John Marion and Gary Sasse on Newsmakers

On Sunday, December 12th, John Marion and Gary Sasse appeared on WPRI-TV's Newsmakers program to discuss the coalition, Citizens for an Accountable Legislature. You can watch it here.

Register for The Politics and Process of Judicial Selection

If you would like to attend the panel on The Politics and Process of Judicial Selection this Monday, November 8, you must register here:

http://www.acslaw.org/chapters/lawyer/rhodeisland/rsvp

The reception begins at 6 pm, and the panel discussion at 6:30 pm

It will take place in the Waterman Room, at the University Club of Providence, 219 Benefit St., Providence, RI.

Citizens for an Accountable Legislature gains endorsement

On Friday, November 5th the Providence Journal editorialized in favor of the Citizens for an Accountable Legislature agenda. Come read more about it here.

Common Cause co-hosts two educational events

Common Cause Rhode Island is pleased to be co-hosting two educational events this November. Both are free and open to the public, although you must RSVP to attend the November 8th panel:

November 8th--The Politics and Process of Judicial Selection

Co-hosted with the American Constitution Society

Featuring:

The Honorable Ernest C. Torres, Senior Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island
Jared A. Goldstein, Professor of Law, Roger Williams University School of Law
Emily J. Sack, Professor of Law, Roger Williams University School of Law
David Fontana, Associate Professor of Law, George Washington University Law School

And moderated by:

Michael J. Yelnosky, Professor of Law, Roger Williams University School of Law

Monday, November 8, 2010
Reception: 6 pm
Program: 6:30 pm
The University Club of Providence
219 Benefit St.
Waterman Room
Providence, RI

You must RSVP here.

November 15th--The First Amendment: Five Freedoms, If We Can Keep Them--Where Do You Draw the Line?

Co-hosted with the Providence Athenaeum as part of ACCESS/RI the state's freedom of information coalition

A talk by Gregory V. Sullivan, professor of First Amendment and Media Law at Suffolk University Law School.

Monday, November 15th
Reception: 5:30 pm
Talk: 6 pm
Providence Athenaeum
251 Benefit St.
Providence, RI

Common Cause Urges State Senate to Finish Work

In the Thursday, October 28th edition of the Providence Journal Common Cause takes the position that the Rhode Island State Senate should return to provide advice and consent for outstanding appointments. Common Cause would like to further clarify our comments. We believe that the Governor and the State Senate should fulfill their constitutionally mandated roles in appointments. In particular, we have held since the passage of the Separation of Power amendments in 2004 that the Governor can immediately make appointments to replace all vacancies on boards and commissions in Rhode Island. That belief was reinforced by the December 2008 Advisory Opinion of the Rhode Island Supreme Court in the CRMC case. Likewise, as long-time supporters of the 1994 constitutional reforms creating the Judicial Nominating Commission we have held that the Governor should abide by the law requiring him to make appointments within the 21 day time frame mandated in the statute. We have also long held that the State Senate should abide by its statutory requirement to provide advice and consent for those appointments too.

Upcoming Events for Common Cause

We have two exciting events coming up at Common Cause Rhode Island. Please join us if you can.

On Monday, November 8th we will co-host a panel discussion on "The Politics and Process of Judicial Selection" with the American Constitution Society. The panel will feature a number of speakers discussion federal judicial selection, including Judge Ernest Torres, and Professors Jared Goldstein and Emily Sack. The event will be held at the University Club in Providence at 6 pm. You must RSVP and you can do so here.

On Monday, November 15th we will co-host a speaker with ACCESS/RI and the Providence Athenaeum. Attorney Greg Sullivan will speak on "The First Amendment: Five freedoms if we can keep them." The event will be held at 5:30 pm at the Athenaeum and is free and open to the public.

Save the Date! Common Cause Annual Meeting

The 40th Anniversary Common Cause Rhode Island Annual Meeting will be held on Thursday, October 7th starting at 5 pm. The main program will be a debate among the leading contenders for Governor. Look for your invitation to arrive in the mail in early September. If you'd like to make sure you receive an invite please email contact@commoncauseri.org or call 861-2322.

Newsmakers: Murphy and Marion

Ed Fitzpatrick: Voters' interests take a back seat in this political film

Ed Fitzpatrick: Voters' interests take a back seat in this political film

Providence Journal

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Moderate Party sues over campaign finance rules

Common Cause: Assembly should reconvene on ethics reform

11:20 AM Fri, Jun 18, 2010

Amanda Milkovits

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- In the wake of a state senator's indictment, Common Cause Rhode Island called Friday for the General Assembly to reconvene immediately and pass a resolution to put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot asking voters to restore the jurisdiction of the state's Ethics Commission.

Now, there's a loophole that gives state legislators immunity from civil prosecution for their "core legislative acts." The Rhode Island Supreme Court ruled 3 to 1 last June that members of the General Assembly were immune from prosecution by the Ethics Commission because of the state Constitution's "speech in debate" clause.

Sen. Christopher Maselli, D-Johnston, who was indicted on seven counts of bank fraud on Thursday, had proposed having the Senate police itself on ethics. The bill never made it out of the Senate Rules Committee, which Maselli chairs.

Sen. J. Michael Lenihan, D-East Greenwich, had sponsored legislation to put the ethics question to voters in November, asking whether legislators should have immunity.

The legislation overwhelmingly passed in the House, 67-5, but found no traction in the Senate.

John Marion, the executive director of Common Cause, said Maselli's indictment shows the need for ethics reform. "Without passing this now," Marion said in a news release, "Rhode Island will go until at least 2012 without oversight of the legislature by the state's main ethics watchdog."

Ethics wasn't Senate priority

Warwick Beacon

Jun 15, 2010

If there were ever a piece of legislation that could be considered a no-brainer, it would have to be the “ethics” bill submitted by House Speaker Gordon Fox (D-Providence).

The bill, which passed the House of Representatives by a 67-5 margin, would have asked Rhode Islanders to reinstate the power of the Ethics Commission to prosecute and investigate members of the General Assembly who use the public offices they hold to benefit themselves and their family members.

The State Supreme Court ruled in 2009 in the William Irons case that legislators could not be held responsible for their votes in the legislature thanks to the “speech and debate clause” of the state constitution. Irons, a former Senate president, had been accused of using public office to obtain financial gain for CVS and Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Fox’s bill would have created a ballot question that would have asked Rhode Island voters to change the constitution to restore that power to the Ethics Commission.

The Senate Leadership, however, had other ideas. The body’s leadership, Senate President Teresa Paiva-Weed (Jamestown, Newport) and Majority Leader Daniel Connors (Cumberland), refused to bring the measure up for a vote, and the rank-and-file members didn’t press them for a vote, which means the bill died.

The two argued that the bill might conflict with the 1st Amendment to the United States Constitution and that federal laws already outlaw bribery.

Both arguments are flimsy. First of all, those ethics rules already apply to other public officials such as mayors, governments, city workers, etc. Good government groups like Common Cause, Operation Clean Government, and the League of Women Voters argued that those same rules that apply to other government officials should also apply to the legislature.

We agree.

The issue isn’t about either speech or debate. The 1st Amendment allows for free speech, but it doesn’t mean that people can use free speech to commit fraud. It doesn’t mean that people can use free speech to commit bribery.

And while it is true that the federal government does have the ability to prosecute crimes like bribery, it certainly doesn’t hurt to have the Ethics Commission armed with the power to prosecute for that offense.

What does hurt, however, is that the Senate didn’t think it was a priority to affirm the highest possible standards for ethical behavior. Hopefully when the bill is reintroduced in the next session, there will be a different outcome.


Read more: Warwick Beacon - Ethics wasn t Senate priority

Edward Achorn: Designed to keep you in the dark

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

By EDWARD ACHORN

In theory, we have something called representative democracy in Rhode Island. In practice, we have one of the most closed systems in America. It is run like an oligarchy — where very few people have access to information, the public is kept in the dark until it is too late for citizen pressure to make a difference, and decisions are made primarily to benefit leaders and the special interests that prop them up.

The cynicism of this system is on display every year, but it reached a kind of glorious efflorescence in recent weeks, culminating with last week’s mad dash to whip through scores of bills — on spending, taxes, gambling, energy, you name it — before citizens could weigh them and express their concerns.

The job of citizens, as far as our politicians are concerned, is to sit there without grumbling and pay through the nose. And to cast ballots every two years returning the same old crowd to office, many of them unopposed because the election system — with its master lever and dominance by special interests — is designed to make opposition difficult, if not futile.

The public’s growing desire to do something about illegal immigration, for example, was met this year with defiance by leaders of the General Assembly, who seem to side with businesses that want to exploit low-wage illegal labor and those who have a financial and political stake in making sure our duly enacted federal laws are not enforced.

House Speaker Gordon Fox (D.-Providence) stepped in before a bill based on the new Arizona law could even get a hearing. And Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed (D.-Newport) pulled a fast one on Sen. Marc Cote (D.-Woonsocket), who was pushing for implementation of an E-Verify system, aimed at reducing illegal hiring practices.

Senator Cote had followed Senate rules to obtain a floor vote on his bill, which enjoys strong public support and was co-sponsored by fully half of the chamber –– 19 senators.

But when the bill came up, President Paiva Weed did not call on the sponsor to make his case, the usual procedure. Instead, in a pre-arranged scheme, she recognized Majority Leader Daniel Connors (D.-Cumberland), who moved to recommit the bill (i.e., kill it). Refusing to recognize the objections of the thunderstruck proponents, the president immediately called for a voice vote, deemed that the “yeas” had it (though a recording suggested strongly that the “nays” were louder and perhaps in greater number), and that was that.

Any further objections were ruled out of order — the bill had been dealt with.

