Rhode Island news
Political Scene: Political operative quits investment seat for lobbying work
08:34 AM EST on Monday, January 29, 2007
Little more than a year after Governor Carcieri gave him a coveted — albeit unpaid — seat on the State Investment Commission, political operative Jeff Britt has quit.
In a late-December resignation letter to Carcieri, Britt said: “I do not believe it is in the best interests of your administration and policies to have me continue to occupy a seat on the SIC if I cannot foresee being able to attend future meetings on a regular basis.”
In an interview Friday, Britt — who is also a close political ally of new state treasurer and Democrat Frank T. Caprio — acknowledged that he quit to pursue lobbying/consulting gigs that could pose a conflict with his duties on the board that oversees the investment of $7.9 billion in state pension fund assets, $7.6 billion in CollegeBound funds and the short-term investment of about $397 million in other state money.
Britt said he had already lined up one lobbying/consulting client hoping to “raise its profile” in the Rhode Island political arena — Dimeo Construction.
“I don’t have any clients doing business now with the treasurer’s office. Is it likely to happen? Boy, I hope so,” he said.
“People hire a lobbyist because they have access to whoever you need. You know, you hire a legislative lobbyist on the House side because they can get [Speaker] Billy Murphy on the telephone — which is why you don’t hire me for that,” he said.
But, “I think I could probably get the governor’s office on the phone. I think I could probably get the treasurer’s office on the phone. … That’s where my value as a lobbyist is.”
Britt, of course, was the behind-the-scenes player with close ties to the dissidents seeking to dethrone Murphy during the last two-year session who was also Republican Carcieri’s liaison to those he called “reform Democrats.”
His 12 years in the investment banking business included a stint at the former Tucker Anthony before he ran what he has described as a private partnership within Paine Webber before the firm and his partnership — Britt/Goodreau — were bought out by UBS Paine Webber about six years ago.
To cover his bases, Britt has asked the state Ethics Commission for an opinion on what he can or cannot do as a recently departed member of the State Investment Commission.
“In my professional capacity as a government relations consultant, I may potentially interact and lobby the Rhode Island General Assembly and all statewide elected officials and their respective departments. What, if any, restrictions do I have?” he wrote the commission on Dec. 21. He awaits a reply.
Meanwhile, the nine-member investment panel limps along with three vacancies and a snagged reappointment. The governor has not yet submitted a nominee to replace Britt.
But on Jan. 17, Caprio nominated, subject to Senate confirmation, CPA Robert Giudici, a partner at Ward Fisher & Co., to a two-year appointment, and Andrew K. Reilly, managing director of the venture capital firm Thomas Keenan Ventures, to a one-year term. Carcieri is expected to renominate J. Michael Costello, of Baldwin Brothers Investment Advisors. The nomination languished in the Senate last session.
Speaking of lobbyists, you may want to keep an eye on your mailbox.
Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis was in the process Friday of mailing what-gives letters to 89 corporations and interest groups with lobbyists at the State House who missed the Jan. 15 deadline for reporting “anything of value” they gave a state lawmaker over the last year or, alternatively, filing a statement to say they gave nothing.
One letter asks Newport Grand why it failed to disclose its financial relationship with the Newport law firm in which Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Paiva Weed is a partner.
Another asks the Laborers International Union of North America, headquartered on South Main Street, in Providence, why it failed to disclose the financial relationships two of its branches have with Senators Frank Ciccone and Paul E. Moura.
(The only branch of the sprawling Laborers union that reported any financial relationship with a state lawmaker was the one employing Senate Majority Whip Dominick Ruggerio, at $176,060 a year, that acknowledged having a lobbyist, .former Sen. John Orabona, at the Rhode Island State House last year. Ruggerio’s title: administrator, New England Laborers’ Labor-Management Cooperation Trust.)
A sample Mollis letter read: “As an entity that has engaged in lobbying activities in 2006 you are responsible to list all ‘monies’ provided to a state decision maker directly or through compensation.
“It appears that your entity has provided such compensation to a state decision maker or decision makers but has not listed the compensation. Please provide my office with a response within 15 days either acknowledging that you have amended your report to reflect the compensation or why you believe it was not necessary to list the compensation. Your response will be viewed before any further action is taken.”
Stay tuned.
Lest you think you are missing something, this was the question the Ethics Commission’s staff lawyer Jason Gramitt faced from a freshman lawmaker when he came to the State House last week to give House members an ethics refresher course:
“A number of elected legislators here are full-time employees of labor unions. They’re not masons. They’re not skilled workers. Their jobs are to promote the union on a full-time basis. They are elected to the legislature. They write legislation. … They vote on that legislation.
