brink.
Central Falls entered bankruptcy with revenues of about $16 million and a structural deficit of more than $6 million.
The mayor and city council members were rendered powerless under state receivership and bankruptcy. The city was also forced to shutter its only community center and temporarily close its library before reopening it under nonprofit management.
Many of the city's 133 retirees are still angry over how they were treated. Their already modest annual pensions, which averaged $26,700 before the bankruptcy, were slashed by up to 55 percent.
The city also made headlines in late 2010 when all teachers at Central Falls High School were fired over poor student scores.
They were later rehired after reaching a deal with the school district.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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One thing is obvious: they are ordering bottled water even though their city is bankrupt.
Another week and another corrupt mayor getting caught. Oh! another article where the AP forgets to let everyone know that Charles Moreau is a democrat.
well I think everyone figured that out considering if it had been a repulican it would have stated that several times in the article.
There are a lot of cities going bankrupt..., and States, but what was missing in this story was the Mayor's party affiliation.
Democrat
Oh no......Central Falls has to change their "logo": "City with a Bright Future"
First, they fire all the teachers and now this.
whenever it's a democrat they never mention party affiliation, if it had been a republican it would have been "Republican Mayor" pleads guilty and then within the story itself republican would have been every other word. Odd there isn't a story about pending 1200 layoffs in W Virginia's coal industry. Hey Miners in PA and Vir -- y'all are next!
Get off of it dottie, it's f*cking state politics and that is not the same as National. There are just some states that have a corrupt culture and Rhode Island, Louisiana, New York, and New Jersey (to name a few) are exactly those types of states. And it has NOTHING to do with party affiliation. Ask the governor (a Republican) of Louisiana right after Katrina? George W. Bush did not have FEMA just hand over the billions of dollars in aid to the state because of its lengthy history of being a cesspool of corruption. They parceled it out sparingly, which is kind of weird considering they were just parachuting millions of dollars of pallets into Iraq after the invasion. Wait a minute....something seems wrong about that too.
Today, most of the nation's cities which have mayors hold non-partisan mayoral elections. If one candidate fails to receive a majority (50% plus 1 of the votes cast) rather than a plurality, then a run-off is held.
I do not know the specifics of the election rules for Central Falls, RI, but one thing is absolutely clear....
As illustrated by the comments above some of you are ONLY interested in reading these articles in the hope of trying to score personal, partisan points on Newsvine supporting your own narrow, tunnel-vision perspective and preconceived ideas about the inherant superiority of your own chosen political party over the other party and those affiliated with that party, all of whom you hold in contempt.
In the end that says NOTHING at all about the content of the news story, ...
but it says EVERYTHING about you!
Food for thought.
2, 2.1, and 2.3, that's the problem with America and you people that will never change. Always playing party politics. So I guess you three vote republican, no matter what.
The Governor after Katrina, D-Blanco and the Mayor D-Nagin screwed up royally so they did the only thing the national media would allow them to do, get on the blame Bush bandwagon even though he released federal disaster dollars 3 days before Katrina hit. Cancel your subscription to the DNC Newsletter Angelo Bechler.
Party affiliation isn't the problem, as there are plenty of greedy skunks in both parties. The reality all across the country is: "there but for the grace of god" -- and clueless citizens combined with an ineffective local newspaper -- go many a mayor. Yes, there are some cities that repeatedly end up with corrupt cronyism - Washington, DC, and Atlanta - but the lure is money, which cuts across all particulars. The other consistency is gender: male politicians selling out constituents to get into bed with other corrupt parasites, stealing from the public. It would be interesting to see if voters would get cleaner elections and better representation if they'd put into office as many women as they do men.
You need to assume party affiliation is democrat otherwise NBC would have mentioned he was a republican 15 or 20 times in the article.
you libbies are so funny..., it is a fact that the Democrats will spend us into bankruptcy... just like this little town, the State of New York and the State of California; wake up and smell the coffee, because we will pay for the "free" benefits up front or at the end. It is our money, the tax-payers, there is no Uncle Sugar with a wad of dough.
And yes Angelo, the derelict Gov of Louisiana and the incompetent Mayor of New Orleans were both Democrats.
