Caprio

PROVIDENCE — Breaking new ground in Rhode Island’s top political ranks, General Treasurer Frank T. Caprio has made public his daily calendars for the last 18 months, a move that not only shows how and with whom he has spent his time in office, but also the number of days he spent traveling outside Rhode Island on both state and political business.

His daily schedules reflect a range of state, political and family commitments, from an “8:30 a.m. UN conference NYC,” to a noon luncheon meeting described as “Lehman’s/Capriccio” to “dinner with Gabriella & Frankie.”

When coupled with the travel receipts and other details he provided on his travel, Caprio’s appointment logs show he has traveled outside Rhode Island for 42 days since Jan. 1, 2008, at an overall cost of $465.19 to the state, $736.52 to the Council on State Governments, $617.82 to the National Association of State Treasurers, and $9,248 to his campaign account.

A summary provided by his office indicates that he paid the $364 cost of train tickets to New York out of his own pocket on two other occasions before he officially suspended all but “the most important” state-paid travel by his staff in November 2008.

Asked about $795 in charges paid by his campaign account for a Continental Airlines flight to LAX and a stay at the Thompson Hotel in Los Angeles, Caprio fundraising consultant Amy Gabarra said:

“The Treasurer traveled, alone, to Los Angeles, California, for meetings on September 10, 2008, with Cathy Weiner Bunnin of Los Angeles, and former California Governor Gray Davis (D), regarding fundraising on the West Coast.” He returned the next day after visiting with Davis and the daughter of prominent Rhode Island fundraiser Mark Weiner.

“The meeting was intended to expand the Treasurer’s base with major Democratic donors,” she explained in an e-mail.

State law does not require Caprio to provide such details. The way the state’s campaign-finance law has been interpreted by the state Board of Elections, public officials are required to report only dates, amounts and recipients of payments, and the “purpose of expenditure” in the broadest of terms, such as “travel and lodging.”

Caprio’s release of the information contrasts with the position taken by Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, a potential opponent in the 2010 Democratic primary race for governor. The Journal asked Lynch’s office for information about his travel over the same 18-month period, including trips to San Francisco, Fort Lauderdale, Las Vegas and Taiwan.

As detailed in a story in Wednesday’s Journal, Lynch documented his state-paid travels and at least some trips paid for by outside organizations, such as the Taiwan government, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association and the National Association of Attorneys General that took him out of state at least 63 days. But he refused to answer questions or provide beginning and end dates for the frequent trips he charged in whole or in part to his campaign account.

In radio and television interviews following publication of the story, Lynch asserted he had followed the letter of the law.

When asked why Caprio had decided to go beyond what the law requires, Gabarra said: “Part of being an elected public servant is being accountable to the people who elected you … Frank has always taken the position that his activities and the associated expenses incurred serving as a public official are a public record.”

Within 24 hours of being asked, Caprio’s State House staff also provided details of six out-of-state trips that he took, at a net cost to taxpayers of $465.19, between Jan. 1, 2008 and June 30, 2009.

One was to Washington, D.C., to testify at a congressional hearing about the withdrawal of investments from companies that directly or indirectly aid in genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region, and another was to New York City to attend an “Investor Summit on Climate Risk” before he suspended state-paid travel by his office.

As his staff provided the records of these trips, Gabarra disclosed details about a second set of travel expenses reflected in Caprio’s campaign filings with the state Board of Elections during the same period.

She explained, for example, that a $204 payment to Amtrak reflected a “a round-trip train ticket to NYC for a meeting between the Treasurer and Bruce Bent, CEO of the Reserve Fund, at 1250 Broadway, New York, NY, on 10/6/2008, for which the Treasurer traveled alone.

“The meeting was regarding Treasury’s plan for the release of State funds frozen in the Reserve’s Government Fund.”

Asked why Caprio charged this trip to his campaign account when it involved state business, she said: “When the economy started to turn in late Spring 2008 and it became apparent that the State would be facing difficult financial times, Frank Caprio halted all taxpayer-funded travel, and turned in his assigned State vehicle, with the belief that it is important for elected officials to do their part to cut unnecessary expenses and share the burden.” The level of detail that Gabarra provided was in some cases extensive. She explained, for example, the circumstances that led Caprio to book, cancel and then rebook a meeting with a New York campaign donor.

While his campaign finance report lists the January 2009 payment of $344 for Amtrak tickets, Gabarra said the payment actually reflects a trip Caprio planned to take with her to New York City on Dec. 2 and then cancelled when his friend and former boss Richard Oster, the one-time chairman of the Cookson Group, died a day earlier and the Oster family requested his assistance in handling media inquiries.

