thank you all very much for coming. you left an awful lot out of the introduction, i will tell you. okay, thank you. i've been introduced many different ways but if you think about introductions i remember being introduced one time -- i used to be mayor and then i stopped being mayor, and then i became mayor again. i i'm a bit euphemistic about all of that and than what happens in 1998 that reelected and i will never forget before that and are before the inauguration but after the election, i was invited to go to a dinner at think at the biltmore hotel. a lot of people were there and i will never forget walking in and the person at the podium was excited to see me there. he got on the microphone and he said, oh ladies and gentlemen i want everyone to welcome the two timing mayor of the city of providence. [laughter] i remember that one. i remember another time, another

time when i was mayor and i got a call from the white house. it was 1981 right after president reagan had one, and the call was about mr. william casey, bill casey was the head of the cia and they said he was coming to brown university and they wanted to know if i could pick him up at the airport. with the dean from brown, and if i could escort him through the city to do his speaking in and then driving back to the airport. so i said yeah mike i would do that. i knew who he was but i had never met him before, so i dutifully got in the car. we still have those big, long undertaking cars, you know those big long once? they look like they were from manmohan's funeral home. i picked up and dutifully went to the airport. we put the car on the tarmac and we did that at about 10 minutes later the key plane came in and it was a white thing with no numbers on it, typical cia. the plane landed and speaking

about introductions, the gate came down and the steps came down and this guy had just had a skiing accident. was bill casey and he was on a crutch and he came down the stairs slowly. he got off the tarmac and he looked at me and he said, who were you? [laughter] and i said, and you are supposed to be the head of the cia. [laughter] so, another time in 1980, i was running for governor. was the only election iver los. i had a birthday party at my house. it was a fund-raiser and henry kissinger was in town. and so we made arrangements for him to come to the birthday party. he came and i was honored to have the secretary of state of my home on blackstone blvd.. boulevard. so he came in and i introduced him. he had a couple hundred people. we attend in the backyard all that, so i said ladies and gentlemen i'm honored to introduce a great peacemaker

unless of course you are in a north vietnamese prison. i would like to introduce you to a great peacemaker, a great academician, the whole thing and i kept going on with these accolades and then he got up to the microphone and he said in his own voice, no one could imitate him. he said mayor i don't know why you have stopped. you were just getting in stride. [laughter] and then there were some other embarrassing introductions. used to share, whoever the governors and i've been through been through a few of those, we would alternate the welcoming to the city of different conventions, and i will never forget when i was far back as 78 or 79, it was about 910 to 38 night, probably my last stop at the marriott hotel. weiss to have a small conventions that would come into town like the basket weavers from idaho, anybody we could get to come in. they did not play was the part of the deal was and one of the

reasons we had to throw it in. will never forget i walked into the marriott, one of the smalle. i walked in and they had a head table up on a riser and i walked in. the pit that was all set with all types of candelabra and wind and when i put my foot upon up on the riser where they table was the whole head table fell right down on the floor in front of me with all the dishes and food and everything. so i went up to the microphone and i said, ladies -- like they were from idaho or someplace. someplace. i said ladies and gentlemen that mayor asked me to tell you he will be 15 minutes late. [laughter] those are some of the funny things that happened to me when i was mayor and then the not so funny things happened. but i remember when i first got elected back in 1974, it was a democratic binary. i was a republican, and that was

not a good word in those days and probably some people don't think it is a good workout that i was a republican in those days and eventually change parties. that there was a fight going on and i decided to run for office, and i did and i won. and there was -- before that i was a prosecutor. i was an assistant attorney general and be prosecuted raymond patriarca and that whole crowd that was running a lot of criminal activity in the city at that time. but i used to run the wiretaps for the state police. that was a lot of fun and judge weisberger was the presiding judge in those days. i remember had to go every so often to secure the tapes and we would have to go to the trust bank. we had to -- we had two keys in a safety deposit box and we put the tapes in there. wasted like to listen to the tapes. tape. it gave me a flavor of one of them.

we were doing up it but making operation and there were two girlfriends of two bookmakers around the barn and they were talking and the wires were tapping them. one says, you know my boyfriend says these wires might be tap. they may be listening to us on the other one says my preferences don't worry about it because i know exactly what to do if they are listening. what's that? she said my boyfriend said when they come to see me i'm supposed to tell them i'm taking the fifth commandment. [laughter] which i thought was kind of humorous. then, you know, i look at my mayoral pieces three different types. there were three different ones. the first time i was mayor it is kind of like eating a social worker. we all know the story of the american city. the roads rebuilt and veterans came home and the federal government picked up every mortgage and who was left in the cities but the elderly and increasing number of minorities.

the downtown was in tough shape so we wanted to rebuild it and we used all kinds of economic tools but first in those days we were going through voluntary desegregation. i don't remember -- know if your member that are not that was tough and also what was tough was the fact of that the city was dead. you could take a bowling ball and throw down westminster street street and he wouldn't hear a sole. the bible society moved out of town. that is tough when i want to sell their bible somewhere else. the first day that i was in office i will never forget getting a call from the fox department saying that the monkeys had escaped from the zoo. there were monkeys running around the eighth ward. they said what he do in the monkeys escape? they never taught me that in mayor school, have no idea so you do what you normally do. and then of course we built a whole network of social service delivery systems with all these different community centers that we have built, whether it was

the da vinci center or federal hill and we went to deliver services and then on top of that we also thought that all so the next mayoral duty was being a risk-taker. risktakers were, we decided to invest a lot of money in the infrastructure of tearing those railroad tracks down. that was not original with me. they talk about tearing those railroad tracks down for years. i'm talking about a lot of years we tried to have the fortitude and get the political will by everybody concerned to get it done and we did and we went to tear those tracks down. we realize the waterways for transportation and if we could relocate the three rivers, the providence and the mush as it. my friend who was governor at the time but became governor later and whom he became governor we did dedicate water plays part. he thought the majestic were closed credit unions.