That seemed to suit most senators fine. But who represented the public, whose interest would be served by recorded votes on important issues (it would help them cast informed votes in November, for one thing)? Nobody, as far as I could tell — aside from Senator Cote, who seemed genuinely miffed.

Rhode Island leaders enjoy having the power to defy the public and render its representatives impotent.

But that power trip costs us dearly. An informed and active citizenry actually makes a state stronger and more vibrant. Citizens bring ideas to the table, help stop bad legislation, and form an important check against public corruption. That makes for a better-run state, with a stronger economy, less waste, lower taxes and fewer cozy deals for special interests.

Which is why well-run (and even not-so-well-run) states make an effort to bring the public into the loop.

John Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island, says that Rhode Island is the only state that does not post audio or video of its legislature on the Web. Nineteen states post even committee hearings. Last week, Mr. Marion was standing in a hearing room at 1 a.m., listening to a debate on an important bill no one had ever seen before, with no camera or reporter present.

Some 20 states employ a system that alerts citizens by e-mail when some action has been taken, or is about to be taken, on a bill they are following. Such systems pay for themselves in less corrupt and more just government.

Rhode Island, naturally, has nothing of the sort.

Indeed, here the public confronts a Herculean task finding out on a timely basis even how their legislators voted on issues. It can be weeks before floor votes are published in the legislative journal. Those votes, taken electronically, could and should be posted instantly on the Web.

We could easily save money, curtail corruption and create a better informed electorate by bringing such reforms here. But that will never happen until taxpayers and law-abiding citizens decide that enough is enough, and resolve to show their status-quo representatives and senators the door.

Edward Achorn is The Journal’s deputy editorial-pages editor ( eachorn@projo.com).

Lynch proposes single-chamber R.I. General Assembly

Mon, Jun 14, 2010
By Randal Edgar

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Saying that state government is "completely dysfunctional" in part because state lawmakers "just cannot get it right," gubernatorial candidate Patrick C. Lynch on Monday pitched a three-part solution that would revamp the budget cycle, give the governor a line-item veto and downsize the legislature.

The state attorney general, running behind lesser-known Republicans and a fellow Democrat he will face in a September primary, said Rhode Islanders would greatly benefit from the changes, which include replacing the Rhode Island House and Senate with a single-chamber legislature that he said would bring greater accountability.

"The responsibility of the elected officials is to work for the people, not the politicians at the State House," he said in a campaign release. "The culture of inside deals, budget gimmicks, quick fixes and a complete lack of long-term planning has left us in dire economic straits."

The proposals raised eyebrows among government-watchdog groups and political observers, including those at the General Assembly.

"Over the past eight years, Attorney General Lynch has introduced many pieces of legislation," said Larry Berman, spokesman for the House of Representatives. "I do not recall that his office ever proposed any bills on this subject, nor has his idea ever been discussed by his two staffers who spend a great deal of time lobbying the legislature."

John Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island, said there are pros and cons to a single-chamber, or unicameral, legislature. Currently, Nebraska is the only state with such a legislature.

"Advocates say it's great because it saves money it streamlines the legislative process, but those against it say we have two houses because they help balance different values in the legislature," he said.

He added: "I don't think it's a panacea for the problems of the legislature. In the end a lot of it comes down to who is in the office."

Gambling, school aid top RI Statehouse agenda

June 11, 2010 4:33 PM ET

By ERIC TUCKER

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Gambling, wind energy, pension reform and education aid dominated the agenda of the Rhode Island General Assembly this year, as lawmakers in a state with a double-digit unemployment rate scrambled for ways to find extra revenue and cut costs.

Lawmakers wrapped up business early Friday, capping a busy election-year session and the first under new House Speaker Gordon Fox. It was a year when public policy issues, such as casino gambling and the decriminalization of marijuana, were debated with in the context of the state's economy.

In the frenetic final hours of the session, lawmakers approved a voter referendum on converting the state's licensed slot parlors into full-scale casinos and passed what they said was a predictable funding formula for school aid.

They also revived the prospects of a proposed wind farm off the coast of Block Island and overhauled the income tax structure.

The $7.8 billion budget for the fiscal year starting July 1, passed last week, limits cost-of-living increases for future retirees to the first $35,000 of their pension payments and also slashes aid to cities, towns and school districts. The budget depends on about $100 million in federal money that has yet to be passed by Congress, but allows the governor to make across-the-board cuts if the funds aren't approved.

Republican Gov. Don Carcieri said Friday he would let the budget become law without his signature.

Some of the economic changes were welcome but should have come sooner, given how long Rhode Island has been mired in a recession and its 12.5 percent unemployment rate, said University of Rhode Island economist Leonard Lardaro.

"We had every right to have things done sooner, and they should have been done sooner," he said.

A highlight of the session was the decision to seek voter approval for state-operated casino gambling at Twin River in Lincoln and Newport Grand in Newport. The slot parlors offer video lottery terminals but not table games. Supporters of the bill — which passed over the objections of Senate President M. Teresa Paiva-Weed — argued gambling was a critical source of revenue that needs to be protected, especially at a time when neighboring Massachusetts is mulling casinos.

That bill also heads to the governor.

Other measures that attracted considerable attention ultimately failed, including a bill that would have asked voters to restore the state Ethics Commission's power to investigate and fine state lawmakers for their votes at the Statehouse.

That measure died in the Senate. The commission's authority was hobbled by a state Supreme Court ruling last year that said lawmakers were shielded from ethics complaints based on their votes or other legislative acts. Critics of the ruling said it would weaken the commission's authority to police lawmakers who vote to advance their own financial interests.

"We were disappointed not only that it didn't get out but really disappointed that it didn't even get a fair shake in the Senate," said John Marion, executive director of the good government group Common Cause Rhode Island.

A bill to decriminalize possession of one ounce of marijuana or less — modeled after a similar measure in Massachusetts — also failed to get out of the Senate, where its sponsor, Sen. Joshua Miller, a Cranston Democrat, said he didn't see enough support to override an expected veto from Carcieri.

"With a veto threatening, it had to be wider than that," Miller said of the level of support.

Lawmakers also approved the creation of a funding formula for school districts, which supporters see as critical to the state's hopes of securing $75 million in federal grants in the national Race to the Top education funding competition.

And the state passed a new law aimed at cutting income tax rates for most residents. It also reduces the number of tax brackets and eliminates the flat-tax option for the state's highest earners.

"This is a day when Rhode Island can say it's opening its doors to do business," Rep. Steven Costantino, a Providence Democrat and chair of the House Finance Committee, said at a news conference announcing the changes.

Other bills approved would:

— Legalize the sale of sparklers and ground-based fireworks.

— Remove the word "Retardation" from the state Department of Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals.

— Allow independent candidates for elective office to receive matching funds.

— Suspend for up to one year the license of any driver convicted of four different moving violations within an 18-month period.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Race to finish pulls along major bills

By steve peoples AND RANDAL EDGAR

Journal state house bureau

Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed talks with Senate Majority Leader Daniel Connors while the Senate was in recess for committee hearings Thursday.

The Providence Journal / Connie Grosch

PROVIDENCE — Having had little to show for its first five months of work, the General Assembly was poised to finish its 2010 session Thursday night after a 72-hour sprint to finalize high-profile laws on public education, gambling, a wind farm, taxes and dangerous drivers.

It was a frenzied pace at times for part-time lawmakers already looking toward their reelection fights this fall.

But officials from across the political spectrum praised the Democrat-dominated Assembly for a flurry of heavy lifting that began Tuesday afternoon as committees raced through hundreds of bills touching on everything from fireworks to municipal bankruptcy.

“I think that over the session they have dealt with a lot of issues,” said the Republican Governor Carcieri, citing the passage of an education-funding formula, an income-tax overhaul, a measure to help create a wind farm off Block Island, and another to ward off municipal bankruptcies. “They always get criticized because it all happens at the end. Unfortunately, that’s just the nature of the beast.”

Indeed, Thursday was the third consecutive day that lawmakers were expected to conclude their business after midnight. There was little public notice of votes, and agendas changed minute to minute, as top lawmakers brokered private deals to help shepherd bills to passage.

Government watchdog groups applauded the decision to end Wednesday’s business –– initially set as the Assembly’s last of the year — shortly after midnight, instead of forcing through dozens of new laws while most of Rhode Island was sleeping.

But they questioned the wisdom of continuing to rush to meet a self-imposed deadline to adjourn for the year.

“It’s only June 10. There’s plenty of time to keep working on these things,” said Common Cause Executive Director John Marion, noting that his organization’s two priorities — an ethics bill and another to improve access to public records — were likely dead for the year.

Senate leaders refused to allow a vote on legislation sponsored by House Speaker Gordon D. Fox to reinstate the state Ethics Commission’s authority, which was stripped by a recent Supreme Court decision.

Specifically, the proposal would have placed a question on the November ballot asking voters whether to allow the Ethics Commission’s to investigate and prosecute state legislators who use their positions to benefit themselves, their relatives or their business associates.

Without the change, “we’ve got a whole group of people exempt from ethics rules,” said a “disappointed” Carcieri.

Fox acknowledged earlier in the week that the ethics bill was not a priority, however. The governor had other priorities this year as well.

The term-limited Carcieri used what political leverage he had to ensure the passage of a bill — also backed by organized labor — to set the Deepwater Wind offshore-turbine project back on course.

The private company wants to spend $200 million to erect eight turbines off Block Island to serve the island. Deepwater describes its plan as a demonstration project that could lead to a $1.5-billion wind farm farther offshore.

But opponents, including Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, argued the legislation is a special-interest bill designed to benefit one company at great cost to many ratepayers.

Once signed into law by the governor, the new law would send the power-purchase agreement to the Public Utilities Commission for another review.

