Common Cause Rhode Island

Annual Meeting a Success

jmarion — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:44:14 +0000

On October 29th over 140 people interested in good government gathered at Rhodes on the Pawtuxet to celebrate past victories and look toward the future at the Common Cause Annual Meeting. We awarded the Distinguished Service Award to Warren Galkin and the Excellence in Public Service Award to Thomas Bender. Thomas Heslin, Executive Editor of the Providence Journal, spoke about the future of newspapers and answered questions from the audience.

Congratulations Rep. Driver

jmarion — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:24:56 +0000

The House Judiciary Committee is voting now on a bill that the representatives had never seen. Congratulations Representative Driver for bringing that to everyone’s attention. The rules of the House are currently suspended and the House has no intention of obeying them.

Common Cause Rhode Island Annual Meeting

jmarion — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:10:19 +0000

Join us at the Annual Meeting of Common Cause Rhode Island, on Thursday, October 29th at Rhodes on the Pawtuxet. We will be having a presentation and discussion about the changing role of the media with Providence Journal Senior Vice President and Executive Editor, Thomas Heslin. Common Cause will also be honoring Thomas Bender with the Excellence in Public Service Award, and Warren Galkin with the Distinguished Service Award.

If you would like to receive information, or purchase tickets, please contact MaryBeth Marshall at (401) 861-2322 or email contact@commoncauseri.org.

Date:

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Time:

4:30 p.m. Business Meeting
5:00 p.m Cocktails/Registration
6:00 p.m. Dinner
7:00 p.m. Awards, Discussion and Questions

Location:

Rhodes on the Pawtuxet
60 Rhodes Place
Cranston, RI

Let’s All Obey the Rules

jmarion — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:18:25 +0000

On Wednesday, October 28th, the Rhode Island House and Senate are scheduled to return from recess. Common Cause Rhode Island asks that upon their return both chambers reinstate their rules.

In the closing days of the General Assembly session in June both the House and Senate suspended significant portions of their rules. These allowed them to meet late into the night (and in one case the next morning) and hold hearings without advance notice. Without the rules in place, members can even be asked to vote on bills that they haven’t seen in advance.

On October 19th Common Cause sent letters to the leadership in the House and Senate (click here to read the House letter and here to read the Senate letter) asking them to reinstate the rules upon their return. We followed that with letters to all members of both chambers.

We believe government should be open and accountable. The General Assembly faces no statutory deadline for finishing their work. We feel the people deserve a legislative process that is open and deliberative.

Let’s Amend the Constitution

jmarion — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:44:47 +0000

Common Cause proposes allowing the people to decide whether to the Constitution of the State of Rhode Island in response to the Rhode Island Supreme Court’s recent decision in William V. Irons vs. The Rhode Island Ethics Commission. We are asking the General Assembly to put the following language (additions in bold) on the ballot in 2010:

ARTICLE III

OF QUALIFICATION FOR OFFICE

Section 8. Ethics Commission – Code of Ethics – Jurisdiction. The general assembly shall establish an independent non-partisan ethics commission which shall adopt a code of ethics including, but not limited to, provisions on conflict of interest, confidential information, use of position, contracts with government agencies and financial disclosure. All elected and appointed officials of state and local government, of boards, commissions and agencies, shall be subject to the code of ethics and the jurisdiction of the ethics commission. The ethics commission shall have the jurisdiction and authority to investigate and adjudicate alleged violations of the code of ethics, including all acts otherwise protected by Article VI, Section 5, and to impose penalties, as provided by law; and the commission shall have the power to remove from office officials who are not subject to impeachment.

ARTICLE VI

OF THE LEGISLATIVE POWER

Section 5. Immunities of General Assembly members. The persons of all members of the general assembly shall be exempt from arrest and their estates from attachment in any civil action, during the session of the general assembly, and two days before the commencement and two days after the termination thereof, and all process served contrary hereto shall be void. For any speech in debate in either house, no member shall be questioned in any other place, except as set forth in Article III, section 8 of this Constitution.

Heard us on WRNI?

jmarion — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:28:06 +0000

Hi, and welcome to Common Cause Rhode Island.

You’ve probably found yourself here because you heard about us on WRNI. We’re excited to be reaching out to potential new supporters through public radio. While you’re here we invite you to look around our website on some of the issues we’re working on. Perhaps you can join us for an educational forum on the future of the Ethics Commission on September 16th, or to hear about the future of newspapers at our Annual Meeting on October 29th. Or you can sign up to receive our email alerts. Common Cause, and our meetings and events, are open to anyone and we encourage you to take part.

If you have any questions about or organization, or would like more information about getting involved, feel free to contact us at contact@commoncauseri.org or call (401) 861-2322. And thank you for visiting.

Sincerely,

John Marion
Executive Director

Join us for Speech in Debate Forum Sept. 16

jmarion — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:27:46 +0000

Common Cause Rhode Island and the A. Alfred Taubman Center at Brown University are pleased to announce a panel discussion:

“The Rhode Island Ethics Commission in the Wake of the Irons Decision.”