Haha good catch.. even as the city financially burned they still ate cake.. Nice..
Wake up2840
There is only one party in RI. As with the rest of New England.
Massachusetts is Democrat controlled and we have a AA+ bond rating. My town, Newton, MA, has a AAA bond rating and was listed as the 4th best place to live in the US by Money Magazine.
Financial irresponsibility is not the burden of one party or the other; both share in this mess.
How much did the Big Dig in Boston cost? Oh wait, Teddy got the government to foot that bill.
As we in MA have the 4th highest per capita payments in federal taxes we just considering it a return on our very sizable investment. And actually it had more to do with Tip O'Neill than Ted Kennedy.
He's Democrat. Of course NBCNews wouldn't mention that little fact unless he was a Republican. Journalistic hacks.
Not to worry about the ex mayor, though. I'm sure there's a spot for him in the Obama administration.That's the kind of pedigree they look for.
Hey now, watch the name calling.......they are not journalists.
in the middle...very funny and accurate
indeed.. i had to look up for myself what party he belonged to, and what party did the finger-pointing. (republican)
http://www.wpri.com/dpp/news/local_news/blackstone/ethics-case-against-central-falls-mayor-moves-forward
Again, what is with all this "he's a democrat" sh*t? Politicians of ALL ILK are a slimy lot prone stuffing their pockets, its been going on for years, are you new to the game? NONE OF THEM ARE VIRTUOUS so get over this crap about Democrat VS Republican. I'm so glad I'm an independent, you people seem so damned silly and duped to me.
@Angelo: The fact that Moreau is a democrat is irrelevant. It is the bias with which the news is being reported.
Every major news outlet has several stories covering various angles of the Mitt Romney "47%" tape, yet, not a single story covering the Obama "Redistribution" tape. One could argue that the Obama tape paints a clearer picture of how Obama invisions the way the economy should work.
well said dave
@Naughty: Shortly after I wrote this, MSNBC wrote a story about the Obama tape...but, with a caveat that there was more information omitted. Funny thing is that the Romney tape is missing 2 minutes worth of tape as well. Again, this should have been been included as well.
The news should be reported in an unbiased manner. When it becomes an obvious pattern of biased partisan journalism, is it really much different than government controlled media?
Everything this thief owns needs to be auctioned off to partially payoff the expense his greed and graft caused. He'll probably get a year probation and an offical "Naughty, Naughty!" from his now richer pals though.
Yes and believe it or not Obama gets immunity. That is just wrong.
What does Obama have to do with this guy in Rhode Island? Sounds like a very moronic statement used to conceal your true feelings about our president that has absolutely nothing to do with corruption but rather race. Go ahead, let out the rest of your inner bigot, hidden racist.
Angelo, it has to do with the press and how they skew the news; but you would know that if you did some digging of your own, instead of drinking the DNC cool-aid each day.
Don't complain, at least you get something unlike a lot of retired non-government workers. And for the record, 133 x 26,700 is $3,551,100.00 before the bankruptcy which is a substantial portion of the debt obligation.
You must be talking about the non union Delphi workers who got f*cked out of their pensions by the Obama administration but let the union members keep theirs?
Don't complain, at least you get something unlike a lot of retired non-government workers. And for the record, 133 x 26,700 is $3,551,100.00 before the bankruptcy which is a substantial portion of the debt obligation.
Forget about social security? Oh yeah, Mitt's gonna end that..
good!, it is about time someone shut down the FDR Socialism for everyone slide that has resulted in a take-over by government of our lives; the fact that people think that it is acceptable for the City of New York ban BIG sodas is evidence of that. We need someone to teach some history in schools..., right Angelo? even recent history escapes 47% of our population.
