North Providence mayor Charles Lombardi has done a lot of misguided things since taking office.  Just look at his handling of the town's budget, or his potentially inappropriate use of stimulus funds.  Finally, the mayor seemed to do something right.  In order to raise money, he decided to auciton off town property that wasn't being used, including police cruisers and an office trailer.  The Ebay auction brought in some much needed extra money for the town. 

     There's just one small problem: The trailer the town sold doesn't belong to them.  It turns out that the trailer was owned by a company called William Scottsman, and the town has been paying $234  per month for rent on the trailer for more than 5 years.  Now, the town will have to reimburse the company for the lost trailer, which cost approximately $11,000 new.  By the way, just in case you're wondering, the town paid $15,700 in rent over 5 years to rent this $11,000 trailer.

     You would think that Charles Lombardi would be upset or embarassed after making such a blunder, but don't worry, he isn't. 

“I’m not embarrassed, we sold something we knew we didn’t need,” the mayor said. “But we didn’t know we didn’t own it.”

“Talk about a bad deal,” Lombardi said. “We already paid $15,700,” he said, referring to the leasing history.


     The mayor continues to look at the bright side, and sees the whole situation as a learning opportunity.  For example, did you know that some cities and towns waste money?  I don't think the mayor did, but after the trailer situation, he is going to keep his eyes open:

“By the way, this may be good that we found this out,” Lombardi said.

“Now, what it does is, we’re checking every monthly payment. Every payment, I want to know what it’s for. My bet is there’s other things out there that we’re paying a monthly fee for that we don’t know about –– and probably don’t need –– just like this trailer.”


      To summarize, the town sold a trailer that didn't belong to them, ignored signs on the trailer with the owners name, paid $15,700 to rent a trailer which cost less than $10,000, didn't realize it was paying rent all these years, and was paying rent while it wasn't being used for two years.  All this leads the mayor to have an epiphany about the possibility of government waste in the town.  If anyone out there questions the mayor's competence, this should put the issue to rest.