|
|
4.5.2001 00:22
Chafee
echoes
call for
Cianci
to quit
 Meanwhile, the state's two congressmen, both Democrats, say the mayor is presumed innocent, while Democratic Sen. Jack Reed says it's up to Cianci to decide whether to leave office.
BY MICHAEL CORKERY
Journal Staff Writer
Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee yesterday urged Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. to resign, suggesting that the mayor's indictment on corruption charges casts doubt on his ability to run the city.
Echoing the call a day earlier from Governor Almond that the mayor step aside while the charges are pending, Chafee said the perception of corruption has tainted the entire state, regardless of whether Cianci is guility or innocent.
"Businessmen from across the country have told me personally that they don't want to do business in a place where special favors and under-the-table payments are required for the simplest transaction," Chafee said in a statement.
"Providence deserves better than to have its good name dragged into these divisive legal proceedings," he said.
"He has a right to his opinion," Cianci retorted during a break in his appearance at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington. "But he had no trouble calling me and taking me out to lunch and asking for my political support in the last election, at the height of Plunder Dome."
Jeff Neal, a Chafee spokesman, said the senator did have lunch with Cianci last year, but "recalls that the meeting was mainly about other things, including what Senator Chafee could do for the city of Providence," such as finding federal money for the Fox Point hurricane barrier and the city's combined sewage overflow facility.
"As with everyone else that Senator Chafee talked to during his campaign, he discussed the possibility of Cianci's support for his election," Neal said. "But Senator Chafee never followed up on it and obviously Mayor Cianci didn't deliver any support."
Cianci never endorsed Chafee or held a fundraiser to support his campaign, Neal said. In the election, Chafee recieved less votes in Providence than Democrat Robert A. Weygand.
Democrats in Rhode Island's congressional delegation stand behind the mayor. Reps. Patrick J. Kennedy and James R. Langevin voiced their support for Cianci, saying he should be considered innocent until proven guilty.
Kennedy criticized Almond, a former U.S. Attorney, for chastising the mayor before his case has gone to trial.
"Governor Almond, as a former federal prosecutor, former U.S. Attorney, ought to know better than anyone else that the Constitution presumes people innocent until proven guilty," he said. "I felt it was uncalled-for, the way he came out like that, calling for the mayor's resignation."
Kennedy said he believed Cianci would not put his legal problems above his devotion to the city. He said the mayor alone must decide whether the federal case would hinder his ability to govern.
Cianci would be legally required to resign only if he were convicted of a felony and had exhausted his appeals.
And there appears to be no explicit provision in the city ordinances and City Charter that would allow the mayor to take a voluntary leave of absence, short of his conviction of a crime.
Sen. Jack Reed said it would be up to the mayor to decide whether he should leave office. "He must make a very difficult decision," he said.
Reed stopped short of calling for Cianci to resign, but said the charges were serious and the "result of a thorough and arduous two-year investigation led by the U.S. Attorney's office in Providence and the Federal Bureau of Investigation."
Langevin said Providence residents, not congressmen, should decide whether Cianci remains in office. The Providence Home Rule Charter allows voters to recall an elected official from office. To trigger that provision, a petition must be submitted bearing the signatures of 1,000 registered voters.
Then, the petitioners have four months to submit a petition bearing the signatures of 15 percent of the electorate -- about 13,500 voters -- demanding a referendum on the mayor's continuing in office. A recall election would then be held.
"I believe this is a decision for the people of the City of Providence and the mayor to make," Langevin said. "The mayor, as any other Rhode Islander, is innocent until proven guilty and deserves his day in court."
With reports from staff writers Felice J. Freyer, John Mulligan and Gregory Smith.
|
|
|
Printer-Friendly Version