[laughter] and so we did that and we were kind of risktakers and then the third part of my mayoral was being entrepreneurial. we decided that we would invest in the mall and the whole thing that but we use things like historic preservation as relic atomic -- economic tools and we use the arts community is a real tool also because we created the first arts district in america that really truly wasn't arts district because artists don't have to pay taxes that they live in that district. they don't pay taxes on income and they don't pay taxes on anything that create. that was replicated all over the country later. those are the kinds of things we tried to do, skating rinks but mostly the challenge was trying to bridge the gap between being a mayor for everybody. i will never forget the very first appointment i had as mayor was you know the mayor of

providence is a pretty nice place. it has a dining room. it has high ceilings. it has a fireplace. it has oriental rugs. a gorgeous place and even better after restored we started. the fact was -- for me to lay something 1974, if i knew what it was really like to be mayor and at that time i probably would not have voted for it myself because i didn't know enough to be mayor. i was a prosecutor but i took on all these wonderful promises and i was going to be the most transparent, open mayor you could possibly find. in this great office and the first appointment was i thought it was going to meet some you know, philosopher for some great urban planner and my first appointment with a guy named off their roster. those of you who may not be familiar with overlay, there is no water there. there is no yacht club. it is a tenement district more or less, it and so he walks in

and 1975 this was. he walked in the office, his beautiful office and he sat down and i knew he was there. i was naïve but not that naive to not know he was coming there to get something. he sat down on the chair and he said can i help you? i said, yes you did. following him in office was a little guy, a dwarfdwarf, emitted. he was about that they can he climbed up on the chair folded his knees under him and i said yes, what can i do for you? he said well i helped you. i said yes he did. without me you would not have carried the seventh ward. i said probably not. and he said, see him. barely, in those days you could do that because there was no such thing as political correctness. in those days political correctness was taking care of the people who helped you. that was political correctness. [laughter] so he said, see him? i said rarely. is going to make a buck and a half a week. that was a lot of money in those days. so i said, to do what?

i don't know, make him a -- on my desk. i gave him a job and fast-forward the tape 25 years. 25 years later are sitting in the same office and never expecting to be there and the little person now by this time had become a little person, comes into the office and climbs up on the same chair and pulls his legs and he says to me, they are really screwing the mayor. i said who is? he said the retirement board. he said i want my attention. you are entitled to one. you you have been there 25 years. i know i'm getting attention. i want my disability pension. i said ave, that is why we hired you because you are disabled. why are you expecting a disability pension when he didn't get disabled on the job at that is the mentality of everybody who works in the city. [laughter] so i don't know if he ever got it. i don't think he got it but anyway as time went on, we have a lot of fun.

political parties by my definition are nothing more than a group of people organized for one purpose, to take over the government by non-violent means. that is a political party. and i didn't have the support of the city council when i first ran, but i had enough from vito and what they wanted to do so i try to use all the methods i had to try to go above that, go above the fray and that is why they said go to the -- i attended mark anthony could possibly imagine to gain public support because we had to get things passed like money for the relocation of the rivers and redoing the zoo and the casino and a park and all that. and then there was the wonderful gambling we had in the city. i don't know if you remember this or not. there was a guy who called my office one day. he was a lawyer.

he representative one client, one client and that was at the time. he came in and he said i am interested in someone in the gaming community. mr. stephen wynn. i don't know who is stephen wynn? he is well-known in the gamma community. i said really? and so he said he would like to meet with you so i said well i will have to check them out. who can i call to check them out? can i call the bishop? how about the president of brown university? call him. so i called them and they said a wonderful man, philanthropists and the whole thing. so i met with him and he flew in one of those big things. he came to my house and we had dinner and looked pretty good. this guy owned the mirage hotel and all the stuff. as it turned out we got along and i said to him when he money and i don't know if i am for gambling or gets it. why what i would do a pull. i'll pay for it and you pick the

pollster. that is exactly what happened. so the poll came pole came back not that. there were people that said okay, maybe buyers maintained they would get in the gambling business in the state when it lost money and that is probably what we are doing now. but anyway, so anyway we had the pulled done and it looked looks good and is it turned out, he can back a second time and the people who ran the highlight for the place out of newport spotted us and the next thing you know was in the providence journal and the mayor is for gambling and not for gambling and as it turned out i ended up be doing gambling. before he did i have to tell you great story. i went down to see the native americans and made an appoint to see the tribal council. i said we can't let this opportunity go by. and so i met with them, the 11 members of the tribal council and they said you know, if we build a casino in the city of providence, you know we are going to take a -- you guys are

doing $800 billion a year that point. i said if we make mistakes we will take three or $400 million from you. i said said what you pay us not to build a casino and they looked around and they looked at me and they said how much? i said well, 50 million bucks a year is a good investment for you to keep the casino. $1 million a week which we could. they said how long will they not have gambling in providence? i said take a million bucks and put it on one of those ponies and every friday since one of those ponies to city hall and we will be fine. they voted 6-5 not to do it. imagine if they had voted the other way we would have had $52 million a year all those years. anyway without building a casino. it was not in the press for a while and then it was on imus one day, you know, the radio show? one of the reporters from the journal picked up on a cut to be a celebrated kind of thing. it was fun trying to do that. we almost did it and then of course there were other interesting stories that came about in the city concerning the performing arts center.

