Why Vote No for this Ethics Bill

Here is the press release regarding the latest Ethics Bill

Good government groups call on Rhode Island Senate to withdraw ethics resolution

Common Cause Rhode Island, along with the Rhode Island Taxpayers, and the League of Women Voters of Rhode, ask the Rhode Island Senate to withdraw Senate resolution 2824 Sub A as amended. This resolution, which would put a constitutional amendment regarding the jurisdiction of the Ethics Commission over the General Assembly on November’s ballot, has been hopelessly compromised. The groups remain committed to future efforts to fix the loophole created in 2009 by the Rhode Island Supreme Court’s decision in Irons v. Rhode Island Ethics Commission.

“The changes made to this important constitutional amendment last week do not serve the interest of the public,” says John Marion, Executive Director of Common Cause Rhode Island. “It is too late in the legislative session to attempt a hasty fix for such an important issue,” he continues. Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee made significant changes that would fundamentally alter the Ethics Commission process for all public officials and employees, not just legislators. The original purpose of the resolution–fixing the loophole that allows for legislators to be immune from most of the Code of Ethics–has been hijacked to create, among other changes, a whole new appeal process that applies to everyone covered by the Code of Ethics, and not just lawmakers. That appeal process would mean anyone found in violation of an ethics violation could wipe the slate clean with a de novo trial; allowing for another bite at the apple.

“The amendments made last week go far beyond what is necessary to fix this problem, and could potentially make the process of enforcing our ethics laws more complicated, more costly, and more drawn out” says Larry Girouard, President of the Rhode Island Taxpayers. Continues Girouard, “By putting an effective date of January 7, 2015 in this amendment it would provide a ‘get out of jail’ card for past unethical conduct of legislators; surely something no citizen wants.”

“As an Amicus on behalf of the Ethics Commission in the case that made this necessary, the League of Women Voters is deeply committed to closing the loophole, but these amendments go beyond what was at stake in that case,” says Jane Koster, President of the League of Women Voters of Rhode Island.   While lawyers for Senator Irons asserted the right to a jury trial they did not do so for all public officials for all portions of the Code of Ethics.

Because this resolution goes far beyond simply reversing Irons, we stand united in asking the bill’s sponsor, Senator James Sheehan, Judiciary Committee Chair Michael McCaffrey, and Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed, to withdraw the bill.

http://commoncauseri.org/good-government-groups-call-on-rhode-island-senate-to-withdraw-ethics-resolution/

Good government groups call on Rhode Island Senate to withdraw ethics resolution

Common Cause Rhode Island, along with the Rhode Island Taxpayers, and the League of Women Voters of Rhode, ask the Rhode Island Senate to withdraw Senate resolution 2824 Sub A as amended. This resolution, which would put a constitutional amendment regarding the jurisdiction of the Ethics Commission over the General Assembly on November’s ballot, has been hopelessly compromised. The groups remain committed to future efforts to fix the loophole created in 2009 by the Rhode Island Supreme Court’s decision in Irons v. Rhode Island Ethics Commission.
Read the editorial in today's (June 4, 2014) ProJo.
http://www.providencejournal.com/opinion/editorials/20140604-ethics-trojan-horse.ece

The first weekend in May, members of the RI league joined representatives from all six New England States in Wells, Maine for our biennial conference, formerly known as Quad States.  After several inspirational and informative talks on the need to act now to control and adapt to climate change  and the need to address the threat of unlimited campaign funding, as well as to support gun safety, our delegation decided that we need to expand our advocacy efforts in these areas.  We have joined together with members of the other 5 New England leagues to keep in touch, share ideas and work in concert with them where desirable on issues that cross borders, such as climate change.

These are areas in which we have not been active for a while, so we need help.  If you have time to research these issues or help us cover what is happening and plan ways to inform legislators and the public, please let us know.  See lwvri.org for contact info and to see what we are doing so far. 

Action needed now on the

Distributed Generation Growth Program bills (H7727/S2690). The Senate will vote on their version on June 6, but the bill is still in committee in the house, being “held for further study.”  This program will expire in 2014 unless reauthorized by the RI Legislature.   Please read the explanation below, and then call or email your representatives in the Legislature. 

Developing renewable energy is our best way to fight climate change, as well as to protect ourselves from rising prices for natural gas.

Per an article in the projo of May 30, 2014, the distributed generation pilot program created in 2011 to develop the clean energy industry in RI has been very successful. “It created 175 jobs in the first 18 months of the program and the cost of solar power generation dropped more than 50%...Renewable energy companies …lined up in droves to vie for the wind, solar, anaerobic digestion and small-scale hydro projects awarded through the 2011 program.” 70 projects proposed so far, but program only big enough to accommodate 28.  16 have been built or scheduled to be built, with more on the way.

This program will expire in 2014 unless reauthorized by the RI Legislature.  Distributed Generation Growth Program bill (H7727/S2690).The Senate will hear their version on June 6, but the bill is still in committee in the house, being “held for further study.” 

“According to a May 20143 report commissioned by the state Office of Energy Resources, a new distributed generation program along with Renewable Energy Fund investments would result in nearly 250 net jobs and an average annual net economic output of more than $30 million.  Over the next 25 years, the state could expect to see more than a half-billion dollars in economic output if the bill were enacted.  With an expanded renewable energy market, the state’s solar businesses would no longer have to cross state lines to do business. “  By Peter Rothstein, president of New England Clean Energy Council.  John Marcantonio, Exec. Director of RI Builders’ Association, and Michael Daley, business manager of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers local union 99.   

