Town Manager Butts Heads With Professor Over Trash Collection Study

Barrington Town Manager Peter DeAngelis Jr. is butting heads with a professor over a case study of privatization of trash and recycling collection in town.

Roger Williams University professor Lynn Ruggieri of Barrington analyzed the financials of the now private program and shared them with the Barrington Times. She learned shortly thereafter that DeAngelis called the president of the college because he believed the professor was attacking him with an inaccurate analysis.

Ruggieri said she interpreted the town manager’s call to the RWU president as a personal attack on her and "completely inappropriate." She said she would have feared for her job if she wasn’t a tenured professor.

DeAngelis said he attempted to meet with Ruggieri first about her analysis. Instead, she asked for more information about the privatization of trash and recycling collections in Barrington.

After completing her analysis, Ruggieri said, she found that privatization had cost taxpayers money – not saved them anything. DeAngelis disputes that analysis. 

The town manager said that he, finance director Dean Huff and DPW director Alan Corvi all have a problem with the way she crunched the numbers, which led to inaccurate conclusions. Read the complete story by clicking here.