i tried to be big supporter for the arts community that i will never forget the 1977, maybe 76 i got a call from some business people in the city who said do you know mr. ario? i had never met him. his real name was darío bocci out candy on the ocean state theatre at the time. they said he wants to tear the place down. so i said that would be terrible. he said you know him? i said i don't know him. they said could you call him and make an employment in convince them not to tear down? i said why do you think i can do that? he said because you are italian. [laughter] i said that is real sensitive. so i did call him and made an appointment and i went to see him at his house in lincoln. i will never forget going up in that big car and when i got out of the car these two german shepherds came lunging at me. i got back in the car and i said to the cop, why do you ring the doorbell? he said what are you, nuts?

[laughter] so he finally came out and put the dogs down and they were healing. so i went in the house. he invited the dogs into the house. so we started talking and that we went out to dinner. i gave him the soliloquy of why he should not of torn it down. he said mayor t. want to be to me a favor? give me a demolition permit. i said you wouldn't tear the theater down. he looked at me and he said have you ever heard of the arpaio albie? i tour tore that went down. i said you mean business so i can attempt to come to my office on monday that his lawyer was lenny dee cough who has since passed away. i said we can put darío in the same room with bill miller and these people because they hated each other. so he said, okay so we went over and negotiated the deal and the city ended up putting a lot of money that still we didn't know we were going to do that much. within agreed that dara was sitting in my office. finally they said yes. and then, darius said to me

after we agreed on the price in the deal that would be done, darío said what about my other $40,000 in broken english. i said what $40,000? he said they promised me a thousand dollars to negotiate. it's been 40 days. so i picked up the phone and called miller. i never heard miller swear my life except that day. i said forget about it. forget i even call. the deal is off. i will handle it. so i said to darío, -- that is why can't trust them to get the deal, the whole thing. so i said what if i can give you some of the? i will give you $20,000. he said how can you do that? i said i want make you the city consultant on the arts. i wanted to hire a racetrack owner to be at city consultant on the arts. he said you can do that? make it 25. i said okay, 25 so that is one of the reasons we got the

performing arts theater there today. those are some stories that happened the you've probably never read about in the providence journal or anyplace else. the other great thing, funny things that happened was when we did the mall, the providence place mall. we relocated riffs and we need to to be entrepreneurial. golfing about the mall depend on whether not we got nordstrom's to be an anchor tenant there. they were a class a number one retailer in the country and all that stuff. the guy who owned it to us at the time the developer and eventually sold his interest, but the guy who wanted this to be very much involved with him was a guy named con show. he owned a lot of malls around the country. we had to go, myself and the governor, we had to go to seattle washington to meet with the nordstrom family. we walked into a four seasons hotel i think it was and we register and this desk clerk says governor, mayor cianci.

someone thought he was menachem begin, world figure, that they knew him. [laughter] and the guy went back to get a room keys and i said bruce don't get all stressed. the kid probably went to johnson and wales. [laughter] so the kid came back and i so by the way and where did you go to school? he said johnson and wales. [laughter] the next morning we end up going to meet with the nordstrom family in their offices, and we are sitting there in the governor goes first and he says, you know you must have heard we have some budget problem. he said don't worry we will be able to straighten that out. i'm going to broaden the tax base on the sales tax. we want to start taxing clothes, shoes. that is all nordstrom sells our clothes and shoes, right? [laughter] so the nordstrom's had their head tilted like a st. bernard. so why i kicked him under the table and i stop them and i said, does our governor have a wonderful sense of humor?

he knows how to get your attention. [laughter] we ended up coming -- we ended up coming back and then we had to go see -- we had to meet with the developer at his headquarters. so, we went up to his headquarters and it was independence day. not the fourth of july, may 1. and we flew up there and we went to this guy nordstrom. he had an office that was the mall post office. yet plenty him windows and he pressed buttons and shades can demonstrate came down to show us how rich he was. we were putting money in and he put money in. we had to make sure we were doing the due diligence thing. the sky shows us his tremendous operation and meanwhile during the meeting there a couple of kids coming in and out. bear 25 or 26 years old, 20 years old and they are apparently the developers kids. so the presentation stops and someone says -- i have to ask a

question so he says you know, you are going to have a wonderful operation. you are like a one-man show here though. i see you have a lot of people working for you but you are the boss, your one person one-person it all depends on you. i see you have got a couple of kids coming in and out and i have kids of my own only at that time bruce did know how many he really had at that point. [laughter] so he says, i've got kids of my own. i know how that works. so he looks at him and he says what happens if you die? and this guy without skipping a beat looks and he says governor, we practice dying here once a month. [laughter] then he asked me, any questions bear? i said yeah, like your daughter. daughter. how do i meet her and take her to lunch? anyway we ended up getting nordstrom's and the rest is history. has been a great project for the

city of providence. the other things i guess i could talk about is the other things you've read about in the book is the garbage. back in 1981 i guess. i guess i had -- the city had some fiscal problems then and so we had to reduce expenditures. one of the ways we could reduce expenditures was by cutting -- the rule is if you are going to raise taxes you had better cut by twice as much as the new revenue you are going to get. if you are going to raise taxes you had better cut to books out of the budget. that is what we tried to do, and when we did that, they required us to get rid of a person on the garbage truck. here's the point. they had four men on a garbage truck. you can put two men in a spaceship and send it to the moon. why the need for men on a garbage truck? we reduce it down to three and they started throwing garbage all over the place. after three or four days i went down to the public works department and fire them all. i people take richards of them throwing the garbage.

