The state police have investigated a State House confrontation involving a handful of state officials and Henry Fellela, the husband of Rep. Deborah Fellela, D-Johnston.

Senators John J. Tassoni and Leo R. Blais were among those who filed reports with the Capitol Police after the incident, which occurred shortly before 11 p.m. on Thursday, June 26.

Fellela, 51, confronted the senators and a Senate staffer on a second-floor back staircase because, he told Political Scene, he was upset that legislation sponsored by his wife involving the Johnston Housing Authority had stalled in Tassoni’s committee.

“Tassoni killed my wife’s bill,” Fellela said. “I said to him, ‘Why did you do that?’ He got real cocky, like a thug.”

Then, Tassoni says, Fellela flew into a rage.

“I said, ‘As far as I’m concerned, the bill is not coming out of committee,’ ” Tassoni recounted. “At that point he stuck his finger in my face and said I was a [expletive deleted], and he kept saying it.

“He came down the stairway after I passed him, still ranting and raving,” Tassoni continued. “He said, ‘You guys will pay for this.’ … The more I thought about it the more I realized the guy was unstable so I thought I should report it.”

Fellela later admitted he used profanity: “I probably swore, but I guarantee he probably swore back,” he said. “There were no fisticuffs.”

The state police later investigated the incident, visiting the Fellela home.

“There was nothing that raised to level of criminal conduct,” Maj. Stephen Bannon told Political Scene. “It was basically two people that got into an argument. People get into arguments all the time down there. … No one wished to pursue any charges.”

Fellela said the state police involvement was unnecessary.

“I got into an argument and they want to blow it up to make Debbie look bad,” he said.

Having recently pleaded guilty to fraudulent use of a credit card in New Hampshire, Fellela is serving a suspended sentence and could have gone to prison if convicted of another crime.

Tassoni said he was aware of Fellela’s status and didn’t want to send him to prison.

“The bottom line is that I don’t think he would like anyone talking to his wife like he approached me. He was just out of control,” Tassoni said. “I don’t want to be treated that way.”

Avedisian ponders options

Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts’ announcement that she will not run for governor in 2010 has doused the ambitions of a number of Democrats who had previously considered a run for lieutenant governor, but has left Republican Scott Avedisian, mayor of Warwick, in a quandary.

Although Avedisian has long said he doesn’t want to campaign against Roberts, an old friend, he has also said he would consider a bid if former U.S. Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee runs for governor.

With Roberts now preparing to run for reelection and Chafee’s candidacy as an independent for governor all but official, Avedisian acknowledges he’s got some tough decisions to make.

So what’s on tap? He now says he’s looking at “four different options”: a bid for lieutenant governor –– he’s told Roberts he hasn’t ruled it out –– a longer-shot run for Congress, a stay-put plan in which he runs again for mayor or leaving politics altogether.

“I really haven’t made up my mind yet.”

We’ll be watching.

Senate’s absentee voter

Here’s a thought to chew on: members of the state Senate do not actually have to be present — and voting — to have their “votes” recorded in the official Senate Journal.

This practice was brought to light when Sen. Leonidas P. Raptakis, D-Coventry, was reflected as not voting Tuesday on the 25-to-10 machine vote for the high-profile bill requiring live dog races and allowing 24-hour gambling, seven days a week at Twin River — and then was recorded as having voted against the bill in the Senate Journal that came out a day later.

Raptakis says he may have been racing up the State House stairs when the vote went down, having rushed to Smith Hill from an earlier event at the University of Rhode Island. But he says he isn’t really sure because by the time he arrived in the chamber, the Senate was already two to three items down on its calendar.

So how did he get recorded as present and voting “no” on the dog-racing, 24-hour gambling bill when he was not there?

After he had settled in, Raptakis said he simply asked the clerk, Joseph Brady, to add his missed “votes” to the tallies for the first three bills on the calendar.

Asked how he would explain this to a member of the public who might view a “vote” as evidence of actual attendance, Raptakis cited a Senate rule titled: “Who May Vote.”

