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thanks hal, I voted for avedisian because he represented the only real choice - and - much of this stuff wasnt revealed as bad as it really was and is. even then, IF we had known, who was our better choice among those who ran? scott avedisian whatever anyone may say, tended to keep his cool (publicly), and look like "everybody's boy scout" who got along well with everybody. that, and to a lesser extent the lack of serious competition, was good enough for an almost landslide amount of support that he had.

so while cushman, cote, and a few others were for years predicting the fiscal cliff we have now apparently reached, not enough voters cared about that - because the tax increases werent that big, and for the few who dont sleepwalk into the voting booth (and can even actually name their ward councilman), there wasnt much choice anyway.

and another issue here is labor costs. the teachers may rate high on the scale, but not by much. they compare in the average range for RI and for states with similar cost of living. same for police and other warwick employees. so what were they to do, have a labor battle every contract as these units are forced to fight for their compensation? I've not seen an argument for lower pay rates in warwick that makes any sense.

so that leaves some areas where we actually CAN make some modest improvement - efficiencies, opeb reform, and one other I just forgot (we already consolidated some schools). so the relief from this crisis will come from tax increases (some from growth) , moderated by efficiencies and opeb reform.

I'd like to see those discussed here.

As to the FBI stuff that cote is doing, hopefully the outcomes whatever they are will prevent a loss of confidence by the voters otherwise we'll have political instability on top of fiscal instability - not fun.