Forfeiting the tickets, he paid a driver $200 to take them to New York on Dec. 3 instead for his rescheduled fundraising meeting with “prominent Democratic donor and attorney” Marty Lacoff, returning late that same night, but not before picking up a $177 NYC parking ticket that he also put on his campaign tab.

He headed back to New York on Dec. 5 for a “meeting the Treasurer and his wife, Gabriella Caprio, had with Richard Gordon, a member of the Democratic Governors Association Governing Board and Finance Council, regarding the 2010 election cycle,” Gabarra said.

His campaign filing reflects the payment of $237 in Amtrak tickets, and $468.54 in hotel expenses at the Hilton, N.Y. Gabarra filled in the blanks: “The Treasurer and his wife spent the night at the Hilton Hotel in New York City, returning to Rhode Island on the 6th via Amtrak.”

A summary of some of his earlier trips runs the gamut from “NYC, Amy Gabarra traveled alone without treasurer, donor prospecting” to his five-day stay in Denver in August 2008 for the Democratic National Convention to his April 2008 New York “meeting w/Will McDonough ( Tom Brady’s assistant) regarding fundraising, returned the same day.” Gabarra confirmed this was a reference to football star Brady.

Asked to comment on Lynch’s decision to withhold information about his campaign-financed travel expenses, she said: “The Treasurer does not wish to add anything to the Attorney General’s comments, but will answer questions [about] his own travel arrangements.”

But Caprio bucked the advice coming out of Lynch’s office on the availability of the daily appointment logs of public officials.

Special Assistant Attorney General Michael W. Field issued the March 2008 opinion in response to a complaint that Dennis Grilli, then-executive director of Council 94, American Federation of State County & Municipal Employees, the largest state employees union, filed after being denied access to Republican Governor Carcieri’s daily schedules by administration lawyer Peter N. Dennehy.

Dennehy advised Grilli that the daily schedule is an “internal document,” exempt from disclosure, from which the governor’s press office culls and provides to the press corps a list of the “governor’s public events for the upcoming day.”

Field, who heads the open-government wing of the attorney general’s office, backed Dennehy up. The thrust of his argument: state lawmakers would have specifically listed in the Access to Public Records law “the calendar or work schedule of a specific and identifiable employee” as public documents if they intended them to be so.

“You conclude that ‘the public has the right to know if the governor’s actions were excessively and unduly influenced by special interests that are in the building,’ ” Field wrote Grilli. But, “the fact that an employee’s calendar or work schedule is not among the mandated disclosures indicates that the General Assembly did not intend the records requested in this case to be a public record.”

In his radio and television interviews this week, Lynch said the position is consistent with that taken by previous attorneys general. Caprio’s calendar

At The Journal’s request, Rhode Island General Treasurer Frank T. Caprio released records detailing his travel while in office and also his daily calendar from January 2008 through July 2009.

Here are examples of the calendar information Caprio provided:

•Thursday, Jan. 24, 2008

11 a.m. College Planning Center

1:30 p.m. HR training, Fountain Street

1:30 p.m. Manager training

4 p.m. Wakes

7 p.m. PC vs. Seton Hall

•Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008

9:30 a.m. Jon Savage & Bruce Bookbinder

11 a.m. Employee Award

1 p.m. S&P conference call

3 p.m. Sen. Paiva Weed

3:30 p.m. Fitch conference call

5:30 p.m. Aurora Board

•Tuesday, Feb. 10

12 p.m. Mike Ryan (U Club)

2:15 p.m. Neil Steinberg (ri foundation)

3 p.m. MAD, Sal Lombardi

3:45 p.m. Dems for Edu reform

6 p.m. State of the State

6:20 p.m. ABC 6 (Orms St.)

•Monday, June 1, 2009

8:30 a.m. AFL-CIO (194 Smith)

9 a.m. Exec Staff

10 a.m. Bob Keith

12 p.m. Meeting with Sen.

1 p.m. Due Diligence

3 p.m. Moody’s (Conf. call)

4 p.m. Meeting (Xay’s office)

•May 7, 2009

9 a.m.: NYC Alternative Investments Forum

12:30 p.m. Depart NYC

3:15 p.m. FYI Gaspee Days Proclamation Cer.

5:30 p.m. RIC awards

6 p.m. Big Brothers Dinner

•Friday, July 10, 2009

Public Funds Summit (Newport R.I)

GG (WOC E. Prov)

FTC in NYC

8:30 a.m. Scheduling meeting (Xay’s office)

10:30 a.m. Jim Bell - NYC

kgregg@projo.com