Is he related to the Mayor of Trenton, NJ
democrat with republican values
most people put too much interest and emphasis on national politics - while it may be more interesting, local politics affect the typical person much more than presidential politics do - really, how much has obama's policies affected you - not too much probably - how much has raising your house taxes with you having very little say in the matter - how about your local taxes not fixing your crappy street - how about laying off teachers because there wasnt enough money - these are local issues that affect you much more than a idiotic campaign speech
How 'bout that? Local taxes, state taxes control most people's day-to-day lives. But these posters above you only know partisanship. Even go to the effort to look up whether mayor is DEM or REP. They don't care about the townspeople affected by this, just the party affiliation of the accused (as if shizz don't stink on both sides).
gwmo.....so wrong!!! I have 30 employees so starting 2014 I have to pay $6,500 each (that's $195K a year) or pay $2,000 each a fine/tax ($60K a year) for health insurance. The latter choice is throwing my employees to government pools. This single national politics BS will run me out of business or make me fire 6-7 folks. His plan for America is working, 6-7 more on gonernment tit and spreading my wealth......30 years of work and I did build it.
Yup that is how you do it Judge screw over retirees who held up their part of the bargain by slashing their pensions by 55% and face it it's not like the original amount of $26,000 was going to take them to 1% status but now they have a pension slashed to less than $13,000. I don't know how you sleep at night Judge.
Perhaps they should have worked for more than 25 years.
It's a crime that the city workers will get less than 50% of their pensions. No one stands up for them. The judge pretended like they didn't even exist with the "deal" that was struck. But of course, the bond holders get all of their money. This should be a warning to all of us. Nothing in these times is certain.
Nothing is absolute, but since when has a pension or SOS ever supposed to be more than a SUPPLEMENT to your retirement? They were never intended to be your only means. Something has been lost in America that you don't have to take care of yourself because the government will. We forget the government is all our fellow citizens money. The working citizens tax wells and promises from politicians are drying up......all he11 will break loose soon for the folks who didn't fend for themselves and became other citizens money dependant. We can't kick the can down the road and keep borrowing anymore. Time is up we need fiscal responsibility from citizens and government NOW....or else?
The city workers are lucky they still get a pension. If they were in the private sector most likely their pension would be that monthly Social Security check.
Time Magazine (Dec 5th 2011) ran a story on how Rhode Island was facing bankruptcy due to pensions eating up every budget:
“10% of this year's state revenues went to cover the shortfall just for the pensions in Rhode Island”:
“Central Falls, Rhode Island (Pop 18,716) – ALREADY WENT BANKRUPT, the pensions drained all of the money out of the operating budget.”
"In Rhode Island in 1960, a retiree could retire at age 60 with a pension equal to about half of working salary"... life expectancy was 70 years. " By 1990, life spans were five years longer, yet the RETIREMENT AGE HAD DROPPED TO 50. The maximum initial pension had jumped to 80% of salary"... with math like that on your side, retiring from a government job in Rhode Island, quickly became more lucrative than working at one."
_____________________________
This sounds just like Oregon, only Oregon is worse:
Oregon has been going in the wrong direction, just like Rhode Island. The difference now is that Rhode Island is willing to address the problem, but Oregon is not. Our governor, and most of our legislative members refuse to even acknowledge it.
Let’s compare Oregon to Rhode Island (using 2010 census data):
___________________________________________________
Rhode Island
Population 1.05 million
Median Household Income - $53,243
Gov retirees- 21,634 (.0206% of population)
Oregon
Population 3.8 million
Median Household Income- $49,260
Gov retirees- 117,005 (.0308% of population)
_________________________________
(US Median Household Income- $51,914)
So, if anyone wants to do the math, we can see that Oregon is in much worse shape than Rhode Island. Oregon has 33% more retirees and 8.5% less in median household income.
Those of us that don't work in government, but just get to pay for it, know that these pension plans have morphed into huge swindles on the taxpayers. In Oregon the PERS pensions are bankrupting us; PERS costs more than doubled, for this budget by over $1.1 BILLION. That's JUST THE INCREASE, AND THAT'S JUST FOR THIS BUDGET.
Taxpayers who don't have anywhere near the job security, or pensions of the government workers are sick of being held up for more and more money. We live in the real world where we get to retire more than 10 years after those in the government sector. The government payrolls are way too big and way too generous. Our government SHOULD NOT BANKRUPT US.
Sorry to dissappoint you neos, but, I grew up in Rhode Island and I have seen prison stripes on democrats and republicans alike on, from the Governer on down.
