Santa was coming to Cranston, but the Grinches stole Christmas

Posted 12/23/15

To the Editor:

If you believe in doing the right thing for children please read this. On Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015, four elected officials in Cranston collectively hurt the citizens of Cranston, …

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Santa was coming to Cranston, but the Grinches stole Christmas

Posted

To the Editor:

If you believe in doing the right thing for children please read this. On Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015, four elected officials in Cranston collectively hurt the citizens of Cranston, moreover hurt its children and young adults.

Essentially there is $450,000 in a library reserve account that has been accumulated over the last 10 years. The funds came from developers not taxpayers and could not be rebated to taxpayers or used to reduce tax liability. Essentially this is free money to use on library improvement. So working with the Director of Libraries Ed Garcia, the city administration and Mayor Fung we proposed giving a gift to the children of the city and renovate the Central Library. Director Garcia secured grant funds to ensure this had no impact to the taxpayers, so again we could do this for free.

We proposed it in November and it was defeated by Council President John Lanni, Council Vice President Richard Santamaria, Councilman Mario Aceto and Councilman Paul Archetto (all Democrats). Admittedly there was a procedural issue in the legislation that could have been fixed that night but they defeated the issue instead. We fixed the procedural issue and again put it before the Ordinance Committee at the December meeting and Council President John Lanni, Council Vice President Richard Santamaria, Councilman Mario Aceto and Councilman Paul Archetto again defeated this legislation by voting to table the measure essentially killing the project and taking away a positive impact for the children of the city.

I ask you what is more important, playing politics to hurt the opposition or doing what is right for the citizens of Cranston. I believe in doing what is right regardless of party affiliation. Doing the right thing should always outweigh our own personal and political beliefs especially during this the holiday season. 

Citywide Councilman Michael Farina

Cranston

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