he was on the review board and so he couldn't be for them. what happened was they finally said give us their jobs back and we will clean it up, and i did. i put them on probation. then i went to the sewer treatment plant where they had a six-day guaranteed overtime. those guys went on strike and the other guys in the garbage department joined their brothers and sisters so i do fire them and i fired them and we had a private company command but we did it put a fourth man on the garbage truck. was a cop with a shotgun keith t. keep them away. that lasted for a good long period of time but i became an expert. this was before they had traffic comptrollers and for some crazy reason all they did was fire some garbagemen and get a private company. i got inflated to windsor canceled -- capsule. i didn't know anything about privatization. i just fired some garbagemen. [laughter] so i went there and i ended up spending the weekend i stated st. george's chapel and it was

great. and then came back of course and i had to run for re-election. i had to go get the union endorsement. [laughter] and i did end up getting it and i got it because of -- interesting. i walked into -- i walked into the union meeting their, if they crowd the. i got a polite applause but i knew they wouldn't endorse me. what happened was i was coming out of the meeting and that morning -- the longest strike ever and i had this sense of policemen down to get -- move tickets away from the bank. a lot of the same members of the board of directors run were on the same board. they were interlocking directorate so the union is trying to get people to take money out of hospital trust bank. i had to send the horses there. lots of courses.

they always said the horses. then he used gas. they don't talk back to you. and so i told the lawyer, you know what? you guys are crazy trying to get people not to put money in the bank. that is not how to do it. i said it if you are going to stop someone from putting 100 bucks in the bank, if you want to room moved some real money, you guys go to a meeting thursday night in you have 3 million bucks you can move. that is the way they administer the pension system. i said i will go bowling that might. so they came back and said do you know what? we are going to thursday night you don't go to the meeting, we are going to endorse you friday morning. i said it doesn't work like that. you endorse me tonight. so they did. the journal could never figure out why i got endorse. that is why, because they moved the money around, the pension

money. we didn't like the bank anyway because they weren't giving were giving us a great return so we move someplace else. we were going to move anyway to be honest. anyway the book takes me on a journey from providence to a lot of interesting places. the next part of the book talks about what happened during plumber dome -- plunder dome. a lot of it has to do with the redevelopment of the city. i got indicted on i think 27 charges and was found guilty of one which was conspiracy to commit rico and i was done not guilty of the reach of. but anyway, i took an appeal and there was a great dissenting of opinion but dissenting the cases don't decide cases. i will always maintain my business. i never took a dime from any developer or anything like that.

they got caught up in the whole situation by the way in politics today in the city of providence and the state of rhode island in the city of philadelphia, when you have six, eight, 9000 people working for you if you will find people who are doing things and you are not going to ever stop that because it's human nature. and i can tell you that when i went to prison i had a lot of funny stories there to. anticipating going to prison is the big thing. getting there is bad too but you buy the time do you. you can't keep saying tiers of what am i going to do? what would i be doing if i were out? you can't think that way and have to think positively and live in that environment in which you are living within the space that you have. if you are older you get along better in person than if you were younger and in addition to that i used to love to -- i worked in the kitchen when i was there the first six months because i was very visible and i was a high-profile guy and they wanted to make sure i was doing work so everybody could see. in the kitchen everybody is so

they saw me doing pots and pans and things which was kind of like a change in life, let me tell you. some of it was pleasant. i read four books when i was in prison and i worked in the library the last four years i was there. i can tell you that there were a lot of funny stories to me. there a lot of people who belong in prison who were there but a lot of people that don't belong there and a lot of people who should there -- might be there a lot longer than what they were sentenced to. in prison if you watch television as an example you don't watch television by turning the volume up and listening to it. everybody is a radio and he put it on the frequency that is on the television. they have earphones. you can tell how long the guy has been there by how big is earphones are. if he has little influence he has not saved enough money in his account to buy the big earphones. ..

>> running this city, i have

to tell you, some nice stories about president ford in the book who might not friendly with when i won the election of 74 and asking me to run for the u.s. senate dry wanted but i decided not to and john chafee ran and this is above that. and chafee in those days not the one that we know and love today who lost the governorship and the misfortune to be the secretary of the navy when they closed the basis. at that time i was man of the year with the control of the republican party. i could have controlled very easily. after the 1980 election, there is a funny story. going to meet ronald reagan

the fellow who took me to meet him was john sears. that campaign by after they lost the speed dukakis's. they were on the wilshire boulevard he was sitting with his arms and its share he was a conservative and i wasn't and he said what you see is what you get. then i said to john, what happens if he loses? >> and then you can get this. a like the ambassadorship so i lost the election i went down in january to see him. i walked into his office director political operation is in the right place.

you do not go to those meetings without an agenda so he said to me why you want to be an ambassador? i looked at him and said because i want to learn a second language. [laughter] so she said go upstairs to one lady who was well-dressed and pulled the map down everything that is green is available read is not available and yellow is taken. costa rica sounds good. so i went down and went down to the dominican republic there is already a part in the book and that is when i left. i never thought i would win the next election but i did. that was 1982.

