The Providence Economic Development Partnership (PEDP) intentionally kept severely delinquent taxpayer-funded loans on the books so it wouldn’t have to repay the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) based on its extraordinarily high default rate, the agency’s former executive director told board members during a meeting last year.

In a recording of a March 2011 meeting obtained through a public records request, Thom Deller, who resigned from his post as the city’s Planning Director earlier this year, admitted to board members that the agency had been reporting a “smoke and mirrors” default rate to HUD, which provides the majority of funding to the PEDP.

Check out the coversation with Helen and Dan McGowan HERE.

Read Dan's story at GoLocalProv HERE.