Description: Please join us for a panel discussion about the decision of the Rhode Island Supreme Court in the case of Irons vs. The RI Ethics Commission and the future of the Commission in the decision’s wake. Hear from leading experts on the decision, as well as authorities on the Commission and advocates working to make changes in the wake of the Supreme Court’s opinion.

Moderator:

Ross Cheit–Professor of Public Policy at Brown and member of The Rhode Island Ethics Commission

Panelists:

Barbara Binder–Attorney and Chairwoman of The Rhode Island Ethics Commission
Mark Freel–Attorney and author of RI ACLU brief in the Irons vs. RIEC case
Tom Bender–Attorney and author of Common Cause RI brief in the Irons vs. RIEC case
Jason Gramitt –Staff attorney RIEC, and author of RIEC brief
John Marion–Executive director of Common Cause RI
John Roney (tentative) –Attorney and parliamentarian of Rhode Island Senate

Where: Smith-Buonanno Hall, Room 106 at 95 Cushing Street on the Brown University Campus.

When: Wednesday, September 16th at 7 pm.

Supreme Court Extends “Speech in Debate” Immunity to General Assembly

jmarion — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:05:17 +0000

Today the Rhode Island Supreme Court carved out a special immunity from ethical oversight for the General Assembly. In ruling in favor of the plaintiff in William V. Irons vs. Rhode Island Ethics Commission, the Court has decided that the Rhode Island constitution’s “speech in debate” clause shields members of the General Assembly from prosecution by the Ethics Commission on their “core legislative functions” such as voting and speaking.

“Today the Rhode Island Supreme Court dealt a sharp blow to ethical government in Rhode Island” says John Marion, executive director of government reform group Common Cause Rhode Island. The case was a result of an appeal of a Superior Court decision by the Rhode Island Ethics Commission. The Superior Court ruled that former Senate President William Irons was immune from prosecution based on the “speech in debate” clause of the Rhode Island Constitution. Marion added, “By doing this, one of the main tools that the people of the Rhode Island deemed necessary for policing the ethics of Rhode Island government has been removed.”

Common Cause Rhode Island calls on the Rhode Island General Assembly to put on the ballot a proposed constitutional amendment that restores the power of the Ethics Commission to investigate, and if necessary, prosecute members of the General Assembly for any wrongdoing that may occur. Given that the General Assembly has yet to adjourn for 2009, and in the words of Speaker Murphy last Saturday, “we’re a full-time Legislature now” we feel it is incumbent upon them to pass legislation that lets the people decide if members of the General Assembly deserve immunity that no other elected officials in the state enjoy. By passing House bill 6070, or any similar bill that may be introduced as a result of this decision, the Assembly can accomplish this prior to the end of the legislative session and let the people decide in 2010 whether legislators deserve immunity. As Justice Suttell points out in his dissent in this case, it is important to look at the history of what the voters desired in passing the 1986 ethics amendment. Since the majority of the Court disagreed with what we feel the voters wanted, it is time again to let the voters decide.

Common Cause Rhode Island is pleased with the decision of the majority to not take up the question of whether those prosecuted by the Ethics Commission have a right to a separate jury trial. We feel that Judge Darigan’s decision on this matter was correct, and any attempt to remove the ability of the Commission to decide the matters before them (after first providing immunity under “speech and debate”) would be the equivalent of taking two legs out of a three legged stool.

Common Cause filed amicus briefs on behalf of the Ethics Commission in the case.

Separation of Powers Prevails!

jmarion — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:37:52 +0000

On Thursday, June 25th, the Rhode Island Senate provided advice and consent to four current members of the Coastal Resources Management Council. Three of those members had never previously received the Senate’s approval. From the Senate Journal:

Upon motion of Senator Connors, seconded by Senator Algiere, the following measures on today’s Consent Calendar, by unanimous consent, are read and passed, upon a roll call vote with 34 Senators voting in the affirmative and 0 Senators voting in the negative as follows:

YEAS- 34: The Honorable President Paiva Weed and Senators Algiere, Bates, Blais, Connors, Cote, Crowley, DaPonte, Devall, DiPalma, Doyle, Felag, Fogarty, Gallo, Goodwin, Jabour, Lanzi, Lenihan, Levesque, Lynch, Maher, Maselli, McCaffrey, Metts, Miller, O’Neill, Perry, Picard, Pichardo, Ruggerio, Sheehan, Sosnowski, Tassoni, Walaska.

AYS- 0:

This seemingly unremarkable event is a huge victory in the march toward Separation of Powers in Rhode Island. Common Cause has long advocated that the 2004 Separation of Powers amendments are self-executing in nature. With this vote, the Governor and Senate took steps to bring the council into compliance with those amendments, all without new authorizing legislation.

The “big push” is on

jmarion — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:03:56 +0000

Every year both chambers of the Rhode Island General Assembly suspend their rules allowing hearings and votes to occur on bills without 48 hours notice to the public. On Tuesday the “big push”, as the Senate Journal describes it, began. Common Cause is at the Assembly working on the initiatives we’ve been telling you about all year.