and wrote the book i think you may find fascinating it is not an autobiography i was born on this day but i talk a little bit of my young life and about being in the army and the attorney general department and a little bit about brown university. and running for office if you're not provident he would probably like it even more. you would see the characters reintroduced to whom you thought never existed. people say what is the best thing you ever did? i say building skating rinks are going to this issue where the rivers? none of those things. the self-esteem province was very low.

time bringing the city up to levels they never thought they could achieve. back at 2003, 2001, they felt the city had come alive with the art. we have great restaurants and the city supported them. if you go to bills have turned lowered the cafe or all of those places, the last person a banker wants to see is a restaurant owner. we set up a program loading a 1% to zero% because they occupied buildings and they pay real-estate taxes we got part of the sales tax eventually and people got jobs. if you do not get off the ball the five things you better do too be a mere. number one is the city has to be safe. people have to feel safe you have to have a good school

system. i don't think we have achieved that yet but it is getting better i hope. but also provide an affordable house and you have to have a job and the fifth thing is great recreational and cultural opportunities so people truly love the city. anybody remember if adrianne hall? i need $1 million until monday. [laughter] >> what four? the fourth foundation gave me $1 million and i spent i was not supposed to. i was supposed to build the endowment with it. can i borrow the money? i said no. we will not go to a nice place but he was always in trouble financially as a matter of fact, i will tell

you one of the things you enjoy it is because the old senate the bank of america that was built that was an interesting story. nortek a man to build a big corporation and i tried to peddle and said no. i want to build a big building next to the biltmore hotel. on the land. we made a deal that we lease the land $5,000 selling case ever want to expand the hotel. i called bill ledbetter and said will you be using that land? you have a hotel for a few years ago now be will not expand. really?

i think nortek wasn't like it so i set up a meeting but they never showed up. i said why did you show up? >> we have the moral obligation to sell it to our law firm. >> you're not the redevelopment agency for the city. when that didn't happen i was looking at the parking lot fleet bank always wanted to build a building so we married together those three people but we ended up getting the grant. those were the days of the urban development action grant. that is when the government would spend a lot of money. that meant we could get the money as a grant not get it back but loaned the money out. the building could be built but what stopped it was the fact they needed to build a

garage. that was built by the money we got from washington that we kept that we loaned to the conglomerate that built the building. interest rates were 15 or 18%. we load it to them zero interest for a couple of years then they eventually paid it back it had to be washed through the economy twice before we could take it. it was loaned out to cooks in america and then when i came back into office. i said they should not have this money. you need to refinance some warehouse. i was going to put it back into the budget but then trinity said we will replenished the endowment with that money. that is how it got the money

the building of the building at fleet center. that is how that happened. there are so many other things that happened with the financing. you take all the money get from taxes to a bond or borrowing money so you could fix a certain area. where the boardwalk is that was done incremental finance as was the problems placed small probably been printing in the city. when we put a million dollars into the performing arts center i said if you call this the ocean state theater has nothing to do with that so the last three or $400,000 said you have to change the name of the theater before you get any more money. i said anything with providence and it said providence performing arts center. they change the name of the

theater they have to give the money back. you'll never see that name change. [laughter] and so all of those branded items and said you have to call a providence ballet. i believe in that part of a hockey team was brought here with the boston bruins. they said the providence bruins. they said no. they wanted to call it some crap. [laughter] and i said we will not do that. the 94 it was 5:00 that night we signed a deal because we were going to cancel the press conference

but we ended up bringing that up their lucky that nhl went on strike the next year and we felt the place the only place you could get hockey was with us. that happened while i was a mere. the other thing that i could talk about his other funny things that happen but i anderson and i am supposed to take questions. people may ask what is the best quality? i have done this every night the past week lowered to. the book has been doing pretty well by the way but i like to end the story by saying what did you read when you were in prison? >> a lot about winston churchill because that is a lot of perseverance. i always say i like to keep

going and persevering and you have to look ahead and not get your shoes all the time. the windshield is bigger than the rearview mirror. winston churchill once said that after world war ii i guess an oxford they give the big speech about world war ii he walked in the hall and set on a platform and they introduced him with thunderous applause to give a speech on how we won world war ii. he took off his hat and put his cigar in his mouth and said never never never give up. he put on his had to see umbrella and sat down to a great deal of applause. that is winston churchill. i try to live like that.

thank you very much. i hope you enjoy the book. [applause] does anybody want to ask a question. i am understand that is part of the rucci. [laughter] >> i am here because we moved here from california one year-ago we love providence but we are going to move because of the schools. it is sad. we love living here. >> there is some good schools and the city of providence. you have to understand there is a challenge in education today. i was thinking the other day. i remember i closed nine schools and one year nobody made a peep and did not say

anything because the population was different. it has been shifting now there is 90 languages spoken in the providence school system? that is the same like bridgeport and others i like to think positively they experience the magic of the classroom and then a private schools with the ivy league admissions there were some spotty performances by the elementary schools. people say how come my cat -- how does my kid learned of the teacher doesn't speak english? that is a problem. i am not the mayor and have not been there eight or nine years. when i was mayor we had the similar problems you have

such a deficit in the cities today $180 billion structural deficit how that happens with the big investigation the internal auditor relating to the schools they were screaming six months kid you imagine the internal auditor had to go to the freedom of information act request to get money and had to go to court to get it? then when the independent auditor those reports are done by a august 20th or 30th it was not allowed in city hall until after the last election. so you knew something was happening when i left office