“How the hell is that possible?” asked Rep. Douglas W. Gablinske, the Democrat with his own real-estate appraisal company who replaced former Rep. Fausto C. Anguilla, D-Bristol.
Gramitt’s response: “I don’t believe that that’s a stupid or crazy freshman question.
“If they are just an employee or there’s a class exception that applies, the code as it is currently written in most cases will allow that kind of action,” Gramitt said.
An unbelieving Gablinske persisted: “A full-time employee of one of these unions — and their job is strictly to promote the union and its goals and they can write legislation — they can introduce legislation and they can support legislation …?”
Gramitt said he wouldn’t make that sweeping a statement.
“To answer your question, I want to look at the legislation and see exactly what the impact is. Who is it going to impact? Is the class exception going to apply?”
Translated: all lawmakers are presumed taxpayers, but they can vote on tax bills, according to the Ethics Commission, as long as they are not going to be helped or hurt any more than anyone else in the same class. The logic has, on occasion, been extended to teachers, insurance brokers and others, including members of public-employee unions.
“I guess the most I can say is that in the very few circumstances that I have looked at, I believe the class exception has applied,” Gramitt said. “Will it apply in every case? Maybe not, so I don’t want to say that under any circumstances it’s absolutely fine. I don’t believe it is … but it’s going to be a case by case basis.”
“I wish I could be less lawyerly to you in my answer to you,” Gramitt said apologetically. “But really, that’s the truth.”
Rep. Peter G. Palumbo, D-Cranston, made his eighth annual trip to Nicaragua this year to provide free dental care with Northeast Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity.
The group travels to a different village in Nicaragua each year to provide general medical care and specialty services including optometry, audiology and cataract surgery. This year, 3,987 patients received medical care in the four-day period, Jan. 15 to 18.
The dental group, which treated 308 people this year, was headed by Bristol dentist John Kerwin and Rehoboth, Mass., dentist Frank Cassarella. Besides Palumbo, the lay members included Palumbo’s cousin, Steven DePasquale, who lives in Scituate and owns a construction company; Tom Geruso, owner of the Ethan Allen furniture store on Bald Hill Road in Warwick; and Dick Stevenin, an engineer who lives in Smithfield.
Over the years, Palumbo said, he has seen the dental group move from providing emergency services such as extracting teeth and draining abscesses to treating less urgent problems, for instance, filling cavities. Now, Palumbo said, “People are walking out with a nice smile. It gives them a little self-esteem when they leave.”
As the 2008 presidential race takes shape, one Rhode Islander will be working for the campaign of U.S. Sen. John McCain.
Christian Winthrop will be the Arizona Republican’s deputy campaign manager in New Hampshire, slated to be the site of the first presidential primary in the nation on Jan. 22, 2008. (The Iowa caucus is eight days earlier, on Jan. 14.)
Winthrop, 34, was campaign manager for two-time Republican congressional candidate Dave Rogers. Most recently, he worked for John Spencer, the Republican who unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y. Winthrop lives in New York City, but said he will move to New Hampshire to start the new post in early February.
As of last week, McCain’s candidacy for president was still in the exploratory phase. Declared Republican candidates included Sam Brownback, U.S. senator from Kansas, and California Congressman Duncan Hunter.
Winthrop said he wanted to work for McCain because “John McCain is a true American hero and he’s going to make an excellent president of the United States.”
Winthrop is a Newport native who attended Rogers High School and graduated from the University of Rhode Island in 1996.
Earlier in his career, he worked for the other side, helping to raise money for the Rhode Island Democratic Party and working as a constituent liaison for former Rhode Island Senate Majority Leader Paul S. Kelly. Winthrop also worked for the 1998 reelection campaign of U.S. Rep. Robert A. Weygand, then two years later worked for the campaign of former Lt. Gov. Richard Licht, who was running against Weygand in a Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.
A committee of lawmakers that oversees the state lottery — but has no official power — has made a few personnel moves. The influential Permanent Joint Committee on State Lottery switches its chairmanship between the House and the Senate. The one-year term of Sen. Maryellen Goodwin, D-Providence, ended last week and the committee unanimously voted to name Rep. William San Bento Jr., D-Pawtucket, the new chairman.
Also, Sen. John F. McBurney III, D-Pawtucket, joined the committee last week, filling a vacancy created when Sen. Michael J. Damiani, D-East Providence, opted not to seek another term.
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