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5.3.2001 00:05
Despite indictment, firm keep contract
BY W. ZACHARY MALINOWSKI
and JONATHAN D. ROCKOFF
Journal Staff Writers
Voccola released to home confinement
PROVIDENCE
-- Dicky Autiello jumped behind the wheel of a Providence police cruiser this week and backed it out of a garage bay at his business, Four A's Enterprises, in the city's West End.
He took the cruiser for a test ride and disappeared on Cranston Street.
Last month's indictment of Autiello on federal racketeering charges stemming from the Operation Plunder Dome investigation has not slowed the accused felon's work with a police department that is sworn to uphold the law.
Four A's, the business Autiello runs with his three brothers, has continued to collect more than $69,000 a month from the city to repair its fleet of police vehicles.
And, city officials say, there are no plans to break Four A's contract that pays the company more than $2.5 million over three years.
John J. Partington, the city's public safety commissioner, is troubled by the continued arrangement. But the city solicitor said that he has no choice.
"I'd love to have [Four A's] removed right now," Partington said. "It's perception. It just sets a bad image for us."
"But," he added, "we have to honor a contract, and it's a contract."
On April 2, Richard E. Autiello, Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. and four others were indicted on federal racketeering, extortion, bribery and conspiracy charges.
They were accused of participating in a criminal enterprise that was run from City Hall.
The indictment charged Autiello and Frank E. Corrente, Cianci's former chief of staff, of conspiring to collect a $5,000 bribe to get a police recruit with a checkered past into the Providence Police Training Academy.
Autiello, Corrente and Cianci also were charged with collecting about $250,000 in campaign contributions from members of the Providence Towing Association. The contributions ensured that the tow companies would remain on the city's tow list, which the Providence Police Department uses to tow cars.
Towing cars for the city is a lucrative business for any car-repair shop.
Autiello is the longtime vice president and treasurer of the Providence City Towing Association.
On April 6, four days after the indictment, Partington sent a letter to City Solicitor Charles R. Mansolillo asking whether the city could sever its ties with Four A's.
"My question is do we continue to honor the contract with Four A's?" Partington wrote.
The Providence Police Department has had its fleet of police vehicles -- cruisers, unmarked cars, vans and motorcycles -- maintained at Four A's since 1991.
Last July, the city signed a new three-year contract worth $2,530,650 with Four A's that calls for the garage to do all preventive maintenance and small dent repair to the police cars.
Four A's is being paid $833,313 this year; $833,967 next year; and $863,369 in the last year of the contract, which expires on June 30, 2003.
Autiello signed the contract as secretary/treasurer of Four A's.
Mansolillo said that after a legal review, he concluded that the city could not break the contract. He said that he had to distinguish between Autiello and Four A's.
Mansolillo said that the company cannot be punished for the alleged criminal acts of a principal in the business.
Also, he said that the allegations in the indictment had nothing to do with the way the company serviced police cars.
"You should continue to honor the current contract as there appears to be no violation of the terms of that contract based upon the indictment of Richard E. Autiello," the solicitor wrote, in his one-paragraph reply.
In an interview, Mansolillo said the city had to follow the language of its contract with Four A's. He said it could not be guided by other considerations, such as appearances.
Mansolillo emphasized distinguishing between Four A's -- the company -- and Autiello -- a principal of the company.
And he stressed that Autiello's indictment does not relate to the company's repair work.
"Is the contract with Four A's Enterprises wrapped up into it?" Mansolillo asked. "I can't see it."
By contract, Four A's repairs 245 police cars. It changes oil, provides tune-ups and brake jobs, and fixes minor dents.
Ray Richardson, the Police Department's automotive superintendent, said Four A's usually looks at more than 30 cars a day and does major work on more than 12 cars a day.
This week, Autiello shook hands with two reporters who approached him outside his garage at 254 Cranston St.
"If it is anything about the indictment, police cars or government, I have no comment," he said. "You guys are good guys, but I have no comment."
He said, however, to distinguish his situation from that of his company: "The police use Four A's Enterprises."
Autiello, who has been in the car-repair business with his brothers since 1957, has enjoyed a close relationship with the Providence police.
During the reign of former Police Chief Urbano Prignano Jr., Autiello was a regular visitor to his office in police headquarters.
An energetic man, Autiello roamed around the offices of the department's administrative staff wearing a Providence police polo shirt.
The relationship changed in January, however, after Richard T. Sullivan replaced Prignano as chief.
Sullivan said that he has yet to meet with Autiello since he took command of the state's largest police force.
Sullivan emphasized that the Police Department does not have daily business contact with Four A's. He said city officials handle that.
But Sullivan said the department was happy with the repair work. And he said breaking a contract could cause more trouble than it is worth.
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