Why are they picking on this guy? He is not doing anything different than all the other democrats in government.
Sooner or later these Democrats are finding that you just can't fund these feel good programs, pay your civil servants huge salaries and expect to stay solvent...it don't work like that....SOMEONE has to pay! When are you Democrats going to learn that simple economic lesson!
Republican!!!
Once again I had search thru 5 articles till I found out he was a democrat I love our media bias.
What has this guy being a Democrat have to do with him being a low life scumbag that ran his city into the ground. People will be people, irregardless of what they call themselves. We just had a guy in Seattle gun down and kill 5 innocent people several months ago. Then he killed himself. His family said he had bouts with anger management. And he was also a Republican that attended a GWB convention a few years back. Does that make all GWB supporters crazy??? No!!! Was this man crazy or mentally unbalanced? Yes!!!!
Political affiliations know no bounds when money and power are involved. Take Madoff for example. He made political contributions to both Democrats and Republicans from him 100 billion dollar stolen fortune. So does that make them all bad, or just Madoff!!!
Why not just check the comment section? 2nd or 3rd post, pretty much every time around here.
"It did, however, take a big step toward exiting bankruptcy earlier this month when a judge signed off on a plan that balances the impoverished city's budget for the next five years by hiking taxes, cutting employees and pensions and revising labor contracts."
Interesting that they are tackling the problem by cutting pensions and labor contracts and not DEMANDING that the Mayor and his "buddy" give back every dime that they spent and robbed from the city!!!!
How convenient that government cannot be sued or held liable, and yet they can take advantage of court protection like bankruptcy. This mayor should be required to pay back any money he stole, his friend the money he was given. If more criminals were made to pay actual cash and the costs of their crimes as a matter of course, it might actually make a difference. A victim should never have to sue someone convicted of hurting them, but give the cost of the crime to the court, and be reimbursed. Hit these criminals in the pocket - it's the only thing they will really understand.
I have lived in RI all my life. Central Falls is a one square mile city and it seemed very weird that they were reporting such a huge deficit for the smallest city in the state. Then this story hit the news. This mayor is a disgrace to the office but believe me, he is one of many in this state. For the smallest state in the union, RI is notorious for the dirtbags in office. We had a governor who gave $75M in tax credits to a video gaming company that ended up going under. It was pushed through without ever making it onto a ballot for voting. Who is holding the bag for that? We the people! Come visit RI for its glorious beaches and full prisons!!!
Stories like this always bring out the political party haters. One thing that I have always noted is that in most cases, it is REPUBLICAN policies and frameworks that leads to the most doom...and right before they get nabbed, they pass the reins to a Democrat. Examples....H.W. Bush: S&L Loan Scandal....he should have gotten a 2nd term but too much would have been exposed that not even the Gulf War would have covered up...then Clinton was elected; W. Bush took us from a National Surplus to over 8 Trillion in Debt, relaxed so many regulations that the housing bubble occured on his watch and the stock market crashed in January 2008...McCain would have had an easy election otherwise...but in strict abhorrence to where Republican Conservative Values led to...AGAIN...America elected the first black man in history to the Presidency of the United States who also ran under the Democratic ticket.
I am not saying Democrats are squeeky clean, either. For every Republican scandal, one can usually find a Democratic one that is just as upsetting...usually. This is what gives hope to the Teatard party and other third party ideologues....and to the predictable calamity and ignorance, as old, defeated ideas are defeated again, just as retarded as ever. What I am saying is that you should be careful when laying blame to one party or the other. Huge Problems usually have a ton of rats leaving the ship...and they aren't all from just one political party.
So youre fine with the liberal press always avoiding the inclusion of party affiliation every time there is a negative article about a democrat?
BTW, it is all the uber-liberal cities and states, like central falls and the state of RI that are deep in the weeds because of their liberal politics and one party systems, i know you want to blame everything on republicans, but that party doesnt exist in RI.
Sorry to say it...but Corruption and Stupidity are International problems....not just at home....and not exclusive domain of either party. All you folks bitch about it ....why not attend some city council meetings and get involved instead.
Know your friends...know your enemies...and maybe you will learn something.
they're all corrupt but to many didn't get caught yet.