PROVIDENCE / 3:12 p.m. -- Mayor-elect David N. Cicilline will turn to a
private financial advisory firm for help in solving the city's budget
problems, including an anticipated $30-million deficit and a nearly
$500-million unfunded pension liability.
Cicilline announced today that he has hired Public Financial Management
of Philadelphia, Pa., to create and implement a five-year strategic
financial plan. Public
Financial Management is a 26-year-old firm, that has helped cities
such as Washington, Philadelphia, New Haven and Miami address their
fiscal woes, according to Cicilline.
Cicilline, who will take office this Monday, called the arrangement a
"unique partnership of the public and private sector."
Public Financial Management will provide the city with an acting chief
of administration, responsible for finance and budget, information
technology and human resources, through July 2003. John Simmons, a
principal with Public's consulting group, will serve as acting chief of
administration. Simmons, a former Providence resident, will also help
prepare his successor to take over the job.
The firm will also provide a consulting team that will help develop next
year's budget and examine the city's projected general fund for the next
five years, identifying potential shortfalls and making recommendations
on ways to contain costs, generate more revenue and invest.
The five-year plan will include a review of the city's principal
operating departments: police, fire, public works and finance. The firm
should complete its work within six months.
"The city's financial picture is serious enough to demand hiring the
best talent available to develop a strategic financial plan for this
city," Cicilline said. "It is not enough to know we have a problem. We
have to have the expertise to identify the full extent of that problem,
create a plan of action to cope with it, and then immediately take steps
to reduce costs, capture lost revenue and improve the way in which we do
city business."
Public Financial Management's services will cost $300,000. Nearly
$200,000 of that has been pledged by such business groups as the Rhode
Island Foundation, the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, the HELP
Coalition and Narragansett Electric, according to Cicilline.
Cicilline noted that Public Financial Management helped Washington,
D.C., transform a $335-million deficit in 1994 to a $186-million surplus
in three years. He also said the group had helped Philadelphia to
realize $285 million in operating savings, New Haven to uncover $36
million in savings and Miami to move from a projected $68 million
deficit to a surplus of $1.8 million.
Ciccilline said, "We expect the results in Providence to be as
significant."
Tomorrow, Acting Mayor John J. Lombardi is expected unveil findings of a
task force that has been studying financial and management issues facing
the city.
-- With reports from the Associated Press
.
