Stefan Pryor's political opponent criticizes his record. The Journal investigated.

With the Democratic primary election for state general treasurer only days away, supporters of former Central Falls Mayor James A. Diossa have raised criticisms of the record of his opponent, former state Commerce Secretary Stefan I. Pryor.

The Providence Journal has taken a closer look at Pryor's past. Here's what the paper found:

A study in Newark, New Jersey, where Pryor was deputy mayor for economic development from 2006 to 2011, found that an agency he co-founded and chaired more than a decade ago made risky loans with city money that in some cases was never repaid. In an interview with The Journal on Wednesday, Pryor attacked the quality of the study, noting that its author issued supplemental reports that retracted some of the study's initial findings.

Pryor resigned as Connecticut's education commissioner five months before his first term was scheduled to end, as strained relations with teachers unions made him a political liability for the reelection campaign of then-Gov. Dannel Malloy. In the Wednesday interview with The Journal, Pryor said that Malloy brought him on to be a "change agent" with the understanding that if he did the job right he would probably last only a single term. Pryor disputed the description that he had become a political liability.

Digging deeper: James Diossa's political opponent accuses him of mismanagement. The Journal investigated

Pryor was at the helm for one of the most embarrassing weeks in the history of Rhode Island's efforts to market itself as a tourism destination.

In the span of a few days in 2016, the state unveiled the widely mocked marketing tagline "Cooler & Warmer," a video to promote Rhode Island was found to have a clip show beautiful Reykjavik, Iceland, and a state marketing official had to resign when she had no idea what the annual Gaspee Days festival was.

Pryor took what even he acknowledged was a perilously long time to resign as commerce secretary after announcing that he was running for treasurer. He said he had work to finish, including negotiating deals for the Pawtucket soccer stadium project and for Providence's "Superman Building."

He was a publicly criticized during a federal grand jury investigation in Connecticut of a charter school operator who received contracts from the state education department despite having been convicted of fraud. Pryor said the investigation was not about him and that the charter school operator had been approved before he got to Connecticut.

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Pryor dodged a question about whether he had been endorsed by former Gov. Gina M. Raimondo, a friend from Yale University Law School who appointed him as the state's commerce secretary. Pryor noted that Raimondo had headlined a fundraising event for him. "I'm going to rest on that comment."

Pryor supports Pawtucket's Tidewater Landing soccer stadium deal, which he helped negotiate, but says that support is conditional. He says three things need to be added as the deal moves from a framework of an agreement to becoming signed contracts. "The deal should advance only under certain circumstances."

Did a Pryor-led agency in New Jersey make bad economic development loans?

Those in the Diossa camp have described a 2014 report

looking into the Brick City Development Corporation as a "forensic audit," but the study's author, New Jersey certified public accountant Keith S. Balla, styled it a "forensic advisory consulting investigation."

It was commissioned by the corporation at the direction of Ras Baraka, who had succeeded now-U.S. Sen. Cory Booker as Newark's mayor and was reevaluating the city's economic development agency. "I just know we want to go in a different direction," Baraka told the (Newark) Star-Ledger at the time.

The report found fault in particular with the corporation's $3 million One Time First Movers Loan Program, designed to lure businesses to Newark.

In his initial report, study author Balla reported that the corporation failed to provide a variety of records about the loan program and that 40% of the loans had either been written off or were delinquent.

In Wednesday's interview, Pryor said he should not be faulted for the corporation not providing records to the auditor. "This was conducted well after my departure," he said. "I was not present to supply any information."

He also attacked the report, saying it was not a proper audit noting several findings in the initial report that Balla retracted

in two supplemental reports

.

Even though he discounted the report's conclusions, Pryor defended the loans to businesses that were slow to pay or perhaps never paid.

"Newark, though a city proudly on the rise, is a very challenging jurisdiction. There's a very high rate of poverty," he said. "It would be expected that there would be a default rate and a bankruptcy rate and a non-success rate in that context that would be higher than the nation's average."

Did Pryor, as Connecticut education commissioner, become a political liability for the governor?

In August 2014, three months before Connecticut's gubernatorial election and five months before his term was set to expire, Pryor announced his resignation as that state's education commissioner, a post to which he was appointed by Democratic Gov. Dannel Malloy.

Continuing tensions with teachers unions and a federal grand jury investigation into a charter school operator with a prior conviction on fraud charges had weighed on Pryor's tenure as the election approached.

In an Aug. 18, 2014, article announcing Pryor's resignation, the Harford Courant reported that "some Democrats have privately conceded that Pryor has become a political liability for Malloy."

In his interview with The Journal on Wednesday, Pryor disputed that characterization.

"I don't agree because it was, in fact, the practical and political decision that Governor Malloy made to accomplish progress in the educational sphere in his first term," Pryor said. "It was clear to Governor Malloy, and to me, from the beginning of my tenure in Connecticut, that to do the job properly might require, likely would require, that I do it for one term."

2014 was a year of change in education nationwide. The White House was pushing student testing, the "Common Core" curriculum and teacher evaluations, all of which put education commissioners on a collision course with teachers unions.