It says: “Any member who is present in the Senate chamber must vote. Any senator who is not in the chamber at such time, but who returns before the machine is locked, shall be permitted to vote. With unanimous consent, a senator may be permitted to cast a vote after the results have been announced, provided however such request shall be made on the same legislative day and, only if the vote if so permitted, will not change the result previously announced.”

But Raptakis acknowledges he was not in the chamber when the Twin River bill came up, and did not request — or receive — unanimous consent to have his votes counted toward that bill or the two that followed involving sex-offender registration and insurance. But maybe, he suggests, there was no such rule in effect because Senate leaders had “suspended all the rules” days earlier for what they thought would be the final days of this year’s legislative session.

Asked for an explanation, Senate spokesman Greg Pare said what happened was not, in fact, uncommon. “A senator may temporarily be away from his or her desk and subsequently ask to be recorded on a matter, or even ask to be recorded while the vote is ongoing but he or she is across the room and unable to press the appropriate button at his or her desk. Such votes are recorded in the official record, which is the Senate Journal, not the unofficial machine tally. I hope this clarifies things for you.”

When asked what specific rule allowed the absent Raptakis to cast his vote after the fact, Pare said: “Senator Raptakis was in attendance [Tuesday]. ... Any senator would have to be present in order to ask that their vote be recorded.” He said he had no further information, and was unable to obtain any.

Gov’s compassionate face

Governor Carcieri is the face of Caring this month.

Literally.

The Rhode Island governor is on the cover of the recently released June issue of Caring magazine, the publication of the National Association for Home Care and Hospice. He is holding Concetta Ball’s hand, sitting at the 78-year-old stroke victim’s kitchen table.

The accompanying text reads: “Governor Donald Carcieri: Fighting to protect the freedoms of aged, infirm, disabled, and dying citizens.” Inside, there’s a nine-page spread in which the governor describes Medicaid changes in Rhode Island that encourage seniors and the disabled to be treated in their homes instead of institutions.

The interviewer did not ask Carcieri to explain his budget-balancing proposals to cut 18,600 disabled and elderly Rhode Islanders from the state’s Pharmaceutical Assistance to the Elderly program, strip dental benefits from 38,000 parents on subsidized health care, and eliminate health-insurance coverage from 28 pregnant women.

The state budget adopted by the General Assembly last week preserved those programs.

Camara, temporarily, back at R.I. Veterans Home

William Camara is on the move again.

The former administrator of the Rhode Island Veterans Home has been reassigned to his fourth position in the last year.

This one, according to the governor’s office, is temporary.

“Leveraging Bill’s experience and knowledge with the veterans home, [Health and Human Services] Secretary [Gary] Alexander has temporarily assigned him to the veterans home to assist the Director of Nursing with improving nursing and pharmacy functions,” the governor’s spokeswoman Amy Kempe said. “His title nor salary will not change.”

Camara, who was the focus of at least two House Veterans Affairs Committee hearings earlier in the year, took a $25,000 salary cut in February when the Carcieri administration shifted him from “acting deputy director” of the Department of Human Services to “coordinator/director of special operations” in Alexander’s office.

He currently earns $83,157.80 annually, according to the state personnel office.

Broken urinal floods State House rotunda, basement

The flood of legislation might never materialize from the State House late week, but the water from the men’s bathroom sure did.

A broken urinal in a first-floor men’s room led to a not-so-minor flood that swamped the marble rotunda with nearly an inch of water, creating a soggy (and ridiculously slippery) situation in the landmark building. Water poured down the stairs and through cracks in the ceiling, drenching the stairs and the basement below.

By midday, State House Superintendent Ed Butler and his crew had the situation under control and Butler reported that the building did not sustain any permanent damage.

Of course the mess didn’t exactly interrupt state business. Although Friday was not an official state holiday, most offices were locked up tight and staff nowhere to be found.

kgregg@projo.com