Embattled Senate Finance Chairman Stephen D. Alves, D-West Warwick, has lost his State House legal adviser.

In recent weeks, former West Warwick Town Council president John Flynn made the big leap from being the Senate Finance Committee’s $73,459-a-year lawyer to serving as Senate President Joseph A. Montalbano’s own $115,000 legal counsel.

Said Montalbano of Flynn’s promotion: “Having worked with Mr. Flynn on numerous matters that have come before this chamber, including the budget and other pieces of complex legislation, I have seen firsthand his qualities of professionalism, insight and legal expertise. He will serve the members of the Senate and the people of Rhode Island well in his new capacity.”

Flynn succeeds former Montalbano lawyer and new Superior Court Judge William Carnes.

Senate Finance chairmen have traditionally had a big voice in who gets hired as their legal adviser. When asked, however, if Alves would be given that opportunity, Senate spokesman Greg Pare said: “The process of selecting a new legal counsel for the Senate Finance Committee has not begun.”

Alves, a stockbroker, is enmeshed in controversy over his alleged role in killing a proposed tax break for A. Duie Pyle, a Pennsylvania trucking company building a distribution center in Johnston, out of pique that the town did not give him any of its pension fund business.

Grand jury subpoenas have recently gone out in the FBI’s investigation of the allegations that Alves abused his office by killing the tax legislation in June. Denying the allegations, Alves has said the measure died because Duie Pyle and its advocates “dropped the ball” — failing to lobby him until it was too late.

Flynn, 36, earned his law degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1996, and a bachelor’s degree in political science from American University in Washington, D.C., in 1993.

Flynn was a member of the West Warwick School Committee from 1998 through 2002, and the West Warwick Town Council from 2003 through 2006. He was the council president in 2005-06 and vice president from 2002 through 2005.

Council 94 ads target big-ticket state salaries

How many state workers contracted through private staffing firms make more than $200,000 each year?

The answer is six, according to the latest round of newspaper ads taken out by Council 94, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

The advertisement, titled “Can We Afford Governor Carcieri’s Privatization Efforts?” actually lists the names and salaries of “Carcieri’s Top 10” — the 10 highest-paid contract employees in state government. Their salaries range from $172,000 to $280,000, according to Council 94, the largest state employee union in Rhode Island.

The ads represents the union’s latest shot at the Republican governor, who has all but declared war on Rhode Island labor in announcing a plan last week to cut 1,000 state jobs and reduce workers’ benefits by $50 million.

“We’re trying to bring attention to how the public’s money is being spent,” said Dennis Grilli, Council 94’s executive director. “We felt that showing the Top 10 would give them some insight as to how Carcieri’s running his operation.”

The union spent $9,000 to run advertisements in 19 newspapers across Rhode Island between last Tuesday and Thursday. Grilli said the governor’s budget office produced the salary information in response to an open-records request.

Political Scene won’t reproduce all the Top 10 here, but just in case you’re interested here’s a sampling: Topping off the list is Karen Barth, who earns $280,000 as a senior project manager for the Department of Administration. She is followed by Michael Eldridge, who makes $246,000 for running the Department of Corrections’ computer systems; George Olivera is a $227,500-a-year systems engineer assigned to the Department of Labor and Training.

The advertisements were the first to appear in the print media since the previous General Assembly session, but Grilli suggested they may become the norm as labor faces off with the executive branch over layoffs and benefit reductions.

Council 94’s contract expires next July.

“I think before he lays off any of my people he should get rid of the contractors,” Grilli said. “Hopefully we’ll sit down and talk about it.”

Governor sets closed talks on planned budget cuts

Speaking of talking…

The governor’s office told Political Scene Friday that it had scheduled the first of the promised closed-door budget discussions with legislative and labor leaders.

Carcieri unveiled a $200-million budget reduction plan in general terms last week at the annual dinner of the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council. Labor leaders and the Assembly’s Democratic leadership had no idea the governor planned to cut $50 million in workers’ benefits as part of the plan, on top of saving $100 million with 1,000 staffing cuts.