State Sen. Toni Boucher of Wilton is the ranking Republican on the Education Committee. Pryor was trying to do too much too fast, she said.

“He came into this position under very strong direction from Governor Malloy to push education reform," Boucher, a Republican, told WSHU, a public radio station at Sacred Heart University. "And there was so many of them that right off the bat there was tremendous opposition, and you could feel it."

Even amid the tension, the heads of Connecticut's largest teachers unions said charitable things about Pryor as he departed.

“While we have had policy disagreements over the past three years, we have never questioned his personal commitment to fulfilling the department’s mission,” Melodie Peters, president of the American Federation of Teachers-Connecticut, told The CT Mirror.

'Cooler & Warmer' paves the way for 'Rhode Iceland'

Pryor conceded Wednesday that he didn't like the "Cooler & Warmer" marketing tagline , but didn't do enough to derail it before it was made public.

"The logo and slogan were not selected by me. Having said that, I took responsibility because that's what a leader does," he said Wednesday.

The slogan was chosen by the state's marketing team, but he and governor Raimondo reviewed – if not approved – it before the unveiling. "It was more a case of us not intervening to reverse the decision," he said Wednesday.

He said he had not seen the marketing video, which showed a skateboarder in Iceland, rather than Rhode Island, before it was unveiled.

"I had qualms about not seeing it before it launched," Pryor said, again saying that the state's marketing team controlled the process.

"If you have qualms about an important undertaking you should exercise your judgment, so I've learned a lesson that I think is a crucial lesson," he said. "There's a degree to which you need to rely upon experts and professionals within your team and within your orbit. You also need to take all factors into account and make sound judgments."

Another lesson:

"We ought to undertake the maximum possible level of public input when launching a new campaign or similar initiative."

Although $5 million had been budget for the star-crossed marketing efforts, much of the money had not been spent and the state recouped some of what already had been. It moved on to other campaigns, including the heralded "Fun-Sized" web ads.

He declined to discuss Betsy Wall, then the newly hired chief marketing officer for the state who told a talk radio audience that she didn't know about Gaspee Days, an annual festival that commemorates Colonists burning the British revenue schooner HMS Gaspee, which had been harassing trade on Narragansett Bay.

Pryor said that since he became commerce secretary, state hotel tax collections – an indirect measure of tourism activity – have increased 47%.

Pryor says Tidewater Landing soccer stadium deal still needs work

Pretty much the last thing Pryor did as commerce secretary was to negotiate a new deal to rescue the Tidewater Landing soccer stadium proposal in Pawtucket after pandemic- and inflation-driven issues had made an earlier deal unworkable. The current deal wouldn't be approved by the Commerce Corporation board until after Pryor stepped down to run for treasurer. The board authorized Pryor's successor to negotiate the details of the deal under a framework it approved July 25.

Under the original deal, Fortuitous Partners would develop land on both sides of the Seekonk River just downstream from downtown Pawtucket, bringing housing, retail and office space to a project with a minor-league soccer stadium as its centerpiece. In exchange, the state and the city would supply $60 million in financing aimed at the ancillary development.

Under the new deal, that money would go for the stadium, with the other development to be worked out in the future.

Pryor said Wednesday that the project should still go ahead, but under three conditions, two of which are already included in the framework, but Pryor emphasized that the final written documents governing the project need strong language to enforce them.

Pryor's conditions:

• The developers not receive public money until the stadium is built and approved for use by building officials.

"The taxpayers of Rhode Island should not have any risk of the project being partially completed and in such incomplete condition stand for eternity as a monument to a public lapse in judgment," Pryor said.

• The team that Fortuitous will bring to the stadium must commit to being there for 30 years, with strong financial penalties if they leave early.

"It's crucial that the stadium … not become a vacant venue," he said.

• Fortuitous must present a full plan, with budget figures and a commitment from investors to finance it, for the housing, commercial, office, parking and infrastructure development.

"The stadium is conceived as a catalyst for further economic development," Pryor said, not a stand-alone project.

This last condition is not part of the framework that Pryor left to his successor.

For his part, Pryor's opponent in the race for the treasurer's office, Diossa, has also backed the deal, with the same reservation about providing for the ancillary development.

Why did Pryor take so long to resign as commerce secretary after announcing his candidacy?

On May 24, Pryor confirmed what had been an open secret for weeks: he would run for state treasurer, stepping down as commerce secretary in "two weeks."

Three weeks later, he was still at commerce, working on the Tidewater deal.

Diossa seized on Pryor's  delay, accusing him of having "recklessly clung to power in an attempt to influence the outcome of these negotiations for future political gain."

A week after Diossa spoke, Pryor finally stepped down.

On Wednesday, Pryor said that although he had been considering a run for some time, he felt an obligation to finish the Tidewater deal, as well as one for the former Industrial Trust Building in Providence, known popularly as the "Superman Building."

"It was clear to me that I was undertaking greater risk by staying longer, that it was not to my political advantage to stay longer," Pryor said Wednesday. "One's first obligation is to the job one is in."

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Treasurer candidate Stefan Pryor's record questioned: What we found