New RI Legislative Committee Members

These are the people to write urging support of the LWVRI agenda. See the database in the previous blog to find out which bill is in which committee.   Titles of bills are often incomplete or misleading, so read them before endorsing or opposing them. Click original size on the bar at the bottom of each document (it appears when you click on the document) to make it readable.

To read these images of our database of current bills in the RI legislature of interest to the League, click on them and choose "original size."  Please read text at end of images. 

Above are images of  our updated database (as of April 22) of  bills introduced so far that are of interest to the league. 



Most bills should have been submitted by now to the 2014 legislature.  To date, none of interest to the LWVRI has gone farther than a first committee hearing. Since the committee chairs determine what bills will proceed further, it is very important League Members write, call or email their legislators who are on the committee handling the bill, to urge support for the bills they and the League favor.  This is the most important thing YOU can do to support the League advocacy agenda this year.  When you communicate with your legislator be sure to identify yourself as her or his constituent as well as a League member.

League Priorities this year include:

Restoring the jurisdiction of the Ethics Committee over the Legislature, and open meetings and records.

Supporting elimination of voting for all a party's candidates by making one mark on a ballot (master lever), early voting, improved voting machines that provide a paper copy of ballots to aid in recounts if necessary, elimination of voter id, etc.

Supporting merit selection for judges

Counting prisoners as living in their home districts, not in the prison, in order to avoid skewing the census counts used for redistricting and federal funding.

Promoting gun safety

Promoting reproductive justice

Promoting a sustainable, safe environment

Protecting civil liberties

Promoting education as a right of RI citizens, and promoting  public education funding that provides equality of opportunity through a system of taxation that is sufficient equitable, flexible, and coordinated among the different levels of government.

Above are images of  our updated database (as of April 22) of  bills introduced so far that are of interest to the league. 

Bills Introduced in Legislature to 2/27/2014

To make these legible, copy and paste them into word.  Then you can stretch them to readable size.

Agriculture Study: Charles Allott  to Speak on Farmland Preservation.

Charles Allott, Executive Director of the Aquidneck Land Trust, will speak about the importance of preserving farmland on Aquidneck Island on March 12 at

6:00 pm at the Middletown Police Station.  The League of Women Voters of Newport County is sponsoring Mr. Allott’s talk, in conjunction with the National League’s initiative to update its Agriculture position.   Local Leagues, as part of their research on agriculture, are sponsoring forums to educate members and the general public about issues critical to local farmers.   The state of Rhode Island leads the nation in  the percentage of farmland lost to development.  Since it was founded in 1990, The Aquidneck Land Trust has conserved over 2000 acres of land on Aquidneck Island.

This talk is free and open to the public.  The Middletown Police Department ‘s address is 123 Valley Road, Middletown.  For more information call 378-7595.

There was a great story on RIPR this morning about designing better ballots. It explains a lot about why ballots look the way they do and why they are often poorly designed. Check it out. RIPR Ballot Design Story

The League Advocacy committee will post new bills we are following that have been introduced in the legislature on this blog on a weekly basis.  The spreadsheet is organized to correspond with our advocacy subcommittees.  The last column initials indicate which subcommittee (see earlier blog) the bills fall under.  ed=education; env= environment; gov= good government, selection of magistrates; gun+ gun safety and control; open/eth=open records/open meetings & ethics; rj=reproductive justice; vot=voting reforms

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The LWVRI is cosponsoring with Common Cause RI, Hassenfeld Institute at Bryant University and Roger Williams School of Law an event on the question of holding a constitutional convention in Rhode Island. The registration deadline is March 9.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-constitutional-convention-for-rhode-island-tickets-10676185759

Are you ready for the Agriculture Study? An  information meeting presenting the topics in the study will be held on March 31 at the Jamestown Philomenian Library from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Check www.lwvri.org for more information or visit the LWVUS Ag Study site (www.lwv.org/member-resources/agriculture-update)

Here are some other good sources of information to help you prepare for the meeting and consensus.
Mark Bittman's article from the New York Times,“How to Feed the World” (www.nytimes.com/2013/10/15/opinion/how-to-feed-the-world.html?ref=markbittman)

NPR’s blog page “The Salt,” which includes two broadcasts about chicken farming and “integrated” farming (www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/02/19/276981085/is-tyson-foods-chicken-empire-a-meat-racket and www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/02/20/279040721/the-system-that-supplies-our-chickens-pits-farmer-against-farmer).

Also check out an earlier article from the RI Voter

Advocacy Organizational Meeting FEBRUARY 1 at 1:30, at the Bristol Library

·         Meet Others Working on Your Issues 

·         Get an Update on Current Issues on the Hill

·         Get pointers on how to lobby

·         Learn How to Track Legislation

Subcommittees include:

Accountable Government (including ethics and open records)

              Civil Liberties

              Election Procedures (voter id, master lever removal, early voting, etc.)

              Environmental Issues

              Gun Control and Gun Safety

              School funding

              Women’s Issues, reproductive rights

Or Monitoring of meetings of the  Board of Elections or

                                                             Ethics Commission

                   

Opportunities include tracking legislation by computer, talking to legislators formally or informally about League positions, attending hearings and presenting testimony prepared together with the Advocacy Committee and the League President. 

We will also update you on the Election Ready Schools Campaign

All League Advocacy is based on our LEAGUE POSITIONS.  Please read those related to your interests at http://lwvri.org/issues-positions-studies.htm

If you are interested in tracking legislation, please bring a laptop if you can. We will show you how.