The governor’s office Friday afternoon confirmed the following meeting schedule:

•Tomorrow: 2 p.m.: House Democratic leadership, including House Speaker William J. Murphy, Majority Leader Gordon D. Fox, and House Finance Committee Chairman Steven M. Costantino

•Tomorrow, 3:30 p.m.: Frank Caprio, chairman of the Board of Governors for Higher Education

•Wednesday, 4 p.m.: State Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank J. Williams

The governor’s office had reached out to Senate President Montalbano, according to Carcieri spokesman Jeff Neal, although they had yet to set a time or date by late Friday afternoon.

And the governor would “reach out to additional stakeholders, including labor,” Neal said.

Lloyd’s suit against Sundlun nears trial

A lawsuit that the Society of Lloyd’s filed against former Gov. Bruce G. Sundlun is scheduled to go to trial in federal court in Providence on Thursday. But Sundlun’s lawyer, former state Supreme Court Justice Robert G. Flanders Jr., says a settlement might be reached before then.

“We are working to try to resolve it right now,” Flanders told Political Scene Friday afternoon. “I anticipate we’ll be able to settle before Thursday.”

If no settlement is reached, a bench trial is set to begin at 10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 11, before Senior U.S. District Judge Ronald R. Lagueux.

Lloyd’s claims Sundlun, a Democrat who was governor from 1991 to 1995, owes it about $300,000 in principal and interest and has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Providence, seeking to enforce a default judgment that a British court entered against Sundlun in 1997.

Lloyd’s is a British insurance market in which financial backers — or “members” — come together to pool and spread risk. The members include corporations and individuals — or “names” — who provide the capital that serves as security for Lloyd’s policies.

Sundlun, 87, of Jamestown, became a Lloyd’s member in 1979 and effectively “ceased underwriting” in January 1993, according to the lawsuit.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Lloyd’s market sustained losses of more than $12 billion, thanks in part to large claims from American workers afflicted with asbestosis and lung cancer. With its survival threatened, Lloyd’s instituted a plan that required the members to buy reinsurance for their pre-1993 underwriting responsibilities.

But Sundlun never paid the required premium, according to the lawsuit. And in June 1997, a default judgment was entered against him in England for $163,835. With interest included, Lloyd’s is now seeking about $300,000 from Sundlun, lawyers have said.

Sundlun has maintained he doesn’t owe a dime and that Lloyd’s failed to serve notice before obtaining the judgment.

Roberts visits Taiwan

Lt. Governor Elizabeth Roberts and her policy director, Jennifer Wood, headed to Taiwan late last week at the expense of the Taiwan government.

While estimating the plane fare alone will cost about $4,000, Wood said the state’s $25 gift limit does not apply because the two are traveling on official business to view a government that has made progress in health and economic arenas where Roberts hopes Rhode Island, too, will make headway.

She noted, for example, that one of Roberts’ stated goals is to “stimulate activities that would result in universal [health] coverage for all Rhode Islanders,” so she is interested in seeing firsthand the workings of the national health insurance program and national hospital in Taiwan. A second point of interest, Wood said, is learning how the country moved from a largely manufacturing economy to “biotech.”

Roberts is heading a New England delegation that includes members of the Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine legislatures.

Meet-and-greets during the nine-day trip include the vice president and chief financial officer at the Bureau of National Health Insurance, the secretary general of the Taiwan Provincial Government, the vice superintendent of National Taiwan University Hospital and the director general of the Bureau of Foreign Trade at the Ministry of Economic Affairs, with stops at GenMont Biotech Inc. and Motech Technology Inc.

Coyne-McCoy to Harvard

Kate Coyne-McCoy, of Scituate, who works at Emily’s List, the women’s Democratic Party fundraising network, has been named a fellow at Harvard University’s Women and Public Policy Program, which is under the university’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Coyne-McCoy ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic U.S. House nomination in 2002 in the state’s 2nd District, finishing second to James R. Langevin, in a four-way primary contest. In the Harvard program, she will mentor women students who plan to get into electoral politics when they graduate.

“I am looking forward to taking my political knowledge, gained on the ground over 25 years of day-to-day experience, and translate it into helping women from Harvard run for elected office,” said Coyne-McCoy.

smackay@projo.com