in the reserve fund 19.$3 million in an operating surplus. now they sold the civic center and added $22 million. so they have 40 something million and i guess when the economy hit they did not make the cuts they should have like other cities did i could not believe they gave 2 percent retroactive raises for nonunion personnel provide could not believe that. but anyway that is what is happening with you live? the east side? democratic cross the street. >> beside schools nathan bishop was just redone. i would not give up on a

providence schools produce a lot of that stuff in the newspaper they're working on race to the top. the mayor just fired 1934 teachers. you are supposed to tell teachers if you lay them off because you don't know how many will have next year. so they have to let them know they will be laid off and the union wants it that way. but the mayor changed it and they say to his credit he fired this teachers all the while wall the new superintendent had a great collaboration building. and cited by the secretary of education as a great example, and came back from denver and they got off the

plane and the firing notices went out. you cannot find a superintendent to comment on the sea is like the witness protection program. [laughter] the reason they do it so they don't bring teachers back at the high steps. their rule is you don't have to bring back teachers on seniority loan. competency, interview, some people say that is good. they will bring back young kids but how do attract young kids to be good teachers? and then we will rehire may be. they are working it out.

debra it is in new-line and she will do well if they keeper. it doesn't look like he agrees with what she does. there is a big problem. [laughter] i like to look at it as a challenge. they were on the right track. he was on the collaboration track how do evaluate teachers? then the union says i did not hire these people. you did. data's the english. we have to defend them. you'll find a certain schools that are not performing well and a certain schools that are. where would you move to? >> east greenwich? that is a nice place.

there is no i italian food down there. [laughter] and i am understand what you are going through. i know that well. >> my grandkids go to public schools. we are satisfied with that. >> i came back to providence when you started your second administration. i remember you on the radio program explaining rather well how to problems with a huge proportion of the property or the the government are tax-exempt charities, churches, hospita ls, and the other problem is the unfunded pension liabilities the contracts

had been signed and the future benefits. what happened since? >> with the tax-exempt did institutions. they were a part of the vibrancy in many ways. anna maria hospital and providence and college they have not been doing that well but johnson and wales, that is probably the largest population where do find a better school than that? then you have frown what do i say about that? it is a great place and adds cultural dimension to the

city. understand we put in something called the minyanville of taxes. that meant it wasn't for the fact if they were not in the city the state of rhode island would not get the benefit of the income taxes of the doctors pay, nurses' pay, professors' pay, a sales tax, that many benefits the state. so we devised a formula so that the state would reimburse us are proportion of the tax revenues so we could provide the fire apparatus, a 15 engine companies, a special hazard, they don't pay a dime so we were reimbursed. also clean the streets and pick up the garbage. in addition agree to the

plan was which brown university is part of the reason that got funded and brown never like to pay the city directly. they did not just as with the money but they say i give you money for a library. they fund the library but it is private. he would say i am sending 15,000 to the library i would say they don't have a fire truck i can take a picture with. [laughter] so we've funded the whole plan with the manchester street plant you know, the big electric company? 1991 they came here and

wanted to redo the whole plant and they came to see us and wanted to know what their taxes would be. they told us what they thought they would pay. i said that is not the right number. they paid a lot of money every year. people told us what that was worth. people don't know this. the reason we're able to do community police stations and do rehabilitation of housing, i do all kinds of things to preserve the historic buildings is because we took the money every year, i forget the number may be eight or $10 million and use that. not into the general fund budget financed the providence plan. the cleanup of the river and all of that was done, westminster landing was done. with providence plan money.

that was to be used we had a private nonprofit board of directors. that is how the money was spent. nonprofit is very important to the city. the only people who have money are the nonprofits. rhode island hospital, women and infants hospital, brown university, i hate the knowledge district that means i live in a stupid district i hate that name. [laughter] we relocated that with route 95. that was the intent to capture it to build an area that could create a new industry with the brown medical school and all of that. they are the only ones with money. take a look at the city's in europe. and downtown you have a challenge.

there is 1 million and a half square feet of office space. do you see the big superman building? they sold that and that lease will be up in another year? if i were the mayor i would get on a plane and go down to see the guy at bank of america who used to work here the chairman used to be dean at brown university. i would bring jack on the banking committee and let him sit there. [laughter] not say a word. and see what will happen without building. when it empties out, who is left? 1.5 million square feet. it is more than the economy. pay attention to preserve those assets.

i paid attention. they did not pay attention. they thought it just happened. doesn't just happen for you have to cuddle it to make sure you pay attention. frankly it went to help. the other question on pensions, respect to those institutions. people say i read and might the plant had the advertisement tuned television. if you know, that they pay more taxes than brown university? look at the record. that is untrue because the economy they create, take a look at that. you can pocket see it my way. over the course of 10 years could have gotten more but i think they have an obligation.

anything to sit down at the table to bargain and negotiate, they both cooperate. the second part of the pension people used to work with the city of and from providence they did not pay much money but they had good benefits and when the pension system was put and and, policemen and firemen don't get social security. the pension system is abused when big board was made up of people who were elective by unions. it still is. when i came back in office 1990 i will never forget to go to the retirement board meeting i see all these people in the audience. what are they doing their? who will then was there she was from the convention on bonds. who is this?

