Joseph A. Montalbano says he inadvertently omitted that information from his filings with the state Ethics Commission.

05:49 PM EDT on Thursday, June 1, 2006

BY KATHERINE GREGG
Journal State House Bureau

PROVIDENCE -- With the proposed West Warwick casino referendum up for a final State House vote today, Senate President Joseph A. Montalbano yesterday described as "inadvertent" his failure to disclose to the state Ethics Commission that his small North Providence law firm is on the Town of West Warwick's payroll -- and has been for several years.

His law firm, Montalbano & Montalbano, has been paid a total of $86,329.47 since 2003, according to a summary report provided by West Warwick Town Manager Wolfgang Bauer. In 2003, the then-Senate majority leader's law firm was paid $12,797; in 2004, $6,538; in 2005, $23,351 and this year so far, $43,642.

Montalbano has dutifully listed, on his annual financial disclosure reports to the state Ethics Commission, the other Rhode Island communities for which he has provided tax sale and other real estate-related services, among them: Central Falls, Pawtucket, Warren, Cumberland, North Kingstown and Lincoln.

He disclosed his role as legal counsel to the Providence and Pawtucket Housing Authorities and municipal court judge in his hometown, North Providence.

But nowhere on the report he filed with the Ethics Commission on April 25 for the year that ended on Dec. 31, 2005 -- or in the reports he filed in the previous two years -- did he mention that his firm has also been employed by the town at the center of the Harrah's-Narragansett Indian casino drive that will occupy the Senate today.

The Senate is the last stop for a House-passed bill calling for a statewide referendum, in November, on changing the state Constitution to give exclusive casino rights in Rhode Island to the proposed West Warwick casino.

As a joint resolution, the measure is a rarely used form of legislation that is not subject to the veto of Governor Carcieri, a casino foe.

The lead House champion of the proposed casino, state Rep. Timothy Williamson, also works for West Warwick as town solicitor. The town has paid his law firm -- Inman Tourgee & Williamson -- $606,256 since 2002, including $122,250 so far this year.

When asked on his way to the Senate chamber yesterday why he left West Warwick off the municipal client-list he provided the Ethics Commission, Montalbano appeared startled.

"I mean, the answer is: it's a public record that I do work for them and if it's not on the ethics report, it's probably inadvertent," he said. "It was probably copied from a previous year."

Another possible explanation, he said, is that he may not have been paid for 2005 until after he filed his last statement. But after reading the wording of the question on the filing form more closely, he said: "West Warwick should have been there probably."

But then he declined to say what he did for the town except to say it had nothing to do with the legal spade work or studies for which Harrah's Entertainment has paid the town $179,082 so far: "Absolutely not."

Bauer said he could not on short notice round up all the legal bills for which Montalbano's firm had been paid, but he surmised that much of the money went to cover the "significant" filing fees, newspaper advertisements and other "direct expenses" arising out of tax-title sales, foreclosures and town efforts to "do something productive" with the former Royal Mill and Crompton Mill land.

But Montalbano said: "I did not do tax sale work for the Town of West Warwick." Asked what he did do, he said: "Legal work. Litigation."

Asked to be more specific, he said: "I am not at liberty to discuss their legal matters." Earlier yesterday, Donald Trump's casino team made their last pitch for competitive bidding for the exclusive Rhode Island casino license to a nearly empty State House hearing room.

In February, Trump president and chief executive officer James B. Perry arrived in Rhode Island with a proposal to build a billion-dollar casino on 100-plus acres at the junction of Hartford Avenue and Route 295 in Johnston. The Johnston Town Council passed a resolution asking the General Assembly's permission to put the proposal on the ballot. Rep. Stephen R. Ucci, D-Johnston, then introduced a bill giving his town and any other interested community a shot to compete for the casino.

"As a point of reference, I have operated casinos in New Jersey, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Louisiana, Las Vegas and [am] now participating in a process in Pennsylvania and to the best of my knowledge," Perry told the lawmakers, each of those markets has "either been open to anyone to come in or there has been an RFP [request-for-proposals]."

But House Finance Chairman Steven M. Costantino said not all states have gone that route, and he didn't see much relevance in Harrah's chief executive Gary Loveman's comment last week about competitive-bidding "bringing out the best" after his company lost its own bid for casino rights in Singapore to a rival.

"You hear about other states," said Costantino. "I hear about the Singapore example. . . . Well, it costs $3,000 to play 18 holes of golf in Singapore so you can't throw a concept out there that isn't an apples-to-apples situation."

Rep. Thomas Slater, D-Providence, questioned if anyone had polled Johnston residents.

The Trump team had an answer: a poll conducted by the Washington, D.C.-based Public Opinion Strategies between Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 of 300 Johnston residents. The findings: an initial 54 percent favored the casino, but the number went up to 67 percent when people were told their town would get an estimated $10 million annually (less than half the $25 million Trump reportedly offered the town in private negotiations).

"If we want to put the best deal forward to the state, to the voters, we should give this the opportunity to play out for what it is," Ucci said. But the committee voted 9 to 1 to hold his bill for further study, which effectively killed it for the year.

Ucci said he was not surprised. Speaking of the political realities of having a House speaker from West Warwick, he said: "I think it was a fait accompli that the speaker was going to do whatever he could to get this passed . . . and put on the ballot for West Warwick." But, "to allow this to go forward without competition, it doesn't bode well for the state and it really diminishes sometimes, I think, the way people of Rhode Island view us."

Perry said Trump would not actively campaign against the proposed West Warwick casino, but would watch closely for future openings.

kgregg@projo.com / (401) 277-7078