Under an arrangement that some of its members oppose, the Rhode Island Hospitality & Tourism Association is allowing Brian A. Goldman to take the job while staying on as its only registered lobbyist.

01:00 AM EST on Saturday, March 13, 2004

BY KATHERINE GREGG
Journal State House Bureau

PROVIDENCE -- For the last 15 years, lawyer-lobbyist Brian A. Goldman has been the voice of the Rhode Island Hospitality & Tourism Association at the State House.

The association is vehemently opposed to the $600-million resort casino the state's Narragansett Indians are proposing to build, with financial backing from Harrah's Entertainment, in West Warwick.

But while Goldman remains the hospitality association's only registered lobbyist, he is now on Harrah's payroll as well, as a $2,500-a-month lobbyist.

In fact, he is one of nine lobbyists hired by Harrah's and the tribe to try to convince legislators to put the West Warwick casino proposal on the November ballot.

Goldman says he is "very comfortable" with his new role.

"I am lobbying for legislation that gives people the right to vote on whether there should be a casino. I am not up there saying there should be a casino," he said.

But not everyone is happy with his dual roles.

Rep. Paul Crowley, a Newport restaurant owner and member of the hospitality association, said: "I am not happy about it at all."

To succeed in Rhode Island, Crowley said, a new casino would have to be "very aggressive in stealing market share from the two Connecticut casinos," and since "you can't increase your winnings or reduce your tax, the only place they would have any flexibility would be in their hospitality, which would mean the giving away of meals, beverages, hotel rooms."

"Well, somebody that is charging can't compete against somebody who is not charging," Crowley said. "So, a longtime attorney-lobbyist for the hospitality association signing on to lobby for the casino is, to me, totally unacceptable."

"It is troubling, at best, that one of their legislative liaisons has this apparent direct conflict of interest," Lincoln Park spokesman Michael Trainor said.

But Goldman said he disclosed Harrah's job offer to top officials of the hospitality association last fall, and that they gave him the go-ahead, with the understanding that the association's president and CEO, Dale J. Venturini, would take over responsibiity for leading the group's anti-casino effort.

"I have been very upfront with everybody," Goldman said.

In an interview this week, J. Rudi Heater, the vice chairman of the association's board of directors, confirmed the group had given Goldman its blessing to work for Harrah's while continuing as its own $1,000-a-month lobbyist.

Heater, who is general manager of the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Warwick, said his group's stand on the proposed casino is widely known.

"As the trade organization for the second-largest employer industry in the state," Heater said, the association "has always been opposed to a casino coming into Rhode Island," and especially one of the scale Harrah's is proposing, with 500 hotel rooms initially, the possibility of 1,000 later, plus restaurants and lounges.

Echoing Crowley, he said: "Casinos habitually discount their food, their beverages, their hotel rooms to draw people to the gaming side of the business."

As a hotel manager, Heater acknowledged his concern may sound "a little selfish," but he said a hotel without gambling to "subsidize" food, drink and room costs could not compete.

He said the draw of a privately owned casino, with 55,000 square feet of meeting and banquet space, could also "have a material, negative impact on the Rhode Island Convention Center . . . owned and operated by the citizens of Rhode Island."

Heater said the hospitality association's executive committee decided it would, nonetheless, be OK for Goldman to join Harrah's lobbying team.

"We recognize the man has a right to make a living," Heater said.

"We debated it in closed session," he said, "and we have made an arrangement with Mr. Goldman" that he will recuse himself from any situation where he feels his roles are in conflict. "We feel it is doable," Heater said.

At this point, however, the hospitality association only has one lobbyist at the State House: Goldman. Harrah's often has a half-dozen or more lobbyists working the corridors on the days the House and Senate meet.

In addition to Goldman and veteran casino lobbyist Guy Dufault, Harrah's has registered as lobbyists two of its own corporate vice presidents, Jan Jones and David Satz; and former Celtics player Kevin Stacom at $1,500 a month; Holland & Knight lawyers Terence M. Fracassa and William Devereaux, at $10,500 a month; and two of the principals in F/S Capitol Consulting in Warwick, John J. Hogan, at $4,000 a month, and Carolyn Murray, at $1,000 a month.

But Heater said "our position is fairly well understood on the hill," because the 500-member hospitality association has, in the past, aggressively "gone into the legislative body and discussed on a one-on-one basis what our position is."

Lawmakers have not yet scheduled hearings on bills sponsored by West Warwick lawmakers that seek the November casino referendum.

But, "as we get a little closer to the hearings," Heater said, the hospitality association will mount a "full lobbying effort," and tell any lawmaker confused by Goldman's new pro-casino stance that, "as long as the discussion is not on casino gaming, he fully represents our membership."

As for why Harrah's hired Goldman, senior vice president Jones said: "We always, when we come into communities, look for seasoned lobbyists who have good relationships.

"He is not trying to convince us or them," she said, referring to the hospitality association, but rather to "provide information to legislators so they can make a reasoned decision."

Goldman's other lobbying clients this year include the New England Convenience Store Association, the Alcoholic Beverage Wholesale Dealers of Rhode Island and the Rhode Island Vending Association.

Goldman is the 44-year-old son of Alan J. Goldman, the well-connected and semiretired lawyer-lobbyist, now living in Florida, who was instrumental in the early 1970s in bringing jai alai to Newport without a voter referendum. He pitched, with less success, a failed off-track betting proposal for Pawtucket.