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4.6.2001 00:05
Cianci skips White House visit
 "I have to get arraigned tomorrow and I don't want to get home too late," the mayor says.
BY JOHN E. MULLIGAN
and MIKE STANTON
Journal Staff Writers
WASHINGTON
-- Buddy Cianci knows the White House.
He was there as a young mayor in 1975, conferring with Gerald Ford in the Oval Office, and he was there as a veteran mayor in recent years, hobnobbing with Bill Clinton.
He had looked forward to going there this week to meet the new president.
But the photo opportunity with George W. Bush will have to wait.
In light of his federal racketeering indictment in Operation Plunder Dome on Monday, the Providence mayor changed his mind yesterday and decided to skip his date with President Bush at the White House.
Cianci, the longest serving big-city mayor in the United States, would have been a likely candidate for recognition by President Bush during a sunny Rose Garden reception for the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
"With all the media attention, I did not want to distract from the event with the president," Cianci said.
As he checked out of the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Washington, Cianci was already looking ahead to what promises to be another media event in this whirlwind week -- his arraignment in federal court today.
"I have to get arraigned tomorrow and I don't want to get home too late," Cianci said.
On Monday, Cianci was indicted on 25 counts of racketeering, conspiracy, extortion, bribery, mail fraud and witness tampering. At a news conference that night, and in the days following, Cianci proclaimed his innocence and vowed to press on with his job, including a date with President Bush that capped a two-day mayors' summit on the "New American City."
"Why shouldn't I?" he declared repeatedly, when asked if he intended to join his fellow mayors at the White House.
But by yesterday, the mayor had had a change of heart.
Cianci said that no one asked him not to come, that he made the decision on his own.
But one mayor, speaking anonymously, said that some mayors had advised Cianci not to go to the White House.
"Yeah, a lot of us were giving him the message, 'Hey, don't embarrass the president,' " the mayor said.
White House officials had fended off media questions about the potentially embarrassing prospect of an indicted mayor shaking hands with the president. The guest list, they intoned, was up to the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
Still, White House operatives were clearly aware of Cianci's situation.
Bush's chief of staff, Andrew H. Card, interrupted a member of the media asking about Cianci the other day by declaring brightly, "Buddy!"
"His career has been a roller coaster at other times and I guess this is one of those roller coaster moments," Card said.
The roller coaster will take a definite dip today.
In the federal courthouse across Kennedy Plaza from City Hall, Cianci intends to plead not guilty.
Besides the over-arching racketeering conspiracy charge, Cianci stands accused of conspiring to extort $250,000 in campaign contributions from tow-truck operators, sharing in bribes for a $1.3-million School Department lease, attempting to extort $10,000 for a city real-estate deal, extorting a $5,000 bribe for a city job, extorting a $10,000 bribe for a huge property tax break and extorting a free lifetime membership in the exclusive University Club by holding up the club's building permits.
The mayor also is charged with two counts of witness tampering, for allegedly trying to influence the testimony of a city building-board official questioned in connection with the University Club affair.
Four men are accused of participating in the racketeering conspiracy with Cianci: Frank E. Corrente, his longtime campaign treasurer and director of administration; Richard E. Autiello, a Providence tow-truck operator and body-shop owner; Edward E. Voccola, a former body-shop owner; and Joseph A. Pannone, former chairman of the Providence tax board.
In addition, Artin H. Coloian, the mayor's chief of staff, was indicted on bribery charges for allegedly accepting a $5,000 cash bribe on behalf of Cianci for a city job.
City Solicitor Charles R. Mansolillo said yesterday that he is reviewing whether to suspend Coloian and, if so, whether to do so with or without pay, as provided for under the City Charter.
The charter does not provide for suspending the mayor, the only other active public official charged in Monday's 30-count, 97-page indictment.
Cianci and Coloian were scheduled to be arraigned at 9:30 a.m. today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert W. Lovegreen. Corrente and Autiello were to follow, at 10:30 a.m.
Voccola, a convicted felon who was arrested after Monday's indictment, was arraigned on Tuesday, and ordered held without bail as a potential threat to witnesses. No arraignment has been set for Pannone, who is already serving a five-year federal prison term on a previous Plunder Dome conviction.
Cianci would also have to be processed. Under court rules, the mayor would be fingerprinted and photographed -- with and without his signature toupe.
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