Carcieri referred to the deal as “huge for the state long-term,” and AFL-CIO President George Nee agreed.

“This may have been one of the more significant years for economic development in the history of the state,” said Nee, citing the Deepwater measure, in addition to the likely passage of a measure creating a November ballot question on whether to allow a full-scale casino in Rhode Island.

Carcieri personally called Fox when the House followed the Senate’s lead in approving the Deepwater bill late Wednesday.

The governor waited until after the vote to say whether he would veto the $7.8-billion state budget approved by the legislature last week. A veto would have inconvenienced lawmakers by forcing them to return next week for an override session.

“Nothing’s ever perfect,” Carcieri said of the budget, noting that he would “most likely not” veto the package, but that his office would issue a formal statement Friday.

Meanwhile, in the rush to adjourn Thursday night, lawmakers were also expected to approve a bill to increase penalties for “habitual traffic offenders.”

Drivers convicted of four moving violations within an 18-month period would have to attend 60 hours of driver training and perform 60 hours of community service. They would also face fines of up to $1,000 and the loss of their license for up to two years.

Rep. Donna Walsh, D-Charlestown, said the bill would help to prevent accidents like the one that killed 27-year-old Colin Foote. Foote, a Charlestown resident, was on his motorcycle when he was hit by a Westerly woman who had more two-dozen moving violations.

“He was struck by a repeat offender,” Walsh said. “His mother and his brother were in the car behind him, and it was a heartbreaking thing.”

The Assembly was also poised to help the financially ailing Landmark Hospital in its bid to merge with Caritas Christi Health Care, a hospital chain based in Massachusetts. The measure would exempt any for-profit corporation that acquires Landmark from sales taxes for 12 years.

Rep. Peter Kilmartin, D-Pawtucket, said the bill was not perfect but would help to maintain Landmark Hospital for people in northern Rhode Island.

“We need to preserve those jobs, we need to preserve that hospital,” he said. “This is not the best way to do it … but for the legislative system, this is the best that we have.”

Local officials were among the largest constituency left wanting.

The legislature largely refused to enact measures introduced by the governor to help cities and towns cut costs.

While the budget approved last week allows cities and towns to reduce school spending by 5 percent for the coming year, other proposals — such as mandatory minimum health co-pays for municipal employees — were considered dead.

The only good news, according to Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian, is that communities don’t have to fear future cuts because there’s almost nothing left to lose.

“We’re almost down to zero,” he said.

With reports

from Bruce Landis

redgar@projo.com

Major issues left to last minute

Thursday, June 10, 2010

By Steve Peoples, Randal edgar and Katherine gregg

Journal State House Bureau

Sen. Louis DiPalma, D-Tiverton, waits in the Senate chamber for the session to begin Tuesday.

>

The Providence Journal / Connie Grosch

PROVIDENCE — A flood of legislation moved through the General Assembly Tuesday, but the fate of many high-profile bills was unclear just 24 hours before lawmakers hope to adjourn for the year.

Casinos, a wind farm, ethics, marijuana, education funding, criminal records and taxes are a small sampling of the issues still confronting Rhode Island’s part-time legislators. Some may simply be left to die.

Very few were decided Tuesday, despite a chaotic pace.

When the afternoon began, 18 legislative committees were set to review and perhaps vote on 206 pieces of legislation. Dozens were passed and sent directly to the House or Senate floors where rank-and-file lawmakers were asked to act on laws that some hadn’t read. A computer failure in the Senate prevented specific votes on 40 bills from being recorded.

Noticeably absent from any agenda was an ethics bill that some say is all but dead.

Senate leaders have refused to allow a vote on a provision overwhelmingly approved by the House last week that would allow voters this fall to reinstate the Ethics Commission’s power to investigate and prosecute state legislators who use their positions to benefit themselves, their relatives or their business associates.

That power was stripped by a state Supreme Court ruling last year.

Roughly 40 protesters gathered in the State House rotunda earlier in the day to push for Senate action.

“Inaction will only leave a cloud over the Senate,” said Larry Valencia, president of the rally’s organizer, Operation Clean Government.

A handful of elected officials joined the protest, including Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts, Sen. Edward J. O’Neill, I-Lincoln, and Sen. Michael J. Pinga, D-West Warwick.

“I have little faith that it will be heard,” Pinga said of the bill. “If leadership doesn’t want to hear it, it’s not going to be heard … They want to police themselves. What a joke.”

When asked later in the afternoon whether she would allow a vote, Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed said, “No comment,” and added that it was not her immediate focus.

The fate of the bill, like dozens more pending before the legislature, won’t become clear until lawmakers formally recess for the year. That’s expected late Wednesday, but could stretch to later in the week.

The chaotic pace has become commonplace in an Assembly that gives final approval to just a handful of bills in the first five months of the year and regularly approves hundreds of new laws in its final days.

But there is one difference this year, according to John Marion, executive director of the government watchdog group Common Cause.

“There are probably more issues of greater substance left hanging,” he said. And “they’re leaving earlier than they usually do. We’re not bumping up against the Fourth of July here. It’s June 8. It doesn’t seem like there’s good reason to be rushing.”

Should the Assembly adjourn for the year Wednesday, as currently planned, it would be its earliest departure since 1988.

Other highlights Tuesday included:

Fireworks

A proposal, approved by the full House and full Senate, would allow the sale, possession and transportation of “non-aerial fireworks” for anyone at least 16 years old.

Specifically, the bill would legalize such things as “fountains, illuminating torches, wheels, ground spinners, flitter sparklers, sparklers” and “party poppers, snappers, toy smoke devices, snakes, glow worms, wire sparklers and dipped sticks.”

The new measure could become law in the coming days, long before the July 4 holiday.

Municipal tools

A committee Tuesday completely ignored legislation that would help cities and towns cut costs.

Despite recent declarations that relief was on the way, and despite another reduction in state aid to cities and towns, lawmakers as of Tuesday night had not passed any of the so-called municipal tools — such as a minimum health-insurance co-pay for municipal workers — that local officials wanted. And there was no indication that legislation will pass before the session ends.

“We’re not sure yet,” said House Speaker Gordon D. Fox. “There’s a lot of stuff still percolating.”

Estate tax

The same day Governor Carcieri signed into law an Assembly proposal that makes Rhode Island’s income-tax structure more competitive, the Senate approved a measure long considered a priority for conservatives that goes even further.

The act would raise the exemption of Rhode Island’s estate tax, sometimes referred to as the “death tax,” from the current level of $850,000 to $1.5 million beginning Jan. 1, 2012.

Approximately 271 tax filers would benefit from the change, and state government would lose estimated revenue of $2.78 million should the House approve the measure, according to the state Department of Revenue.

Expungement

A bill to allow many more convicted criminals to legally tell their prospective employers and landlords they have never been convicted of a crime cleared the House and Senate.

Rhode Island judges are already allowed to permanently seal the records of nonviolent crimes by first offenders 5 years after completion of their sentences for misdemeanors, 10 years after the completion of sentences for felonies. Headed to the governor, who vetoed a similar measure in 2008, the bill calls for the automatic sealing of the record of any crime for which an admitted criminal has been given a deferred sentence, regardless of the nature of the crime, as long as he or she stays out of trouble for that five-year period.

This would apply only to those who have plead guilty or no contest.

Others

•While the Senate passed a bill last week that would require all roll-call committee votes to be posted on the General Assembly Web site, the House Finance Committee had not as of Tuesday night scheduled a hearing on the proposal. Separate legislation that would force all legislative votes to be posted online in a user-friendly format was ignored.

•Lawmakers gave final approval and sent to the governor’s desk a bill that would require the police to record confessions to crimes that carry a potential penalty of life in prison. The bill, which applies to confessions made when a suspect is in police custody, allows for some exceptions, including cases where a defendant refuses to be recorded and cases where the accused makes a spontaneous statement.

•While the subject of much discussion this session, legislation that would decriminalize marijuana possession is likely dead for the year.

“There’s some ideas still floating around on how to resurrect it,” said its sponsor, Sen. Joshua Miller, D-Cranston.

With reports from

Philip Marcelo

redgar@projo.com

Bill flood misses some issues

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

By Steve Peoples, Randal edgar and Katherine gregg

Journal State House Bureau

Sen. Louis DiPalma, D-Tiverton, waits in the Senate chamber for the session to begin Tuesday.

The Providence Journal / Connie Grosch

PROVIDENCE — A flood of legislation moved through the General Assembly Tuesday, but the fate of many high-profile bills was unclear just 24 hours before lawmakers hope to adjourn for the year.

Casinos, a wind farm, ethics, marijuana, education funding, criminal records and taxes are a small sampling of the issues still confronting Rhode Island’s part-time legislators. Some may simply be left to die.

Very few were decided Tuesday, despite a chaotic pace.

When the afternoon began, 18 legislative committees were set to review and perhaps vote on 206 pieces of legislation. Dozens were passed and sent directly to the House or Senate floors where rank-and-file lawmakers were asked to act on laws that some hadn’t read. A computer failure in the Senate prevented specific votes on 40 bills from being recorded.

Noticeably absent from any agenda was an ethics bill that some say is all but dead.

Senate leaders have refused to allow a vote on a provision overwhelmingly approved by the House last week that would allow voters this fall to reinstate the Ethics Commission’s power to investigate and prosecute state legislators who use their positions to benefit themselves, their relatives or their business associates.

That power was stripped by a state Supreme Court ruling last year.

Roughly 40 protesters gathered in the State House rotunda earlier in the day to push for Senate action.

“Inaction will only leave a cloud over the Senate,” said Larry Valencia, president of the rally’s organizer, Operation Clean Government.

A handful of elected officials joined the protest, including Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts, Sen. Edward J. O’Neill, I-Lincoln, and Sen. Michael J. Pinga, D-West Warwick.