it was an organized attempt to put a strategy together they had a football player who was there adviser. this has got to end. they could control who gets on and gets tensions. everyone would get a disability pension because if they do that then they don't pay taxes. they get 66 after three years 66 point* three% of their pay and the same people who were given the benefits they also controlled the money. i said this has got to stop. it is in the book i think. i ended up going to court all the way to the supreme court. we said they cannot control this this us to go to the investment of commissioners which is a nondescript board

to invest money that was left to us by harvard university or some trusts. these are the people who are supposed to do it and were appointed by the mayor i had a lot of good people on the board who had nothing to do. went to court and got the money shifted. i will never forget when the head of this by union called me. with the bond work to their friends no asset allocation because there is such a cash drain on the system they are assuming you get 8.5% return. what you could do is invested and take whatever you needed out of it to pay the pensions and get a decent returns so i went to

court they called me that night because we took control of the money. they say the new board, you could appoint some citizens. i said i know that. he said can we recommend 70? i said no. but look at this. it is just like the divorce. he is our baby and i have custody of him right now. if the judge does that what you anywhere near that baby. he said in six months can i call you to reconsider? he said kenya employee does to the board? i said every time i talk to teddy the psychiatrist says he goes crazy. [laughter] you did not claim his diapers. he shakes when he hears your name.

that is in a book. another thing coming 1991 they got 6 percent compounded i took them to court. that same retirement board that i talked about their powers to give them solis give a 6% compounded. i signed a consent because reinterpreted it wrong. we went to court and have it changed so anybody hired after 1991 does it get the 3%. they have now been retired 20 years.

john kennedy was giving a speech the allies i can handle because i can review them but the myth goes on. you have to destroy the myth. so we won the case nothing, founded after 1991. with the nonprofit that is a different viewpoint. i am not saying they shouldn't pay something, i think they should but look at what they contribute before and you go after them. >> what would you like to see done with the -- property? >> basically that it have the economic value get taxes but have the openness to its

publisher sarich they should be allowed to access to the waterfront that is a wonderful piece of property. so that had to be used as a staging area when we relocated i 95. that money had to be paid back. that was to be sold and payback to the federal government. but thank god there was a bond issue that people put together so the state could bonded think if the money to the state of providence. i had a great water from plan down there and we were denied the water from buy the industrialist over the years. we should recapture the whole waterfront. that was the next thing if i didn't have the problem that i have that would be the next up.

i thought brown could use that as a campus. that would be great with the water taxi and would be just terrific. we propose that. the other part of downtown but that is a problem. where all of the buildings are so filled with tax incentives nobody will go there. anybody else? >> has anybody approached you for your advice? and if you could give him one colonel what would you say? >> get to the three envelopes. do know the story? blame the predecessor.

[laughter] he has some good people around him and he has to learn by trial and error that to when you surprise people like the labor unions , not that you don't want them with you but you do not want them against you. he has to assess the whole problem. now it is financial because that's where flows from and and the tax capacity effort exceeds the capacity. that is the problem. as a result you cannot raise taxes. when you do cuts it is hurtful. nobody wants to cut personnel or jobs but when you have directives of protocol that is a little much. he doesn't have that i was not an angel but i didn't

spend $7,000 a year on chauffeurs. that is a lot of money. how can i put this? a&p5

there was a time you could do it where you borrow the money and pledge what you had an over the course of 15 years payback with an unfunded liability. tried to do that they were against in the state assembly and when he came to office he tried to do the same thing and they would not let him do with either. but that is where we are at. we have a lot of good times coming up we have a great city great artistic adventures and venues with universities and colleges we will rebound. it is just financial and the fact with the unemployment situation that is terrible.

foreclosures but we have a great city i am proud of it and a lot of things in the city. we're just going through a little more because we didn't have the kind of thought that should have went into with the last few years. any more questions? >> [inaudible] >> that is a myth but now brown university makes everybody who is a professor signed a document that they don't take advantage of that if they worked there. when i was mayor there was one guy who took it and he was grandfathered. i think maybe not with us any more. but there was when a guy in the whole state. that doesn't happen anymore. they say churches don't pay taxes. yes they do. but they have an exemption.

then they pay taxes on the rest. there is a lot of things that could be taxed. i was surprised of the latest poll that they say it is okay to tax the so the. 1 penny per ounce? if you buy 36 ounces it is the sugar sacks. i could not believe the poll came back saying people would not object strongly to paying a tax on entertainment. that would ruin those places. and the events like concerts', baseball and football games. interesting show today on tax credits for the movies movies, we did the movies here when we started the film commission, we did the providence plate.

did i tell you about baltimore? we started the movie industry here by starting a film commission then would have a party in los angeles every year. we ended up getting people to do movies here. something about mary and a bunch of other movies then we had tax credits after i left but we recommended it but i'll never forget there was a belief that goes on five years nbc did it and it always showed the city beautiful and the fall. one time they wanted to film the water was too low at water plays park. what do you want me to do? we want you to raise the river. [laughter] i setoguchi think i am? [laughter] they said you can do it. we have the hurricane

barrier that was built to take millions of gallons of water out of the city from the tributaries and pushes the water into the day. those pumps reverse they wanted to reverse the pumps to bring the water into the city. go-ahead to do it. the director said okay. a bit more than they stopped it and had the beautiful water level to ride the boats and to do a scene. but the mayor of baltimore said i like that show on friday nights called providence. how did you get that? we worked hard. i have a show. it is called homicide. [laughter] i do not want that. that is a bad one. >> tuleh is the favorite american politician besides

