On July 8, the current majority of the Charlestown City Council fired a highly qualified and experienced member of the Budget Committee, Dick Sartor. Mr. Sartor had applied for reappointment but was denied. Mr. Sartor’s firing was carried out by a majority of the City Council who state that institutional knowledge and qualifications are of paramount importance in government.
Mr. Sartor served as Chairman of the Commission until July 8. He has provided distinguished service to the Commission for nearly 20 years. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s degree in public administration. He has over 40 years of experience in city and town government and was Charlestown’s Town Manager in the early 2000s. He is experienced in budget preparation, planning and evaluating financial proposals.
The budget committee advises the city council on budgetary matters. The reason the council’s actions are so outrageous is that our city has seen its city administrator, who had been in office for 10 years, fired by that council majority, lost two city treasurers, and is now being hired by an auditing firm for the third time – and all of this since November 2022.
Without Dick Sartor’s experience and skill at the helm of the Budget Committee, the City would not have been able to prepare the 2024-2025 budget on time last June. There was no draft budget, there was no audit of the previous year’s finances, and there was little to no institutional knowledge in the Finance Department.
Under Mr. Sartor’s leadership at the head of the Budget Committee, Charlestown was the first city in the state to develop a written fund balance policy based on an independent assessment of the risks facing the city.
Thanks in large part to Mr. Sartor’s efforts, Charlestown is one of the state’s most affluent cities, achieving a tax rate that is among the lowest in Rhode Island while providing taxpayers with excellent government services.
The loss of Mr. Sartor’s knowledge, experience and institutional knowledge is unfortunate. One can only wonder why the majority of the City Council would remove Mr. Sartor’s trained eye from overseeing the City’s budget.
Bonnie Van Slyke
Charlestown