“I have little faith that it will be heard,” Pinga said of the bill. “If leadership doesn’t want to hear it, it’s not going to be heard … They want to police themselves. What a joke.”

When asked later in the afternoon whether she would allow a vote, Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed said, “No comment,” and added that it was not her immediate focus.

The fate of the bill, like dozens more pending before the legislature, won’t become clear until lawmakers formally recess for the year. That’s expected late Wednesday, but could stretch to later in the week.

The chaotic pace has become commonplace in an Assembly that gives final approval to just a handful of bills in the first five months of the year and regularly approves hundreds of new laws in its final days.

But there is one difference this year, according to John Marion, executive director of the government watchdog group Common Cause.

“There are probably more issues of greater substance left hanging,” he said. And “they’re leaving earlier than they usually do. We’re not bumping up against the Fourth of July here. It’s June 8. It doesn’t seem like there’s good reason to be rushing.”

Should the Assembly adjourn for the year Wednesday, as currently planned, it would be its earliest departure since 1988.

Other highlights Tuesday included:

Fireworks

A proposal, approved by the full House and full Senate, would allow the sale, possession and transportation of “non-aerial fireworks” for anyone at least 16 years old.

Specifically, the bill would legalize such things as “fountains, illuminating torches, wheels, ground spinners, flitter sparklers, sparklers” and “party poppers, snappers, toy smoke devices, snakes, glow worms, wire sparklers and dipped sticks.”

The new measure could become law in the coming days, long before the July 4 holiday.

Municipal tools

A committee Tuesday completely ignored legislation that would help cities and towns cut costs.

Despite recent declarations that relief was on the way, and despite another reduction in state aid to cities and towns, lawmakers as of Tuesday night had not passed any of the so-called municipal tools — such as a minimum health-insurance co-pay for municipal workers — that local officials wanted. And there was no indication that legislation will pass before the session ends.

“We’re not sure yet,” said House Speaker Gordon D. Fox. “There’s a lot of stuff still percolating.”

Estate tax

The same day Governor Carcieri signed into law an Assembly proposal that makes Rhode Island’s income-tax structure more competitive, the Senate approved a measure long considered a priority for conservatives that goes even further.

The act would raise the exemption of Rhode Island’s estate tax, sometimes referred to as the “death tax,” from the current level of $850,000 to $1.5 million beginning Jan. 1, 2012.

Approximately 271 tax filers would benefit from the change, and state government would lose estimated revenue of $2.78 million should the House approve the measure, according to the state Department of Revenue.

Expungement

A bill to allow many more convicted criminals to legally tell their prospective employers and landlords they have never been convicted of a crime cleared the House and Senate.

Rhode Island judges are already allowed to permanently seal the records of nonviolent crimes by first offenders 5 years after completion of their sentences for misdemeanors, 10 years after the completion of sentences for felonies. Headed to the governor, who vetoed a similar measure in 2008, the bill calls for the automatic sealing of the record of any crime for which an admitted criminal has been given a deferred sentence, regardless of the nature of the crime, as long as he or she stays out of trouble for that five-year period.

This would apply only to those who have plead guilty or no contest.

Others

•While the Senate passed a bill last week that would require all roll-call committee votes to be posted on the General Assembly Web site, the House Finance Committee had not as of Tuesday night scheduled a hearing on the proposal. Separate legislation that would force all legislative votes to be posted online in a user-friendly format was ignored.

•Lawmakers gave final approval and sent to the governor’s desk a bill that would require the police to record confessions to crimes that carry a potential penalty of life in prison. The bill, which applies to confessions made when a suspect is in police custody, allows for some exceptions, including cases where a defendant refuses to be recorded and cases where the accused makes a spontaneous statement.

•While the subject of much discussion this session, legislation that would decriminalize marijuana possession is likely dead for the year.

“There’s some ideas still floating around on how to resurrect it,” said its sponsor, Sen. Joshua Miller, D-Cranston.

With reports from

Philip Marcelo

redgar@projo.com

Major issues left to last minute

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

By Steve Peoples, Randal edgar and Katherine gregg

Journal State House Bureau

PROVIDENCE — A flood of legislation moved through the General Assembly Tuesday, but the fate of many high-profile bills was unclear just 24 hours before lawmakers hope to adjourn for the year.

Casinos, a wind farm, ethics, marijuana, education funding, criminal records and taxes are a small sampling of the issues still confronting Rhode Island’s part-time legislators. Some may simply be left to die.

Very few were decided Tuesday, despite a chaotic pace.

When the afternoon began, 18 legislative committees were set to review and perhaps vote on 206 pieces of legislation. Dozens were passed and sent directly to the House or Senate floors where rank-and-file lawmakers were asked to act on laws that some hadn’t read. A computer failure in the Senate prevented specific votes on 40 bills from being recorded.

Noticeably absent from any agenda was an ethics bill that some say is all but dead.

Senate leaders have refused to allow a vote on a provision overwhelmingly approved by the House last week that would allow voters this fall to reinstate the Ethics Commission’s power to investigate and prosecute state legislators who use their positions to benefit themselves, their relatives or their business associates.

That power was stripped by a state Supreme Court ruling last year.

Roughly 40 protesters gathered in the State House rotunda earlier in the day to push for Senate action.

“Inaction will only leave a cloud over the Senate,” said Larry Valencia, president of the rally’s organizer, Operation Clean Government.

A handful of elected officials joined the protest, including Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts, Sen. Edward J. O’Neill, I-Lincoln, and Sen. Michael J. Pinga, D-West Warwick.

“I have little faith that it will be heard,” Pinga said of the bill. “If leadership doesn’t want to hear it, it’s not going to be heard … They want to police themselves. What a joke.”

When asked later in the afternoon whether she would allow a vote, Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed said, “No comment,” and added that it was not her immediate focus.

The fate of the bill, like dozens more pending before the legislature, won’t become clear until lawmakers formally recess for the year. That’s expected late Wednesday, but could stretch to later in the week.

The chaotic pace has become commonplace in an Assembly that gives final approval to just a handful of bills in the first five months of the year and regularly approves hundreds of new laws in its final days.

But there is one difference this year, according to John Marion, executive director of the government watchdog group Common Cause.

“There are probably more issues of greater substance left hanging,” he said. And “they’re leaving earlier than they usually do. We’re not bumping up against the Fourth of July here. It’s June 8. It doesn’t seem like there’s good reason to be rushing.”

Should the Assembly adjourn for the year Wednesday, as currently planned, it would be its earliest departure since 1988.

Other highlights Tuesday included:

Fireworks

A proposal, approved by the full House and full Senate, would allow the sale, possession and transportation of “non-aerial fireworks” for anyone at least 16 years old.

Specifically, the bill would legalize such things as “fountains, illuminating torches, wheels, ground spinners, flitter sparklers, sparklers” and “party poppers, snappers, toy smoke devices, snakes, glow worms, wire sparklers and dipped sticks.”

The new measure could become law in the coming days, long before the July 4 holiday.

Municipal tools

A committee Tuesday completely ignored legislation that would help cities and towns cut costs.

Despite recent declarations that relief was on the way, and despite another reduction in state aid to cities and towns, lawmakers as of Tuesday night had not passed any of the so-called municipal tools — such as a minimum health-insurance co-pay for municipal workers — that local officials wanted. And there was no indication that legislation will pass before the session ends.

“We’re not sure yet,” said House Speaker Gordon D. Fox. “There’s a lot of stuff still percolating.”

Estate tax

The same day Governor Carcieri signed into law an Assembly proposal that makes Rhode Island’s income-tax structure more competitive, the Senate approved a measure long considered a priority for conservatives that goes even further.

The act would raise the exemption of Rhode Island’s estate tax, sometimes referred to as the “death tax,” from the current level of $850,000 to $1.5 million beginning Jan. 1, 2012.

Approximately 271 tax filers would benefit from the change, and state government would lose estimated revenue of $2.78 million should the House approve the measure, according to the state Department of Revenue.

Expungement

A bill to allow many more convicted criminals to legally tell their prospective employers and landlords they have never been convicted of a crime cleared the House and Senate.

Rhode Island judges are already allowed to permanently seal the records of nonviolent crimes by first offenders 5 years after completion of their sentences for misdemeanors, 10 years after the completion of sentences for felonies. Headed to the governor, who vetoed a similar measure in 2008, the bill calls for the automatic sealing of the record of any crime for which an admitted criminal has been given a deferred sentence, regardless of the nature of the crime, as long as he or she stays out of trouble for that five-year period.

This would apply only to those who have plead guilty or no contest.

Others

•While the Senate passed a bill last week that would require all roll-call committee votes to be posted on the General Assembly Web site, the House Finance Committee had not as of Tuesday night scheduled a hearing on the proposal. Separate legislation that would force all legislative votes to be posted online in a user-friendly format was ignored.

•Lawmakers gave final approval and sent to the governor’s desk a bill that would require the police to record confessions to crimes that carry a potential penalty of life in prison. The bill, which applies to confessions made when a suspect is in police custody, allows for some exceptions, including cases where a defendant refuses to be recorded and cases where the accused makes a spontaneous statement.

•While the subject of much discussion this session, legislation that would decriminalize marijuana possession is likely dead for the year.

“There’s some ideas still floating around on how to resurrect it,” said its sponsor, Sen. Joshua Miller, D-Cranston.

With reports from

Philip Marcelo

Political Scene: Redrawing Rhode Island’s political map will cost $1.5 million

Monday, June 7, 2010

By Katherine Gregg and By RANDAL EDGAR

Journal State House Bureau

Deep within the new $7.8-billion state budget is a reminder that the next General Assembly will have the once-a-decade job of redrawing Rhode Island’s political map.

