Woonsocket salaries cut by 5 percent

WOONSOCKET — So that the city can pay its bills without police and firefighter layoffs, the City Council has approved recommendations by Mayor Susan D. Menard to cut all city employee salaries by 5 percent, compel them to pay 15 percent of their health insurance costs and require residents who had been getting free trash pickup to pay $96 a year for it.

The seven-member council voted 6 to 1 Monday night to approve proposals that Menard has said aim to close a financial gap from an expected $3.6-million loss of nonschool aid from the state.

The moves add up to $2.4 million in savings. A proposed $1.2 million in short-term borrowing that had been part of Menard’s recommendations was not part of what the council approved last night, Councilman John F. Ward said.

Also in the council-approved plan is an expected $1 million in host fees — $500,000 in each of two years — that would come to the city by having someone privately run the sewer lines and pumps that go to the wastewater treatment plant, Ward said. The city currently manages them, but is soliciting bids.

The health insurance element of the plan also states that employees who have worked a certain number of years to make them eligible for retirement would contribute 10 percent to the cost of their health care, not the 15 percent other employees will have to pay.

The Journal reported in December that union leaders said officials had raised the potential of laying off up to a third of the city’s firefighters and police officers.

–– Michael P. McKinney

Providence supervisor suspended

PROVIDENCE — A supervisor in the city Sewer Division became the third Public Works employee suspended without pay following a departmental investigation prompted by a television news report.

Algot Abrahamson, superintendent of sewer construction and maintenance, was suspended on Monday, according to Karen Southern, Mayor David N. Cicilline’s spokeswoman. Abrahamson, who was hired in 2000, earned $68,484 a year once longevity was included.

A multipart investigation by Channel 12 (WPRI) looking into the city’s sewer division that aired last week followed Public Works Department employees for several months and found some using city trucks for personal errands beyond the city lines during the workday.

Following the airing of the first part of the news report, the mayor’s office confirmed that Anthony Greenwood, a foreman in the department, and Anthony Cipriano, a heavy equipment operator, were suspended without pay following a preliminary departmental investigation into the matter.

In one instance, TV news crews found city workers using city equipment to make repairs at Greenwood’s house at 42 Carter St., in Providence. In another instance, Cipriano was followed by TV crews as he did personal errands and traveled to a second job at a security company in a city-owned car.

Cicilline has asked the Police Department to conduct a criminal probe.

— Staff report