Were they corrupt or were they just stupid?

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Recently on a Friday, Attorney General Peter Kilmartin and Rhode Island State Police Col. Steven O’ Donnell announced that after four years of inquiry there will be no one held criminally accountable for the 38 Studios debacle. This outcome should not have been surprising to hard-bitten Rhode Islanders who are accustomed in our own beleaguered manner to being disappointed in our government.

Adding insult to injury, none of the relevant documents pertaining to the inquiry have been released, thus keeping citizens in the dark. Notable citizens groups have implored the government to come clean with whatever truths were uncovered and stop shielding this essential information from the public.

These clandestine records will either show that some actions are arguably indictable or they will show the utter incompetence of all the players in the 38 Studios saga, or both. Simultaneously, this subject once again brings to fore the problems with the legislative structure itself.

Whichever of the two pathetic alternatives the information bears, we here in the Ocean State deserve to know. Gov. Gina Raimondo could simply order the exposure. This action would fulfill her campaign promise of sunlight and an electron microscope examination of all state functions, which obviously has not been fulfilled.

House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello could convene another oversight committee with enhanced powers to gain greater information unlike the previous committee under Rep. Karen MacBeth. In the wake of increased competition for his House seat in Cranston, the speaker is now calling for the records of the inquiry to be released.

Showcased as revelatory, the strategically held press conference, late on a Friday afternoon, reopened old wounds in regard to the 38 Studios liabilities that Rhode Island taxpayers are still paying back incrementally on an annual basis with nothing but angst in return for our investment.

So, in an effort to hopefully avoid a similar catastrophe from ever occurring again, it is a beneficial exercise to examine how we arrived at this juncture.

And also, it is to our advantage to deduce what our officials’ true message about their participation is in bringing about this calamity. Further, was their response sufficient to its ongoing damage? In other words, were they corrupt or were they just stupid?

When one ponders that fact that the debilitating 38 Studios debacle evolved from a well planted idea at a charity dinner at a house in Medfield, Mass., to an enabling Rhode Island state law in less than 90 days, the first conclusion is there is not enough scrutiny within the process.

Also, then-Gov. Donald Carcieri was apparently overly impressed with being in the awesome presence of the man who was instrumental in helping to win the World Series for the Boston Red Sox. Somehow the usually savvy Carcieri mistook the ability to throw a split-finger fastball as gravitas to run a video game company. It is important to note that Massachusetts had already wisely turned down former Red Sox hurler Curt Schilling for state-insured financing. Yet, the former governor was so enthralled that he was willing to open up the taxpayer’s checkbook.

Perhaps Carcieri, who was nearing the end of his tenure as governor, thought that one big risky project would help establish a hub for “gaming” pioneers in Providence and consequently breed new industry jobs. Therefore, a possible crowning success to cap off his governorship would be in the offing.

In the fastest of fast tracks, current convict and then Speaker of the House Gordon Fox, along with then Economic Development Commission Director Keith Stokes and then House Finance Committee Chairman Steven Constantino, orchestrated in a hurried, irresponsible fashion to bring this foolish project to fruition.

To further this cause, the members of the General Assembly were sold on the idea that the “Job Creation Guaranty Program” was supposed to provide a financing mechanism for several businesses in more modest amounts of assurance. However, the ulterior motive was to provide Curt Schilling with Rhode Island’s backing of an incredibly risky venture. Why did not the membership ask more questions? By their own admission many members have stated that they did not know what they were truly voting for. Herein lay the problem within the current structure of the legislative branch of government. With only perhaps 10 to 15 members out of 75 representatives actually involved with the scrutiny of bills in process, in most cases members are voting in a rush at the end of the chamber’s sessions and creating laws they truly know nothing about.

In this facet of the 38 Studios puzzle, the answer is clear. Instead of a 113-member House and Senate convening on a part-time basis, a state our size should have a much smaller, full-time, unicameral legislative body which would have time to study all legislative business in a much more responsible manner. Several United States cities have a similar population of approximately one million, and their legislative bodies are 15- to 22-member city councils.

Why we have so many potted plants (inert members) with no value in the process is an enduring mystery.

Currently the state Senate is a costly and superfluous rubber stamp to the work of the House. Senators revel in their titles and prance around like parading peacocks displaying their plumage waiting for the House to send them something to comment on. Whereby, the House is ungainly where most members are instructed by House hierarchy on what to vote for. They follow the leader like well meaning ill-informed ducklings paddling in a blindly compliant row with the speaker’s bill leading the way. If a smaller, efficient, full-time legislative body were in effect during the time 38 Studios was being pushed through, this disaster never would have happened.

Equally beneficial, a smaller, full-time legislature would afford more and different possible candidates the opportunity to be able to run for office. This change alone would bring more political party parity within the new more dutiful legislative chamber.

In the aforementioned late Friday news conference, the attorney general and the colonel tried to explain the results of the investigative process and imply a durable finality in their conclusions. Kilmartin stated that the investigation yielded “no provable crimes” and he stated “there is simply not enough evidence or probable cause to bring changes against anyone.” He continued: “Bad politics, bad public policy, and bad business decisions simply do not always rise to the level of criminal conduct.”

Similarly, O’Donnell said: “A bad deal does not always equate to an indictment.” He added that the players in the 38 Studios project were “not transparent” and “less than candid.”

Additionally, O Donnell opened the door to the records of the investigation becoming accessible to the public. He stated he had “no issue” with the “public domain” release of the information if ordered by a judge.

Citizen activists groups also want the exposure of these investigation documents. Common Cause, the League of Women Voters, the American Civil Liberties Union, and others have sent a public letter to the attorney general and the colonel demanding them to release the information.

Raimondo, who starts every other public sentence with “I’m the governor,” can simply order the disclosure. By doing so, she would fulfill her campaign promise of openness in government. Then the citizens of our state would be able to ascertain for themselves whether the borderline decisions to indict were righteous or not.

Simply, the long nightmare of defective government in the Ocean State continues unabated. We the downtrodden Rhode Islanders are as tired as beaten canines with our endurance of the either outright incompetence or opportunistic collusion of the 38 Studios debacle. We have a right to know which of the two depressing conclusions it is. Or more sadly and likely, it was a combination of both stupidity and corruption, and so it goes here in Little Rhody!

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  • RISchadenfreude

    So far, Raimondo's administration has followed in Obama's steps when it comes to "openness and transparency"; besides, she needs to protect her cohorts still in the GA who were involved in this fraud perpetrated on RI taxpayers.

    Friday, August 12, 2016 Report this