The tax-and-spending plan that cleared the Assembly last week included $1.5 million for lawmakers to find and hire a consultant to help them determine how population changes over the last decade might change the state’s legislative and congressional districts.

House spokesman Larry Berman said the General Assembly intends to begin by issuing a request for proposals this summer.

The money helps account for the legislature’s own record-high new budget: a proposed $39,049,144, compared with the $37.4 million the lawmakers appropriated for themselves at this point last year.

But “given the fact that the software to draw districts is now free and available on the Internet, $1.5 million seems like a pretty steep price,” said John Marion, executive director of the citizens’ advocacy group Common Cause, when he learned of this budget set-aside.

Elaborating, he said: “The ground has shifted because of the changes in computing power and I believe the advocates (and in R.I. that means us) will be on a much more level playing field with those trying to gerrymander.”

Marion said Common Cause has “already begun to assemble the resources and expertise to launch a citizens model redistricting commission that will allow us to offer an alternative set of districts to those the legislature will draw. The commission will take public input to establish a set of criteria for redistricting and then we (probably Common Cause) will draw the districts to their specifications and make them public.

“We hope this will put sufficient pressure on those who make the official districts and they will then resist the temptation to gerrymander,” he said.

To hear Marion, it is not that hard “to program a computer to perform redistricting,” as long as you know computer-speak.

He explains: “Two professors, Micah Altman at Harvard University and Michael McDonald at George Mason University created an open-source program, in the R statistical programming language, that allows the computer to draw the districts.”And so it begins.

Special immunity for legislators shouldn't exist

Warwick Beacon

by John Marion

Jun 03, 2010

As the end of the 2010 session of the Rhode Island General Assembly speeds to a quick and early conclusion, a number of important issues have been left waiting. One of those issues involves the jurisdiction (or lack thereof) of the state’s Ethics Commission over the General Assembly itself. Currently state legislators, and only state legislators, are immune from prosecution by the state’s ethics watchdog for their “core legislative acts.” This is a result of the Rhode Island Supreme Court’s 2009 decision in the case of William V. Irons vs. The Rhode Island Ethics Commission.

Common Cause sincerely believes that this special immunity for legislators should not exist and we, along with Operation Clean Government, have proposed an amendment to the Constitution to make sure it no longer does. Furthermore, we believe that when an overwhelming majority of voters in 1986 approved the Ethics Amendment to our Constitution—one that says “all elected and appointed officials . . . shall be subject to the code of ethics”—they meant the General Assembly too. The Supreme Court believes the voters did not make that clear 24 years ago, and that is why a ballot question is needed now. We are asking the General Assembly to put this issue on the November ballot before it is too late.

Unfortunately, the people of the state of Rhode Island may never get a chance to clarify what they meant back in 1986 because the Rhode Island Senate is denying them that opportunity. In the House, Speaker Gordon Fox has sponsored the resolution to put the question on the ballot. By contrast, in the Senate the resolution (sponsored by Senator J. Michael Lenihan of East Greenwich) only got a hearing when the sponsor specifically requested one. After that perfunctory hearing, the Senate resolution was “held for further study,” a designation that is a sort of legislative purgatory.

Why should they do this now? Since the June 2009 Supreme Court decision, there has been no mechanism for enforcing the state’s code of ethics for most of the official actions of our legislators. That means a legislator cannot be prosecuted by the Ethics Commission for voting on a bill that benefits them financially. If we do not put this on the ballot now, then this immunity will extend until at least 2012, and possibly forever.

Why is this important? Building public confidence in the legislative process is a critical ingredient to a successful democracy. People need to believe that their representatives are serving the public interest, and not their personal or special interests. Trust is the glue that binds voters to their representatives, and our amendment seeks to strengthen that bond.

Common Cause calls on the Rhode Island Senate to allow the people to decide this issue. The Senate has known about this problem since the first week in January, and yet five months later the problem persists. Their solution, a system of self-policing, is unwieldy and potentially costly. In the closing days of the session—before rushing out to campaign for re-election—the Senate needs to take up this issue and let the people decide.

John Marion is the executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island.

Update: RI House OKs ballot item to tighten ethics rules

Wed, Jun 02, 2010

Katherine Gregg

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- One after another, Rhode Island's state lawmakers rose from their seats on the House floor to defend their right to speak without having an "unelected'' Ethics Commission peering over their shoulders.

Then, the House approved - and sent to the Senate - a bill that would give voters a chance, in November, to reinstate the state Ethics Commission's power to investigate and prosecute state legislators.

The vote was 67-5 in favor of the bill introduced by new House Speaker Gordon D. Fox, early in the 2010 election-year session when he was still the House majority leader, vying for the top leadership post in the House.

The vote marked a victory for Fox, who had to win votes from a phalanx of dubious colleagues.

Before the bill passed, the House members voted 37-33 to defeat an amendment that would have excluded all of their speech from Ethics Commission jurisdiction.

The measure now goes to the full Senate, where Senate Majority Leader Daniel Connors has repeatedly questioned the need for any action, and said again recently: "If a member of the Assembly were doing something illegal, they could be prosecuted right now in the U.S. District Court by the U.S. Attorney and be subject to penalties for violating the law like any other citizen."

Fox's legislation was prompted by a June decision by the Rhode Island Supreme Court that dismissed ethics charges pending against former Senate President William V. Irons based on a novel reading of the "speech in debate clause" in the state Constitution.

The clause states: "For any speech in debate in either House, no member shall be questioned in any other place."

High profile lawmakers had argued for years that this clause placed them beyond the reach of the Ethics Commission or its predecessor, including former House Speakers Matthew J. Smith, when he was accused of personally benefiting from a bill he supported to allow state workers to buy state pension credit for private school teaching, and John B. Harwood, when he rebuffed a subpoena to testify in a case involving the dismissal of a former Lottery director.

In 1984, the Rhode Island Supreme Court said the clause does more than immunize legislators against civil lawsuits for their utterances on the Senate and House floors. Supporting the refusal of House leaders to answer allegations of gerrymandering, the court said the privilege protects behind-the-scenes legislative deliberations, whether they take place at the State House or elsewhere.

But the high court's ruling in the Irons' case blasted opened the current hole in state Ethics Code enforcement; following the ruling, the commission took the position that it was no longer even allowed to issue advisory opinions to lawmakers.

Irons had been accused of using his public office to obtain financial gain for pharmacy giant CVS - a "business associate" - while collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance commissions from Blue Cross on a health-insurance policy for CVS employees in Rhode Island.

Irons' lawyer argued, and the Supreme Court agreed, that the "speech in debate clause" insulates lawmakers from Ethics Commission scrutiny for any "core legislative act," including "proposing, passing or voting upon a particular piece of legislation."

In his dissent, Chief Justice Paul Suttell, a former member of the House of Representatives, cited the litany of scandals that led to the 1986 voter-mandated creation of the Ethics Commission, and said "a page of history is worth a volume of logic."

The Fox bill - and a matching Senate version sponsored by J. Michael Lenihan, D-East Greenwich - have an army of supporters.

A parade of candidates for high office joined the citizens' advocacy groups Common Cause, Operation Clean Government and the League of Women Voters in arguing that state lawmakers should be subject to the same Ethics Commission scrutiny that applies to every other elected official in Rhode Island, from the governor to the members of each local school board, zoning board and town council.

Common Cause Executive Director John Marion told the lawmakers the proposal is not aimed at giving the nine-member Ethics Commission any more power than it had during its first two decades. He said 37 other states allow ethics oversight of their legislators.

But the Fox bill faced opposition at every step along the way, with freshman Rep. Scott Pollard, D-Foster, declaring at the initial hearing in march: "There aren't any corrupt people in the building ... And if you do know them to be corrupt, then I suggest that you call the attorney general's office and seek [to have] them prosecuted."

Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, voiced concerns about giving the Ethics Commission "virtually limitless authority to decide what constitutes a conflict of interest or ethical misconduct when it comes to both legislators' votes and their participation in the legislative process."

He repeated those concerns during a recent hearing on the matching Senate bill, at which Sen. John Tassoni, D-Smithfield, deplored the way the Ethics Commission is currently constructed as "a judge, jury and executioner."

Here is how the House members voted:

Voting yes
Ajello, D-Providence
Almeida, D-Providence
Brien, D-Woonsocket
Caprio, D-Narragansett
Carnevale, D-Providence
Carter, D-North Kingstown
Coderre, D-Pawtucket
Corvese, D-North Providence
Costantino, D-Providence
DeSimone, D-Providence
Diaz, D-Providence
Driver, D-Richmond
Edwards, D-Tiverton
Ehrhardt, R-North Kingstown
Fellela, D-Johnston
Ferri, D-Warwick
Fierro, D-Woonsocket
Flaherty, D-Warwick
Fox, D-Providence
Gablinske, D-Bristol
Gallison, D-Bristol
Gemma, D-Warwick
Giannini, D-Providence
Guthrie, D-Coventry
Handy, D-Cranston
Hearn, D-Barrington
Jackson, D-Newport
Jacquard, D-Cranston
Kennedy, D-Hopkinton
Kilmartin, D-Pawtucket
Lally, D-South Kingstown
Loughlin, R-Tiverton
MacBeth, D-Cumberland
Malik, D-Warren
Marcello, D-Scituate
Martin, D-Newport
Mattiello, D-Cranston
McCauley, D-Providence
McNamara, D-Warwick
Melo, D-East Providence
Menard, D-Lincoln
Naughton, D-Warwick
O'Neill, D-Pawtucket
Pacheco, D-Burrillville
Palumbo, D-Cranston
Petrarca, D-Lincoln
A. Rice, D-Portsmouth
M. Rice, D-South Kingstown
Ruggiero, D-Jamestown
San Bento, D-Pawtucket
Savage, R-East Providence
Schadone, D-North Providence
Segal, D-Providence
Serpa, D-West Warwick
Shallcross Smith, D-Lincoln
Silva, D-Central Falls
Sullivan, D-Coventry
Trillo, R-Warwick
Ucci, D-Johnston
Vaudreuil, D-Cumberland
Walsh, D-Charlestown
Wasylyk, D-Providence
Williams, D-Providence
Williamson, D-Coventry
Winfield, D-Smithfield

Voting no
Baldelli-Hunt, D-Woonsocket
DaSilva, D-East Providence
Newberry, R-N. Smithfield
Pollard, D-Foster
Watson, R-East Greenwich

Did not vote
Azzinaro, D-Westerly
Lima, D-CranstonMurphy, D-West Warwick


SOURCE: House roll call
(The original version of this story was published at 5:35 pm. Wednesday.)

