To the Editor:

Mayor Fung refuses to take responsibility for the worst political crisis in resent Cranston history!

He has stated publicly many times that he is sorry for his mistakes, as though the mistakes were minor ones. If he is truly sorry and has woken up to the damage he has done to the reputation of Cranston, the police department and particularly several members, he should spell out in detail just what those were.

Add in the way he has ignored and treated the City Council (as just being in the way of his wants) and what you are left with is an individual who has convinced himself (with the help of a few minions) that he is “king,” and to just go on trying to fool us taxpayers that everything is all right and all will be forgiven. He has been able to accomplish this his whole public career.

But fortunately, that will not be the case this time. The weight of all of the charges, the way they are affecting many individuals and the total cost (still not fully expensed) are far too much for even many of his supporters to swallow.

Case in point: Ticketgate, which is a subplot to Fung-gate. Fung wants everyone to believe that he knew nothing about this and just woke up to the news one day, all the while knowing that the real controversy over the current police contract was front and center. Also, that his compatriot on the force was Capt. Antonucci who desperately wanted a contract approved that was weighted towards the highest ranks and would further his drive to become the chief in the near future.

Ward 1 Councilman Steve Stycos and Ward 3 Councilman Paul Archetto voted against this contract, thus incurring the ire of Antonucci, so much that he felt compelled to target their wards with a very high number of overnight parking tickets. This action caused Wards 4 and 6 to go without on-site patrolling as those officers were called in to assist in Ticketgate. They did not use police communications as they could be traced, so they used their own cell phones, and today the records of all those calls have not been made public.

The big question here becomes, why didn’t Fung call in Antonucci for disciplinary action? He had a few choices. Antonucci’s rank was acting captain, thus he could have reduced him to the rank of lieutenant and suspended him a month without pay. Did this not occur because Fung now was married to Antonucci, for better or worse? Well, he got worse!

Next, he lets Chief Palumbo and Antonucci drum up several phony charges against Capt. Patalano because he would not go along with the troika (Fung, Palumbo and Antonucci) to control the police department, including contracts, promotions, command structure and eventually allowing Antonucci to become the chief. They put Patalano on paid leave for nearly two years, costing the taxpayers over $200,000. This does not count the amount of overtime necessary to fill his position and the $150,000 dollars in legal fees. Capt. Barry, the state police officer that was assigned to run the department, very early on saw the injustice of these charges and wanted to reinstate Patalano. After some negotiating with the council, Patalano accepted his reassignment. He now serves honorable as a major.

Now while Ticketgate and the Patalano fiascos (and more) were happening, the pot was beginning to boil over, and it was at this timeframe that Fung announces his candidacy for governor of Rhode Island. What should he do? He can’t run and have all of this bad publicity getting into the public arena, so he jumps ship and calls in the cavalry, thinking that the only way to bury this, at least until well after the election, was to call in the state police to take over the department and study the command and personnel issues at the same time. He knows that he has something to lose when this report comes out, although I am sure he never dreamed for it to be so critical of him personally, but he would be sitting in the governor’s chair and be safe with that shield.

He loses the governor’s race and now the state police report takes on a life of its own. When it finally goes public, Fung immediately goes into his bunker, with a few of his minions, to see what lies and bifurcation he can produce to save himself politically.

During this period, so much has reached a critical stage that the attorney general must now step in to do his due diligence. The city council must also conduct its own investigation, using its subpoena powers to “open that envelope wide” for all taxpayers to see, in order that we witness the true cost to date and to make sure that those responsible for Fung-gate are brought to justice.

If this does not happen, the only season I can see is political, then all taxpayers must rise up and demand same, at the same time prepare to challenge all in office with honest leadership candidates in 2016!

Our most profound loss is honesty, at so many levels and for so many individuals that have accepted our hard-earned taxes as their pay for their dishonesty. I want to make it clear at this point, that with the appointment of Chief Winquist and his two majors, Patalano and Quick, the police department is restoring its lost integrity and performing with honor to their pledge to uphold the law, protecting our property and lives. And that all during this awful period the rank and file continued to perform with honor and duty. We owe them a great debt of gratitude and thanks for all they accomplished during this turmoil in their mist!

That one word, dishonesty, requires additional adjectives to further illuminate the word untrustworthy; disposed to cheat, false, lacking integrity, perfidious, destitute of good faith, unscrupulous, deceitful, insincere and dishonorable, and more.

The reason I stopped at dishonor is because honor means everything in the military. Without honor nothing can be successfully accomplished, and I know that everyone that has served has that word tattooed in their heart. And so must we all!

Richard Tomlins

Cranston