yourself? >> that is a hard question. i like jerry ford. i knew him very well. he was a decent man. not a great politician but a great friend. i always admired him. a funny story, campaigning for president in 76. he came here a lot for me even after he lost. we were going to a fund-raiser and went to the airport for i got in the car and we drove to newport. he had to stop at the hotel. and had to do some press so i stayed outside. it was a big crowd. we stayed a half-hour it rarely happens that there was the third guy in the car. i knew who he was. he sat in the jump seat it was only a five minute ride to the house to this party

broke this is 1976 mr. president i will go here, and there, a campaign here and alaska so we get to the house and he got out of the car. the president grabbed my arm and said who is that guy? i city is the secretary of the navy. he did not know who he was. , a lot of those funny stories have happened. he is a favorite of mine. i am biased. very biased. i thought kennedy did not have enough time an office but was very charismatic and a lot of people got inspiration from him. there are so many of who you could look to of different qualities in different areas to emulate or respect or

fall in love with. many people on a local level were heroes who have done jobs. people who make decisions and lower very honorable. i will never forget 21 time, i can tell with c-span. 1979 and was very interested in passing the anti-discrimination ordinance that would bar discrimination against gays, minorities, there wasn't one on the books and wanted to push it through. to show political correctness everybody was on board. some people were against gays. we started the first i started the first day liaison in my office we did things with that community to make them feel wanted and included.

i will never forget 21976 there was a counselor from the sixth lowered he had a gold chain around his neck and smoke a cigar. and he was head of the ordinance committee i turn on the news and it was live beverly was the roving reporter and reporting live from inside city hall smoking a cigar and says we're having a hearing about the mayor anti-discrimination ordinance. yes. i talk to the mayor about it. what will happen? i made a lot for it. baby. but i've already told the mayor i do not like any fags

on the police department. [laughter] that is the mentality. live television. those things happen. talk about being in paris. he was not one of my heroes. [laughter] anybody else have any questions? >> [inaudible] my mother used to force me to do that. i think that helped me when i became older i've prosecuted a lot of cases and i think that helped a lot and not afraid to face a crowd. >> they introduced to as the fast tapper. >> i have been called a lot of things in my life. [laughter] >>

[inaudible] we are the only funds that have it. my friend part of the evidence comes to my office 1994. he says the 12 like the rivers on fire. are you nuts? new year's eve 1994. who knew it would go this far? it cost $115,000 per fire and it is a wonderful thing because it celebrates the arts in our community and a combination of fire, smoke, all these people who are antismoking are down there first. [laughter] and it is a sense of place and the buildings are the sculptures that come out of the ground, the lights, the music, a lot of that is original music. he has replicated that and other cities.

maybe one performance may be houston comment it leak? but this is the home of the water fire. it is a wonderful implementation of an idea. it is secular. a sense of place. it is amazing the sense of quiet. >> the hotels fell luck and restaurants make money we get tax revenues back but he gets all of the licensing money. as he should. he has the pile of wood and half's to do all of that. but lanier the governor tried to stop it that was the election year. and i did not have an opponent's so i did not care. somebody complained about the smoke and it violated epa. i called him back and said

the what to do this in my office or your office? they decided discretion was the better part of dollar and did not stop it. anybody else? i have a law school professor said sun-times it is better to be thought eighth gold and open your mouth and remove all doubt. thank you. [applause] >> go back to education pointing at u.s. was near the top? now we are 31? it down around 20 but we spend your people will attend any country other

than switzerland. not a question of resources but not allocating intelligently. >> this is exactly the point*. it is not quantity of money but the quality of education delivered and i have to say spending time reading about the american education system but listening to experts who focus on it it reminds me of the aid industry with aids to africa. one. people are being rewarded for poor performance. it is clear of the standards are going down then you have the last in/first out regardless of performance, there seems to be the dislocation there. also as a society we are held hostage by vested interest. the trade unions, teachers unions, it is rather

problematic we are sacrificing our children education performance for the ability to compete nationally and therefore america there is nothing inherently wrong with that but there is something wrong with the idea that we can say the standards are going down but not penalizing people for lack of delivery. >> is a problem structural? we talk about higher tax rate which is higher but also in europe you find more school choice but in medicis the of the netherlands has substantial school choice. we only have a few tiny little programs. do we need a competitive model? >> absolutely parents need to be much more involved.

what can redo to make sure that doesn't happen? i am not too sure about whether it boils down to the idea of more or less choice but look at the education performance across europe they said in the backside of the standards. with the backslide but very simply put it is very popular mexico and brazil and pulled out in the pilot program is the ada to pay people to do the right thing. your child goes to school 90% of the time but the you attendance record is $100. the child is immunized for a disease you get $100. now there is a discussion the people should be paid

for mathematics or science that the european countries need to remain competitive. obviously this is not leave suspect that everything seems to be on the table as one plausible solution. >> whether we talk about education these areas once countries become rich they get lazy? >> i hope not. i do not subscribe to that at all. we had about 15% of gdp growth that is mind boggling about standards we should expect to see those economic

growth if we believe what you just said. it is not bad at all but we really believe perhaps a lot of americans don't understand what the problems are of the economy. use the big deficits and massive debt that as a practical initiative people don't understand this is the fight for the soul of america but also of the world there will be 9 billion people on the planet we absolutely need to get it right. we need america to help solve the problems with lack of water and land and issues around energy the united states is great solving these problems they cannot rely on the u.s. without education.

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