It’s something of a Smith Hill ritual.

Each afternoon, as the General Assembly’s session is about to begin, lobbyists swarm the House and Senate chambers, clogging the aisles in hopes of snagging face time with legislators before the session starts and they are required to leave.

At least that’s the way it used to work. A new rule imposed in recent days by Speaker William J. Murphy bans lobbyists from the House chamber starting at 3:50 p.m. Technically, that’s 10 minutes before the session starts, though most days, the opening gavel descends a bit later than 4.

“Several of the members had requested of the speaker that they need more time to converse among themselves and they were being inundated by the lobbyists and the advocates,” Murphy’s spokesman, Larry Berman, said. “The lobbyists were right on top of them as they were trying to begin so they had no room to talk to each other or look at bills.”

Murphy announced his new rule from the rostrum this month. To enforce it, he has asked House staff to close the massive wooden chamber doors at 10 minutes to 4, relegating dozens — sometimes hundreds —- of lobbyists to the hallway.

Berman noted that paid lobbyists and the visiting public are still free to catch legislators as they enter the chamber or after the session adjourns.

But at least one union objects to the change. “If ordinary working people take the time out of their day to come to the State House, they ought to feel welcome,” said Chas Walker, an organizer for District 1199 of the Service Employees International Union. Walker noted that dozens of nursing home workers, hospital nurses and education staff came to Smith Hill last week to ask legislators to use the federal stimulus package to create jobs in Rhode Island.

“But because of this new rule, people were denied the real opportunity to speak face-to-face with their own representatives. We think it is wrong, and we hope that the House will reconsider,” Walker said.

A Senate spokesman said legislators in that chamber have contemplated a similar cut-off time for lobbyists, but have not yet made any changes.

In-law of state budget officer is on Obama team

A brother-in-law of the governor’s budget officer, Rosemary Booth Gallogly, has been named to President Obama’s economic advisory board.

Mark T. Gallogly, an investment banker from New York, is among 15 appointees who “will provide an independent voice on economic issues and will be charged with offering independent advice to the president as he formulates and implements his plans for economic recovery,” according to a statement released by Mr. Obama last week.

“It’s awesome,” Rosemary Gallogly said of the appointment. “It’s amazing to think that we flip burgers, shuck corn and play high-low-jack together! It is a great Rhode Island success story.”

She noted that Mark Gallogly, one of 11 children of the late Judge Edward P. Gallogly, a former chief of the Family Court, has a summer home in Rhode Island.

He is the founder and managing partner for New York-based Centerbridge Partners.

Mr. Obama created the board by executive order last week. Other members include a Harvard economics professor, the CEO of General Electric and the secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO.

Ex-candidate Atwell interning at WPRO radio

It wasn’t a surprise that Ericka Atwell, a Republican candidate for state representative last year, attended Governor Carcieri’s State of the State speech last week.

But we didn’t expect to see her at the media table.

Atwell, a former Carcieri intern, was on hand reporting for talk radio station WPRO.

Atwell won the GOP primary in West Warwick for the District 27 House seat. She was defeated in November by the Democratic incumbent, Patricia A. Serpa, earning a still respectable 39 percent of the vote.

Atwell, a Rhode Island College student, has been working for WPRO as an unpaid intern for the last three weeks, according to program director Paul Giammarco.

“Her three-mornings-a-week internship involves working with John DePetro and the WPRO morning news,” Giammarco said in an e-mail. “Ericka is intelligent, energetic and passionate about RI and its future.”

As a legislative candidate, she publicly supported Republican Carcieri’s positions in recent months. She told The Journal she favored building a stronger tax base by helping small and medium-size businesses, cracking down on illegal immigration, and encouraging Rhode Island communities to consolidate their services to save money.

She also raised eyebrows in the days before the election after a YouTube video surfaced depicting the college student at a party.

Retirees’ exodus deplored

In his annual State of the State address last week, Governor Carcieri bemoaned decades of “increased spending and taxes” and said, “People have been voting with their feet — they’re leaving.”

He cited the 2,016 Rhode Island state government retirees receiving their state pension checks in income-tax free Florida, as an example.

“I don’t blame them — but it’s indicative of the problem,” said Carcieri, a retired business executive who also owns property in Florida.

The Carcieris are listed as the owners of two condominiums at 4540 N.E. Sandpebble Trace in Stuart, Fla. — one assessed at $320,600, the other at $295,900, according to the Martin County tax collector’s office.

The Carcieris previously owned another condominium with Sue Carcieri’s brother, Stephen Owren, but quit-claimed the ownership to the Owrens in 2002, according to tax records.

Asked where Carcieri pays taxes on his own income and his Cookson America pension, spokeswoman Amy Kempe said: “I can assure you that Governor and Mrs. Carcieri are residents of Rhode Island. ... They are NOT residents, part time or full time, of Florida.” Aside from his Florida property taxes, Kempe said, “He pays his taxes here.”

The place where most Ocean State retirees get their check: Rhode Island, with 21,863, followed by Florida, with 2,016, and Massachusetts, with 937.

Paydays on hold

Cranston’s City Charter spells out what City Council members are paid. Eight members receive $4,000 a year and the council president receives $5,000.

Historically, the city’s personnel office has been responsible for ensuring that council members are paid. But an internal dispute over whether the responsibility lies with personnel or the city clerk — who technically works for the council — has the council considering an ordinance that would make council members city employees “for record keeping purposes.”

The ordinance specifies that the responsibility for making sure council members are paid, and for maintaining records on whether they choose to participate in the state pension system, lies with the personnel director.

Council President John E. Lanni Jr., who proposed the change, said it simply spells out that the council payroll will be handled the way it always has.

That’s good news for council members, especially new members who were elected in November and might be wondering what happened to their first paychecks.

“We have some new members of the council who haven’t been paid yet,” Lanni said.

redgar@projo.com