Judicial nominees list bill is back before R.I. General Assembly

Sunday, May 30, 2010

By Katie Mulvaney

Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE — A bill that would let the governor choose judicial nominees from lists of finalists generated over the past five years is back again and working its way through the General Assembly.

The measure, sponsored by Sen. Leo R. Blais, R-Coventry, won the Senate’s backing last week and now awaits House Judiciary Committee review. If passed, it would extend to June 30, 2011, the governor’s ability to pick potential judges from lists created as far back as 2005.

First passed in 2007, the legislation was proposed this session at Governor Carcieri’s request as a way to save judicial candidates the inconvenience of going through the selection process before the Judicial Nominating Commission more than once.

“Simply because they are not chosen [the first time] does not diminish their qualifications,” said Amy Kempe, the governor’s spokeswoman. The pool of candidates has already been vetted as well-qualified, she said.

The bill, however, is perennially opposed by the government watchdog group Common Cause Rhode Island, which charges that it undermines core concepts of the judicial merit selection by reducing the transparency of the process. Allowing the governor to reach back and choose nominees from the lists created near the start of his term invites mischief and increases the politics involved, according to John Marion, Common Cause executive director.

Further, he said, it might violate the state Constitution, which specifies the governor should choose from “a list.” “This allows the governor to pick from multiple lists,” he said.

Lawyers interested in filling an open seat on the state bench must submit a lengthy application to the Judicial Nominating Commission. Members select which applicants to interview and hold a public hearing in which friends, family and colleagues speak to a candidate’s qualifications. The commission then forwards a list of three to five finalists to the governor.

Before the bill’s enactment, the governor had to select from only the list created by the Judicial Nominating Commission for a given position.

A hearing date before the House Judiciary Committee has not been set. A House version was held for further study last month. There are three Superior Court vacancies and two openings in District Court.

Placing ethics panel issue on ballot advances

Providence Journal

Thursday, May 27, 2010

By Katherine Gregg

Journal State House Bureau

PROVIDENCE — Voters would get their chance to reinstate the Ethics Commission’s power to investigate and prosecute state legislators under legislation that won the approval of a key House committee on Wednesday.

The bill, sponsored by House Speaker Gordon D. Fox early in the 2010 legislative session when he was still House majority leader, cleared the House Judiciary Committee without any audible dissent two months after a rocky March hearing at which several freshmen legislators voiced umbrage at the notion of having an “unelected body” looking over their shoulders.

“I’ve been here a year and a half now,” said freshman Rep. Scott Pollard, D-Foster, at that March 23 hearing. “There aren’t any corrupt people in the building … And if you do know them to be corrupt, then I suggest that you call the attorney general’s office and seek [to have] them prosecuted.”

Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, also voiced concerns about giving the Ethics Commission “virtually limitless authority to decide what constitutes a conflict of interest or ethical misconduct when it comes to both legislators’ votes and their participation in the legislative process.”

He repeated those concerns Wednesday during a hearing on a matching Senate version of the bill, at which Sen. John Tassoni, D-Smithfield, voiced his concern about the way the Ethics Commission is currently constructed as “a judge, jury and executioner.”

But a parade of candidates for high office have joined the citizens’ advocacy groups Common Cause, Operation Clean Government and the League of Women Voters to urge passage of the legislation. It would place legislators under the same Ethics Commission scrutiny that applies to every other elected official in Rhode Island, from the governor to the members of each local school board, zoning board and town council.

And Common Cause Executive Director John Marion told the lawmakers the proposal is not aimed at giving the nine-member Ethics Commission any more power than it had during its first two decades. He said 37 other states allow ethics oversight of their legislators.

The bill now goes to the full House for a vote, and then the Senate where Senate Majority Leader Daniel Connors again Wednesday questioned the need for any action, and said: “If a member of the Assembly were doing something illegal, they could be prosecuted right now in the U.S. District Court by the U.S. Attorney and be subject to penalties for violating the law like any other citizen.”

And two of the House Judiciary Committee members who voted for the Fox bill said they did so with reservations, hoping House leaders will back an amendment to shore up the “speech-in-debate” protection that insulates legislators from being sued for what they say.

Fox’s legislation was prompted by a June decision by the Rhode Island Supreme Court that dismissed ethics charges pending against former Senate President William V. Irons based on a novel reading of the state’s “speech in debate clause.”

Irons had been accused of using his public office to obtain financial gain for pharmacy giant CVS — a “business associate” — while collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance commissions from Blue Cross on a health-insurance policy for CVS employees in Rhode Island.

Irons’ lawyer argued, and the Supreme Court agreed, that the “speech in debate clause” insulates lawmakers from Ethics Commission scrutiny for any “core legislative act,” including “proposing, passing or voting upon a particular piece of legislation.”

In his dissent, Chief Justice Paul Suttell, a former member of the House of Representatives, cited the litany of scandals that led to the 1986 voter-mandated creation of the Ethics Commission, and said “a page of history is worth a volume of logic.”

On Wednesday, two Democratic candidates for attorney general added their voices to the chorus urging passage: state Rep. Peter Kilmartin, D-Pawtucket and Smithfield Councilman Stephen R. Archambault.

Archambault said: “Members of the General Assembly should be subject to the same Ethics Commission oversight as the rest of our state’s public officials. It is essential to rebuilding the public trust.”

Added Kilmartin: “Legislators working honestly on behalf of Rhode Islanders do not need a legal loophole to act as a shield. The proposed constitutional amendment will rightfully allow those who do not act honorably, ethically and legally to be prosecuted.”

The lawmakers are still filing their annual financial disclosure statements with the commission, so “there is still a significant measure of oversight that the Ethics Commission performs over the Assembly,” said Connors, hailing the filings as “the most important resource that the public has to sniff out any impure motives.”

Taxpayers deserve accountability for their $52,927

Providence Journal

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

By Edward Fitzpatrick

You’ve heard of Joe the Plumber, right? Well, here in Rhode Island we have Joe the Constituent Liaison.

Attention is focusing on the fact that Joseph S. Burchfield, the former North Providence Town Council president, faces extortion and bribery charges, accused of joining two other councilmen in pocketing a $25,000 bribe. But it’s also worth noting that Burchfield has been working for the state Senate as a “constituent liaison.” While he’s on unpaid administrative leave now, he had been making $52,927 a year.

And that’s a figure worth keeping in mind as legislators decide whether to pass bills requiring that House and Senate floor votes, and committee votes, be posted on the legislature’s Web site in an easily accessible format.

At a time when elected officials and candidates bombard us with PR via Twitter and Facebook, there’s no excuse for not giving us a simple way to access vital information on how legislators voted on issues we care about. But you’ve already begun to hear the excuses taking shape on Smith Hill: It’s a tough year; we’d love to pass these bills but we’re not sure we can afford it; you understand, right?

Actually, no. Not when legislators are voting on crucial issues such as closing the state budget gap or closing the student achievement gap, enacting pension reform or an updated school-funding formula, deciding the future of a wind turbine project or the future of the bankrupt Twin River slot parlor.

And not when we’re spending $52,927 a year in taxpayer money for the likes of Joe the Constituent Liaison.

True constituent service would involve putting floor votes and committee votes into an easy-to-search format. While online House and Senate journals already include daily floor votes, curious citizens must know the date of the vote and scroll through a lengthy document. And about the only way to get a recent committee vote is go to the State House and track down a committee clerk.

Some state legislators want to follow Arizona’s example when it comes to cracking down on illegal immigration, but we’ll see if they also follow Arizona’s lead when it comes to public information. The Arizona legislature’s Web site not only gives you easy access to floor and committee votes on the controversial immigration bill, you can also see video of committee and floor discussions of the bill.

“We are so far behind in some respects,” said John M. Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island.

For example, Rhode Island is the only state that does not stream audio or video of legislative floor debates, Marion said. And we have the most cumbersome process for monitoring legislative votes online, he said, explaining that unlike other states, Rhode Island posts floor votes in PDF documents, which must be downloaded and cannot be quickly searched online.

Marion took note of one Byzantine twist to Senate journals: A “legislative day” can include multiple calendar days, so in February one of the Senate’s legislative days lasted two weeks, meaning it took 14 days for the Senate Journal to reflect votes from that legislative day.

Marion said the Assembly could post committee votes online without spending any money. “We’ll call that the Hyundai version,” he said.

And while the Assembly would have to spend some money to post floor votes in a more easily accessible format, Marion said, “For the price of one constituent liaison, you could likely have the Cadillac of legislative Web sites.”

Several bills require R.I. General Assembly votes to be posted online

Providence Journal

By Randal Edgar

Journal State House Bureau

Their sessions are on cable TV, they have individual pages on the state Web site and the bills they sponsor can be found online. But a perceived lack of openness with regard to how state lawmakers actually vote is prompting a flurry of bills this year that would require the General Assembly to post those votes online.

