Investigators Undercover Part 1
City Limits: Providence city employees caught breaking residency rules
An Eyewitness News hidden camera investigation catches Providence city officials breaking the rules.
Our surveillance shows highly paid leaders who say they live in the city as required actually live in the suburbs.
Providence has a residency requirement. That means every city employee must sign this document under pains of perjury swearing that they live in the city. If they lie, they could lose their jobs and face criminal prosecution.
Our investigation found city department heads who gave phony addresses and falsified documents about where they live. We spent weeks following these people to and from their real homes in the suburbs.
At the top of the list is no less than the man responsible for collecting taxes in Providence. Robert Ceprano - seen here leaving his home in Scituate - is paid around $80,000 dollars a year as the Providence tax collector. We were waiting for him as he left his Scituate home yesterday morning.
"Mr. Ceprano. Hi Jack White. You're the tax collector in the city of Providence . Why are you living in Scituate? well, I only live here part of the time. Well, we've seen you coming from here on a very consistent basis. Did you sign the residency requirement of the city of Providence. Yes. You think you might be violating that. It's pretty specific, you've got to be domiciled in Providence? Well, I think I meet the requirements. If you could excuse me now.�
Ceprano lives in this two story house on Sherwood drive , which is in a quiet neighborhood of upscale homes off route 12 in Scituate . His home is in stark contrast to two addresses he has claimed to live at in Providence in recent years. The first is this house at 21 Noyes Ave. The other house is at 10 Noyes Ave. Although he is responsible for the collection of taxes in Providence, he pays his taxes in Scituate.
The investigators learned his Scituate real estate tax for last year was $3,400. He also pays his car taxes in scituate.
"What kind of message does it send that the tax collector in Providence is paying his taxes in Scituate. That's what you do for the house, the car, for everything. I pay them in both, ok. Excuse me.�
We caught Ceprano on several occasions leaving his real home in Scituate and driving to this parking garage in Providence and his job at city hall. If there was any question about where ceprano lives, the phonebook has the answer - he's listed at 29 Sherwood drive, Scituate. We asked him why he vioated the residency rules.
�Did anyone tell you it's ok to do this kind of thing? Is it a common practice. I was told I met the requirements. That's all. Thank you. Who told you that?�
Ceprano is a former criminal investigator for the internal revenue service. He also was the senior investigator for the state ethics commission before taking the job of city tax collector.
Once again a violation of the residency requirement could result in loss of a job and in possible criminal prosecution. And our investigation does not stop with Mr. Ceprano. Tonight at 11 we'll take a look at two more key city hall employees and tell you where they live and where they don't live.
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