Our View: Flanagan is playing with fire

By Herald News Editorial Board
Posted Mar. 26, 2014

It’s sometimes difficult to discern fact from fiction when it comes to the information coming from Mayor Will Flanagan and his administration. The latest case in point: the city’s “surprise” deficit. The administration only this month revealed to the City Council that the city faced a $10 million deficit, necessitating the potential layoffs of firefighters Flanagan announced in February.

Come to find out the administration, way back in August, identified that projected budget gap to federal officials in justifying the need for additional funding in its 2013 SAFER grant application.

So what did the administration know and when did they know it? The story told in the SAFER grant application in August belies the rosy picture painted by the administration to the council and the public for nearly a year now. In June, former City Administrator Shawn Cadime and Treasurer John Nunes told the City Council that the city’s finances “had never been better,” City Council President Joseph Camara recalled Tuesday. In October, the administration reported to the council that the city’s bond rating had increased and it was solvent, recalled Councilor Michael Miozza, who requested the review of the 20013 grant application.

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