Mayor Elorza delivers State of the City address

February 9, 2016 10:00 pm

Resurgence was the overarching theme of Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza’s first State of the City address.

"The people of Providence are ready to see cranes in the sky and workers on the job. We are ready for our resurgence and that resurgence begins now,” said Elorza.

During his speech the Mayor pointed to the 30 plus construction projects worth nearly half a billion dollars in the works, his plans for the I-195 corridor, investments in education as well as initiatives to fix up the city’s abandoned properties.

"The tenor of the speech really reinforced what we need to do well as a city,” said City Council President Luis Aponte.

"I think there’s a lot of great ideas, some of my concerns.. where are we going to get certain money to make these dreams come true,” said Nicholas Narducci..

Mayor Elorza also briefly touched on the battle he’s had with firefighters since changing their platoon schedule.

In his speech he said the change will save $5 million a year. In speaking with the press after the address Elorza told reporters that money will be seen in fiscal year 2017.

Firefighters disagree with that claim.

"There is no savings. There was really a lack of due diligence done financially and this is just evidence of it. We can’t lie or twist what has happened this far in the fiscal year since he’s implemented it and it’s a fact that it’s cost more money and it will continue to cost more money,” said Providence Firefighter Union President Paul Doughty.

"It depends how you calculate it. If you are taking out one time expenses then there are savings if we are counting those as what we are doing then there haven’t been savings,” said Elorza. “That’s part of the back and forth but my focus is sitting down at the negotiating table."

Unlike the Governor’s State of the State address the budget was not a part of Tuesday night’s speech. It’s expected to be unveiled in late April.