BY VINAYA SAKSENA

CUMBERLAND — Re-elected Mayor Daniel McKee wasted no time in laying out a change-driven agenda for his fourth term after being sworn in yesterday afternoon.

Addressing a packed Blackstone River Theatre, McKee touted numerous accomplishments he had either initiated or contributed to, such as the recently completed CHS 2010 project, a stamp of approval for his mayoral academy education concept from the Rhode Island General Assembly and a health insurance consolidation effort through the Coalition of Communities Improving Rhode Island that he said would save the town over $200,000 this year. And with a recession in full swing and a $400,000,000 state deficit projected for this year, the mayor said, more such innovation would be needed.
“Rhode Island is at a crossroads, and Cumberland stands with every city and town at that crossroads,” McKee said in his inaugural address. “We and the other communities must rise and fall together.”
McKee repeated his often-used saying that Rhode Island is not an island, and neither, he added, was Cumberland. If the town and other communities like it wanted to weather the economic storm, he said, they would need to both cooperate with one another and tighten their own belts individually.
However, McKee also used the opportunity to criticize what he said was an unfair system for state aid to schools- not much of a system at all, he alleged- that he said penalized efficiently run communities such as Cumberland, giving them disproportionately low amounts of aid based on questionable calculations. To address this problem, the mayor said, he planned to have two studies conducted to present to state officials. One would suggest what he said would be a more equitable funding formula for state aid, the other an efficiency analysis with results broken down by community.
Attorney General Patrick Lynch, one of several officials invited to the ceremony, said he was honored to speak at the event that made official McKee’s re-election, which Lynch said dovetailed well
with the election of President-elect Barack Obama, in part because McKee had been an outspoken Obama supporter. However, Lynch said he also believed that McKee shared a similar outlook and values with Obama, particularly with regard to the ideas of hope and change, both slogans of the Obama campaign. In particular, Lynch said, McKee invoked the spirit of another Obama slogan, “yes we can.”
“It’s a revelation to us,” Lynch said. “Any one of us individually can make an impact in our community.”
McKee acknowledged those who were dissatisfied with the way Rhode Island had been run, saying he understood why some had chosen to leave the state. However, he added that doing so deprived them of the opportunity to be part of an effort to improve conditions locally.
“We should wish them the best, but let them go,” McKee said of those who had left. “We need to believe that Rhode Island can be a place where what ought to be is.”
The mayor said he believed that Cumberland- along with Rhode Island and the rest of the country- was on the verge of major change, which could be quite beneficial to its citizens. However, he also noted that reaching those lofty heights would not be quick or easy, and that some would seek to stop the changes necessary to do so.
“It is an honor and a privilege to serve as your mayor,” he told the audience. “It is an honor and privilege that I will never take lightly.”