No less than six bills have been submitted in recent weeks. Some, like a bill sponsored by Rep. David A. Segal, D-Providence, would require all floor votes to be posted on the Assembly Web site. Others, like a bill sponsored by Rep. Deborah Ruggiero, D-Jamestown, would require all roll-call committee votes to be posted on the Web site.

The idea has support from groups such as Common Cause Rhode Island, the Rhode Island League of Women Voters, Operation Open Government and the Rhode Island Tea Party.

“This is about easy access,” Greta L. Abbott, a lobbyist for the Rhode Island League of Women Voters, told the House Finance Committee on Tuesday. “Most important, this is about accountability.”

As Abbott and others noted, House and Senate floor votes can be found online, but only in PDF documents that summarize one or more days of House or Senate floor activity. For Rhode Islanders who want to see what their lawmakers are up to, it can be days and weeks before those votes show up online, said John Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island. And when they do show up, it’s not in the most user-friendly format.

“Those journals aren’t easy to search through,” he said.

By contrast, more than a dozen states post roll-call votes to the Internet in real time, and others post them in a searchable format, Marion said, citing a 2008 study by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Committee votes are a different issue. Unlike floor votes in the Rhode Island Assembly, committee votes are not posted online, though they are recorded by clerks and compiled at the state library.

Marion also noted that Rhode Island, according to the NCLS report, is the only state that does not broadcast live video or audio of House and Senate sessions over the Internet.

House Speaker Gordon D. Fox said Wednesday that he is looking at possible changes.

“We are reviewing the legislation and checking to see what the additional costs would be … to upgrade our legislative Web site,” he said in a statement.

There was no response from the Senate leadership, but Sen. Leonidas P. Raptakis, D-Coventry, sponsor of two Senate bills that call for votes to be posted online, said the costs would be minimal. He pointed to New Hampshire’s Web site, which allows viewers to select a lawmaker and view all of his or her votes for a given year.

“People should know how their state representative or state senator voted as quickly as possible,” he said.

In all, there are three bills before the House Finance Committee and three before the Senate Constitutional and Regulatory Issues Committee. All were held for further study last week.

Ruggiero told the House Finance Committee that her bill, which would require all roll-call committee votes to be posted online, is not perfect but would be a step in the right direction.

“Right now there is not a way for our constituents to see how committee votes are taken,” she said. “We want to make sure that we have good clean government and certainly transparency. That’s really the intent of this.”

Providence Journal editorial supports Maine fair elections sytem

Editorial: Maine’s $5 election plan

01:00 AM EDT on Monday, May 24, 2010

It’s a bit cumbersome, especially at the start of someone’s campaign, but Maine’s “clean elections” law is making politics there more widely reflect the general will of the public, as opposed to that of special interests.

The system, described in a March 27 Boston Globe story “Maine blazes path in funding,” by Sasha Issenberg, involves having citizens wanting this or that candidate pay $5 to a state government fund set up for candidates.

Candidates for governor who reach a goal of $16,250, from 3,250 in individual contributions (cash, check or money order), can then ultimately, depending on their success in the primary elections, become eligible for from $400,000 to as much as $1.8 million in public funds. It’s a stepped process from primary to general election. Once candidates get those funds, they aren’t supposed to take money from other, private donors.

Ms. Issenberg reports that since it can be time-consuming and otherwise difficult to raise all those small individual amounts, candidates are allowed to finance those fund-raising campaigns by “collecting up to $200,000 in ‘seed money’ from contributions of $100 or less but have to shut down such accounts at the time they qualify for public money.”

Many of these contributions are raised at candidates’ speaking events, where they ask people to each pay $5 into the aforementioned account.

The system creates a sense of admirable civic engagement — it reminds people that anyone can be a “campaign contributor” and encourages candidates, if they reach the minimum of $16,250 to qualify, to spend more time on issues rather than on asking people for money. Other states should watch the Maine experience carefully.

R.I. Senate committee delays vote on wind-farm special exemption bill

Providence Journal

01:00 AM EDT on Friday, May 14, 2010

By Alex Kuffner

Journal Staff Writer

A state Senate committee has again postponed voting on legislation that would benefit an offshore wind developer as the panel awaits amendments to the controversial bill.

The Senate Committee on Environment and Agriculture was set to vote Thursday on legislation that would allow Deepwater Wind LLC to enter into an agreement for the sale of electricity from its proposed eight-turbine wind farm near Block Island without first getting approval from the state Public Utilities Commission. It is the second delay for a decision on the bill after the cancellation of a vote Tuesday. No new date has been scheduled.

During the committee meeting Tuesday, its chairwoman, Sen. V. Susan Sosnowski, D-South Kingstown, said she was awaiting changes to the bill that were made after a hearing last week in which a host of individuals and groups questioned why the General Assembly would allow a private company to avoid review by the PUC and, instead, place consideration of a long-term power-purchase agreement in the hands of four other state agencies.

At another hearing before the House Committee on Environment and Natural Resources later on Tuesday, Governor Carcieri, a supporter of the legislation, said that possible amendments being discussed include the addition of an appeal process.

The legislation was proposed after the PUC voted in March to reject a 20-year contract between Deepwater and National Grid, the state’s main electricity utility, with the panel’s three members all concluding that the starting price of 24.4 cents per kilowatt-hour was not “commercially reasonable.” The current price for power from conventional sources is 9.2 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Deepwater did not appeal the decision — a potentially lengthy endeavor — because it needs a contract in place soon to place orders for its turbines and qualify for federal tax credits that will expire at the end of the year. Instead, the company is seeking to circumvent the PUC altogether.

Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, a candidate to replace Carcieri in the governor’s office, has supported the PUC and objected to the legislation. So has the Conservation Law Foundation, which backs Deepwater’s wind farm but is against any change in the regulatory process to benefit a single company.

“[The legislation] provides no criteria for review of the contract between [National] Grid and Deepwater; no mechanism for translating realized cost savings into rates; no evidentiary hearings; no appeal; and creates only the appearance of process by suggesting that the contract would have to be approved by four administrative agency heads,” Tricia Jedele, director of CLF’s Rhode Island Advocacy Center, wrote in a May 12 letter to House and Senate members.

Also this week, government watchdogs Operation Clean Government and Common Cause Rhode Island came out in opposition to the bill.

“This bill is not a responsible reaction to an unfavorable decision of a regulatory agency,” Larry Valencia, president of Operation Clean Government said in a statement. “Creating public policy by subverting established processes is not healthy for democratic government.”

Vote on Deepwater-PUC bill is postponed

Providence Business News

Published online May 13, 2010

energy

Vote on Deepwater-PUC bill is postponed

By Chris Barrett
PBN Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE – A Senate committee has called off a hearing originally scheduled for Thursday when it was expected the panel would vote on a bill that could kickstart development of a proposed offshore wind farm.

“The bill just isn’t ready,” Senate Environment and Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Sen. V. Susan Sosnowski, D-South Kingstown, told Providence Business News on Thursday afternoon. A new date for the hearing has not been scheduled yet, she said.

Sosnowski, who introduced the bill, said lawmakers and their staffers were still drafting amendments to the bill, which would allow four state agencies – instead of the R.I. Public Utilities Commission – to sign off on a power-purchase agreement between wind farm developer Deepwater Wind LLC and National Grid Plc.

The PUC rejected a draft contract between the two sides in March after commissioners decided the projected price of electricity from the project – 24.4 cents a kilowatt-hour – was too high.

The legislation to bypass the PUC has the backing of Gov. Donald L. Carcieri, who has testified before committees in both chambers of the General Assembly to express his support for the measure.

Not everyone supports the bill, however. Two good-government groups – Common Cause and Operation Clean Government – have come out against it, calling the bill an “unprecedented change in established process,” and R.I. Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch has repeatedly urged the General Assembly to reject the measure.

Despite the opposition, Sosnowski said the bill would “definitely” move forward in her committee.

Senate panel sets vote on Deepwater bill

Providence Business News

Published online May 12, 2010

Senate panel sets vote on Deepwater bill

By Chris Barrett

PBN Staff Writer

DEEPWATER WIND wants to install up to eight wind turbines off Block Island by 2012, followed by a 106-turbine farm in Rhode Island Sound in 2015.

PROVIDENCE – A Senate committee is scheduled to vote Thursday on a bill that could jumpstart the offshore wind farm Deepwater Wind LLC wants to build off Block Island.

The bill would allow the heads of four state agencies to sign off on a power-purchase agreement between Deepwater and National Grid Plc. In March, the R.I. Public Utilities Commission rejected a proposed contract between the two, saying the projected wholesale price of the wind farm’s electricity, 24.4 cents per kilowatt-hour, was too high.

On Tuesday, the Senate Environment and Agriculture Committee voted to delay a hearing scheduled for that day in order to give legislative staffers more time to draft amendments requested by its chair, Sen. V. Susan Sosnowski, D-South Kingstown.

Sosnowski told Providence Business News on Wednesday that she wanted to amend her bill to clarify the process the four agency heads would take before approving the bill. She also wanted to add a cap on the price of electricity for Block Island customers, which was requested by the island’s top elected official, First Warden Kim Gaffett.

Currently, Block Island generates power from diesel generators and has no connection to the mainland electric grid. One component of the wind farm project would involve installing a transmission cable between the mainland and the island.

Sosnowski said her committee also wanted to see what happened at a House committee hearing on the bill Tuesday. Gov. Donald L. Carcieri emphasized his strong support of the bill at that hearing, just as he did last week before Sosnowski’s Senate committee.

“As I said last week, passage of this legislation in a timely manner is critically important to ensuring that Rhode Island will continue to be a leader in developing an offshore wind industry,” Carcieri said in prepared remarks. “We are poised on the brink of great opportunity and must act now to seize that opportunity.”

