North Providence National Night Out controversy
By: News Staff
Email: news@abc6.com
Twitter: @ABC6
NORTH PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — More than 30 North Providence police officers were paid hundreds of dollars each to attend the town’s annual National Night Out event.
North Providence Mayor Charles Lombardi thought they were simply volunteering their time until the bill came across his desk.
For the past four years, North Providence has joined communities across the country by hosting an annual National Night Out event in August.
It is a chance for the town to give back to the community, but little did Mayor Lombardi know, the 30 officers who attended the event got paid to be there.
“This whole time we’ve been bragging, they’ve been bragging look at us we are giving back to the community and it cost us $6,100 in pay, overtime pay and comp time,” said Mayor Lombardi.
Some of that money was covered by a $4,600 grant for National Night Out. The rest is being picked up by taxpayers.
This is the first year the bill made it to the mayor’s desk.
He has now drafted out a letter asking every officer to donate the money back to the National Night Out fund.
“I was giving them credit that night for being there but I didn’t know we were getting paid,” said Mayor Lombardi.
Dennis Stone, President of the North Providence Police Union, was one of the officers at the event.
Stone sent ABC6 News a statement saying, “If the mayor didn’t want to pay officers or wanted to limit participation he should have talked to us before the event to explain this year would be handled differently, and we could have worked together on that. The mayor can continue his criticism.”
“That’s a joke, he’s fine as long as he keeps getting paid overtime and comp time,” responded Mayor Lombardi.
The mayor says officers will not be paid for future National Night Out events.
He says if officers do not want to come and volunteer their time like he did, they can stay home.
“How many of those officers would’ve came if they aren’t getting paid?," said the mayor.
As of today, he has not heard back from any of those 30 officers about if they will be donating that money back into the fund.
©WLNE-TV / ABC6 2017
