BAUER

WEST WARWICK — The Town Council has fired Town Manager Wolfgang Bauer for alleged “gross mismanagement” of funds related to a Pawtuxet River improvement project.

Bauer admittedly overspent by $802,000 the amount of money allocated to the Pawtuxet River Walk project, writing checks to contractors without first verifying that there was enough money in the project budget to cover the costs or allowing the town’s finance director to review the expenses.

After Bauer notified the council last week of the over-expenditures, it unanimously voted Saturday to terminate the veteran manager, effective immediately. Early last month, Bauer, 64, announced he planned to retire next year.

In a news conference yesterday, council members called for a town-conducted forensic audit and a full accounting of fiscal transactions related to the River Walk project.

Bauer, they said, faces no accusations of criminal wrongdoing.

“The bottom line is, you can’t spend what you don’t have. The town manager was writing and signing checks without money in the checking account and that’s not being responsible to the citizens and the taxpayers of West Warwick,” said council President Edward A. Giroux, who gathered with his fellow council members at Town Hall to discuss the dismissal.

Even more disturbing, Giroux said, was that Bauer told Finance Director Malcolm Moore to stay out of the expenditures process, thus breaking “the system of checks and balances.”

Council members said yesterday they still don’t understand how the project was allowed to run so deep into the red, why they were never alerted to the deficit, and why Moore apparently stepped to one side.

“That’s the $802,000 question,” Giroux said.

Asked by the council at Saturday’s meeting to explain the shortfall, Bauer accepted responsibility, according to council members. “I missed it,” he reportedly said of the shortfall.

Contacted for comment last night through Giroux, Bauer declined to speak to a reporter.

The financial problems appear to have begun earlier this year, when construction started on the first phase of the River Walk — a walkway that winds along the Pawtuxet River from the town’s new youth drop-in center to the recently rehabilitated Royal Mills dam overlook.

Phase I of the project was financed with $3.2 million from a statewide bond issue and some additional grants from state and federal sources.

With construction under way, Bauer reportedly began writing at least 20 checks to pay contractors, including $1.6 million to the Royal Mills developer Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse and $1.6 million to Jacavone Construction Corporation, ultimately spending more than $4 million — $802,622.13 more than was allocated — without ever reconciling his expenditures with the fund balance.

Council members last night said it was not immediately clear if the vendors had overcharged the town beyond negotiated contracts, or why it was that Bauer and other Town Hall officials didn’t notice the discrepancies.

To cover the overages, council members said, the town will have to dig deep into its general operating fund, possibly at the expense of other city projects. Town Solicitor Timothy Williamson, who will help conduct the internal audit, said it will take time to work out a solution. (Williamson is also a state representative.)

Phase I of the River Walk was completed and opened in August, but the rest of the 1.3-mile walkway — now in the design phase — has been frozen until officials straighten out the financing, Williamson said.

With Bauer’s departure, Town Clerk David D. Clayton will take over as interim manager, a job he has held several times in transition periods over the years.

A formal search for Bauer’s replacement will begin in the coming weeks, the council said.

Less than a month ago, the same Town Council accepted Bauer’s resignation, effective next year, after nine years as town manager. His retirement date would fall in August of next year, but Bauer told the Journal that with accrued sick and vacation time, he could leave as early as February.

Williamson yesterday refused to discuss the terms of Bauer’s departure, including the fate of that accrued time, saying it was a personnel matter and therefore confidential.

In the days follow the devastating Station nightclub fire, in 2003, Bauer was the town’s primary spokesman. During his tenure, he also made headlines for his hand in rehabilitating the long-defunct Royal Mills and developing the accompanying River Walk, a project he’d cheered as central to the revival of the former mill town.

Said Giroux yesterday: “We have made a difficult but necessary decision, and we’ll endeavor to restore trust and accountability to this project as we move forward.”

cneedham@projo.com