Not everyone agrees. On Tuesday, two good-government groups – Common Cause and Operation Clean Government – came out against the bill, calling it an “unprecedented change in established process,” and R.I. Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch has repeatedly urged the General Assembly to reject it.

In a statement, Lynch, who is running for governor, described the wind farm as “a special deal for the developers that will be bad for Rhode Island consumers” and, referring to the PUC, called the bill “an end run around an unfavorable decision from an independent, impartial and apolitical tribunal.”

In a letter to Sosnowski released Tuesday, Lynch thanked her for postponing the Senate committee’s vote on the bill. He also proposed revising the guidelines for the PUC’s review process or, alternatively, having a different body such as the R.I. Energy Facility Siting Board review the project.

“One factor that I believe is key to creating a viable alternative to the existing PUC procedures … is an appeal process that would keep the underlying proceeding and decision open and fair,” Lynch wrote. “This could be accomplished by providing our traditional Administrative Procedures Act review or by allowing automatic review by Petition for Certiorari to the [R.I.] Supreme Court from the agency’s final decision.”

Why we are speaking out about the wind farm process

I am writing you today to explain why Common Cause Rhode Island has decided to oppose the newly revised process for approving the small wind farm off of Block Island found in bills H 8083 and S 2819. As you know, Common Cause is neither an energy nor an environmental group. We do not take a position on whether the wind farm should be built--in fact many of our members likely believe that we need to move to alternative forms of energy. What we do stand for is good government, as reflected in good process, and this bill is anathema to that concept.

You all know that for 15 years Common Cause has been closely associated with the Separation of Powers movement here in Rhode Island. That movement culminated in a series of changes to the state Constitution in 2004 removing legislators from executive boards and commissions. The logic behind that most significant change was that legislators should create processes and policies, and executives should carry them out. We feel that the current attempt by the Governor and legislature to bypass the Public Utilities Commission undermines the 15 years of work by Common Cause and others on the issue of Separation of Powers.

This legislation represents an attempt to make a policy change, ex post facto, by circumventing a historically important independent regulatory body. It substitutes a process that is much less independent, and has limited opportunity for appeal. The legislatures' judgment is being substituted for that of the experts charged with evaluating the proposal. This is abhorrent to the concept of Separation of Powers.

Perhaps most troubling is the precedent this sets for the future. Instead of an appeal, or a reevaluation of the criteria by which projects such as these are judged, the response to an adverse outcome in this instance has been to circumvent the process altogether, but only for this particular project. Where, we ask, will this behavior on the part of our elected officials end? What outcomes will they respect?

Common Cause has been a voice on the process of government for four decades in Rhode Island. We will continue to point out, when appropriate, instances where our elected officials disrespect the correct processes.

A return to a status quo that served Rhode Island well

Providence Journal

A return to a status quo that served Rhode Island well

Saturday, May 1, 2010

By JOHN MARION

As the debate about what to do in the wake of the Rhode Island Supreme Court’s June 2009 decision in William V. Irons v. The Rhode Island Ethics Commission begins in earnest in the General Assembly, some misperceptions (and mischaracterizations) have arisen. As the group that began the initiative to counter that decision, Common Cause would like to set the record straight.

In July 2009 we drafted, with input from Operation Clean Government, language that in our view would restore the General Assembly to the jurisdiction of the Rhode Island Ethics Commission for their “core legislative acts” such as voting.

In the majority’s opinion, the court suggested such an action could be taken, as long as it was, in the court’s words, “sufficiently explicit.” In February 2010, then-Majority Leader and now House Speaker Gordon Fox agreed to sponsor our language after we agreed to add four words to our proposal — “by the ethics commission” — to the sentence “For any speech in debate in either house, no member shall be questioned in any other place, except by the ethics commission as set forth in Article III, section 8 of this Constitution.”

We feel our language is both sufficiently explicit to achieve the desired purpose, but de minimusso as to limit any unintended consequences.

Nonetheless, foes of our proposal in the General Assembly have sought to mischaracterize it. Some have said that it would expand the power of the Ethics Commission. Others have said it would chill the speech of legislators. It has even been called a “radical” proposal. None of these statements are true.

It is not our desire to radically alter the role of the Ethics Commission. Common Cause has a simple goal: to restore the jurisdiction of the Rhode Island Ethics Commission to what it was in 1987-2008.

If our proposal passes the legislature and is approved by a majority of voters in November, then we’ll simply be turning back the clock two years. If you think the General Assembly was not able to function freely, and the commission’s prosecutions of John Celona and William Irons were misguided, then by all means do not support our proposal.

Some believe our proposal would let the Ethics Commission interfere too much with the legislative process. Solid safeguards are already in place to prevent overreaching by the Ethics Commission. The regulations enacted by the Ethics Commission are subject to the same judicial review as are the actions of any governmental body. And given the strict scrutiny applied to any policy that infringes on freedom of speech, surely any that might be enacted that conflict with the Bill of Rights would be overturned.

It’s important to step back and realize that under our proposal members of the General Assembly still enjoy protection against criminal and other civil prosecution for their “speech in debate.”

Furthermore, the commission itself will only be overseeing the “core legislative acts” of legislators for violations of the Code of Ethics. That code, originally written by the legislature, is almost exclusively concerned with financial conflicts of interest, largely found in Sections 5(a) and 5(d) of the Code of Ethics.

The Ethics Commission is not in the business of judging the content of speech.

Another mischaracterization is that our proposed amendment would limit the role of the judicial branch. We do not seek to prevent people from appealing the decisions of the Ethics Commission to the Superior Court.

If our language passes, that right will still exist for those subject to the Code of Ethics. Our language does seek to clarify that the Ethics Commission, like many quasi-legislative bodies, has the right to hear cases. This is a well-established principle under the public-rights doctrine recognized by state and federal courts.

We do not take umbrage with those who say that the Ethics Commission is a unique body. But its uniqueness is derived from the will of the majority of Rhode Islanders who ratified the proposal of the 1986 Constitutional Convention. The delegates and the people who supported their work wanted an independent body to govern the ethics of all public officials. The independent nature of our ethics watchdog makes Rhode Island a model for America.

Keep in mind that even in independence, elected officials make all the appointments to the commission, and set the level of fines the commission can dole out.

Our proposed amendment is about reinstating a very limited part of the jurisdiction of the Ethics Commission as it applies to only 113 of the many hundreds of public officials in Rhode Island. Currently the 39 legislative bodies that govern our cities and towns are subject to the Code of Ethics, and it has had no chilling effect on the speech and debate in those bodies. Nor was there a chill when the commission had jurisdiction over the General Assembly for 21 years.

Our less-than-radical proposal is being supported by Governor Carcieri, Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts, Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis and General Treasurer Frank Caprio — two of whom (Roberts and Caprio) previously served in the General Assembly, and one of whom (Carcieri) has been fined (four times) by the Ethics Commission.

When you hear someone arguing that our proposal is a radical solution, we hope you consider some of what you’ve read here. Do not let opponents lead you down the garden path with their ideas about how this proposal does anything but return us to the status quo that existed in 1987-2008.

John Marion is executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island.

Common Cause RI is hiring!

EMPLOYER: Common Cause
1133 19th Street N.W. 9th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20036
www.commoncause.org

DEPARTMENT: State Operations

POSITION AVAILABLE: Associate Director—Position located in Rhode Island

REPORTS TO: Executive Director

SUMMARY OF POSITION: The Associate Director works in collaboration with the Executive Director in a multi-faceted role. The primary responsibility is to develop, manage, and assure execution of all aspects of the Common Cause fundraising program: Major gifts, annual giving, membership, corporate and foundation relations, special events, and planned giving. Responsible for design, production/publication of written and electronic communications to membership and the RI community. Day to day administrative and office support duties required due to small nature of office, with minimal supervision or direction. Demonstrates consistent commitment to advancing organization’s mission and objectives.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS: Fundraising: Create fund development strategies with the Executive Director and Board to ensure long term viability and build sustained capacity over time; Design and implement an annual fundraising plan with agreed goals and objectives, and submit written progress reports regularly to the Development Committee and Board; Major donors: Support Board members in their relationships with major donors; cultivate new major donor prospects, and upgrade existing donors to major donor status; New donors, members and volunteers: Develop specific plans to cultivate new relationships, engaging and assisting Board members in this effort; Coordinate, with Board leadership, all aspects and details of plans for the Annual Meeting and other fundraising and educational events; Develop and track proposals and reports for all foundation and corporate fundraising; Maintain the fundraising database, gift acknowledgement, and other key aspects of stewardship and donor cultivation—correspondence, phone calls, reports, mailings, etc. Communications: Design a communication plan directed to multiple audiences, with different media preferences; Content development and publication of printed and electronic communications, including press releases, newsletters, promotional materials, and email/ website updates.

QUALIFICATIONS: Demonstrated leadership and organizing ability; excellent written and oral communications skills; strong fundraising skills; ability to work under pressure; familiarity with the state legislature and legislative process; strong interpersonal skills; commitment to the public interest; ability to work independently; willingness to travel; experience in public presentations, desktop publishing, volunteer management, database management and financial management desirable; Undergraduate degree required, advance degree a plus.

TO APPLY: Please submit resume, cover letter and salary requirements to Director of Human Resources at hr@commoncause.org and include Associate Director—Rhode Island in the subject line; or fax to 202-355-7546. No phone calls please. Applicants are encouraged to respond as soon as possible.

About Common Cause:
Common Cause is a nonpartisan nonprofit advocacy organization founded in 1970 by John Gardner as a vehicle for citizens to make their voices heard in the political process and to hold their elected leaders accountable to the public interest. Now with nearly 300,000 members and supporters and 36 state organizations, Common Cause remains committed to honest, open and accountable government, as well as encouraging citizen participation in democracy.