Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline announces yesterday that he has fired Tax Collector Robert P. Ceprano and is taking steps to make the process of dealing with tax complaints more transparent. The Providence Journal Kris Craig

PROVIDENCE — Mayor David N. Cicilline fired city Tax Collector Robert P. Ceprano yesterday, and announced a series of changes in the way the city collects taxes to make the procedure for disputing tax bills clearer to the public.

“The problems of that office are fixed as of today. It will receive new leadership, new policies, additional transparency and additional avenues for appeal,” Cicilline said at a news conference in his City Hall office. “Ultimately, I take responsibility for all that happened on my watch … But I am disappointed with the management and leadership of that office.”

The steps spelled out yesterday are the product of nearly five months of public scrutiny over an unorthodox arrangement for the payment of delinquent taxes that was negotiated between city officials and the mayor’s older brother, John M. Cicilline, a now disbarred lawyer serving time in federal prison on unrelated charges.

According to the mayor, the major changes in the tax collection office include the creation of an “open government” Web site, www.providencesunshine.com, where the city will post all instances where it grants a waiver of interest on overdue taxes or unpaid taxes and explain the reasons for the change. The site was launched yesterday, but no tax information is yet available.

The mayor also proposed an ordinance that would empower the Board of Tax Assessment Review to serve as an independent body of appeals for tax collections. The board currently considers appeals submitted to the tax assessor’s office by taxpayers wishing to appeal real estate valuations.

Finally, Cicilline said he would take steps to automate the tax collection process, increase that office’s security, limit access to tax money collected by the office and set clearer guidelines for late payment of tax bills. Those measures, and many others, were proposed in an independent audit of the tax collection office that was released last week.

“What this audit makes clear is that big changes are necessary,” Cicilline said. “The audit depicts an office where a single individual exercised extraordinary personal discretion with almost nothing in the way of real professional guidelines, policies or procedures.”

Ceprano, city tax collector since 2000, had been on paid administrative leave since September, when The Journal first reported that his office had accepted a bad check for $75,000 from John Cicilline to clear real estate liens placed on the West End property of one of Cicilline’s clients back in 2006.

The state police have said they, too, are investigating.

Ceprano’s lawyer, Artin H. Coloian, called his client’s firing “a terrible injustice” and said a lawsuit against the city, under the state Whistleblowers’ Protection Act, is possible.

“The only person looking out for the taxpayers is the one who gets fired, while the mayors’ cronies –– who were ultimately culpable –– get away unscathed,” said Coloian.

City Councilman Luis A. Aponte called the mayor’s announced changes “political sleights of hand.”

“He’s trying to redirect the public conversation to issues of reform where they might not be necessary. He’s engaging in borderline character assassination of a well-regarded member of this community,” he said of Ceprano.

Cicilline has said that Finance Director Bruce Miller had determined that Ceprano should be replaced well before the bad check came to light. “That job requires that a person have good judgment and the proper exercise of discretion,” said Cicilline of the tax collector’s role.

Still, the mayor hired KPMG, an independent auditing firm, to look into what happened with the check his brother gave the city.

Cicilline said the report clearly showed that his brother had made “errors in judgment.” He said yesterday that he frequently cautioned him not to represent clients in their dealings with city, for fear of showing any hint of impropriety in his administration. He consistently ignored those pleas, the mayor said.

“My brother should never have been involved in a case with the city in the first place,” he said.

KPMG’s audit also looked into four cases in which Ceprano said he was pressured by the mayor’s aides and his supervisors to perform tax favors for Cicilline’s friends and campaign contributors.

Cicilline maintains that there were valid reasons for the tax adjustments made in those cases.

Among the people mentioned were Cicilline friends Arthur Robbins and David Corsetti, acquaintance Craig Baker, and city businessman Edward Marandola, whom Cicilline has said he is not acquainted with, but who had been in talks with the city regarding a potential real estate development. “If you look at the list of the several thousand people who have received tax adjustments, you will see some people who are campaign contributors, some people who are not,” he said. “But most are people that I don’t know. The fact that you are a supporter does not disqualify you from redress from the city.”

Tax-related issues, added Cicilline, constitute the most frequent complaints the city receives from residents.

Despite calls from City Council members for the sanction or termination of other City Hall employees for actions spelled out in the audit report, Cicilline said yesterday that the only major personnel change would be the firing of Ceprano.

Norman Richter, the vice president for taxes at Textron, will chair a search committee to find Ceprano’s successor. Deputy Finance Director Matthew Clarkin will continue to serve as acting tax collector.

The mayor said that Ceprano was notified yesterday of this firing, but Ceprano’s lawyer said late yesterday afternoon that he had not heard anything from the city.

Ceprano, who was hired during the administration of Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. and was previously a criminal investigator for the Internal Revenue Service, earned about $91,000 a year, once years of service, or longevity, is factored.

Ceprano, 63, had 38.5 vacation days remaining when he was placed on leave, which means he will receive a severance package of $13,253.

––With staff reports from Mike Stanton

pmarcelo@projo.com