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February 12, 2008

Ethics board: Warren shouldn't hire chief's son-in-law

PROVIDENCE -- The Ethics Commission today refused to approve the hiring of the son-in-law of Warren's police chief as a police and emergency dispatcher -- saying it wouldn't be fair to other candidates and would violate state nepotism rules.

The commission also moved to resolve an impasse in Smithfield by offering a way for the town Zoning Board to act despite conflicts of interest involving some of its members, and it issued the latest in a series of rulings in a long-running dispute between the Tiverton Yacht Club and its neighbors. Members also fired back at a state representative who criticized the commission.

Warren Chief Thomas D. Gordon had said he insulated himself from the selection and supervision process involving his son-in-law, Darrell Forman. However, the candidates’ scores were partly based on interviews conducted by two police lieutenants who report to Gordon, and officers reporting to Gordon would continue to supervise his son-in-law.

With two other candidates getting high scores in the evaluation process but on the verge of being passed over, commission member Ross Cheit said, "I couldn’t possibly tell them this process was fair."

The town has already made a conditional job offer to Forman, according to the commission staff. Gordon and other town officials had created an "alternate chain of command" and said it insulated Gordon from the hiring and supervision. The commission staff agreed, but the commission members didn’t, vigorously.

"If there’s a nepotism problem in this state, it’s because of this," said commission Chairman James Lynch Sr.

Gordon had asked the commission for a legal advisory opinion approving the ethical propriety of his son-in-law’s hiring and supervision. Its denial today means that if it goes ahead, he could be found in violation of the state ethics laws if a complaint were filed against him by any member of the public.

-- Journal staff writer Bruce Landis

Also, the commission apparently resolved an impasse in Smithfield, where ethics issues left the town Zoning Board of Review unable to act on a 12-lot subdivision plan. The board needs five voting members to decide an appeal, but the commission has said that three of the board’s seven members have conflicts of interest and can’t vote. Today, the commission said the board can use a state law permitting one of the disqualified board members, chosen by lottery, to vote in order to give the board enough voting members to make a decision.

The commission also took another step in the long battle concerning the Tiverton Yacht Club, which wants a zoning change to permit it to rebuild its burned-down clubhouse in a residential area.

The commission said that the fact that Tiverton Planning Board member Frederick C. Stachura’s children took swimming lessons there last summer doesn’t mean he would have a conflict of interest in voting on the club’s plans.

Several of the Planning Board members have a relationship with the club, but David M. Campbell, a neighbor and one of the club’s opponents, said yesterday’s decision would apparently leave the board with enough members to make a recommendation on the proposal to the Town Council. He said, however, that the neighbors will continue to oppose the proposal on a number of grounds.

The commission also took up, and made public, a letter from state Rep. Douglas W. Gablinske, D-Bristol, saying the commission has reinforced "the public’s distain for all elected officials." He faulted the commission’s finding that state Sen. Frank Ciccone, D-Providence, didn’t break the ethics rules when he voted for legislation that would benefit unions he works for.

The commission decided that because the legislation would benefit more than 100 other bargaining units similar to the ones Ciccone is involved with, his votes qualified for an exception under the state Ethics Code. Gablinske, however, said that "just because it is the rule, it does not mean the rule is right."

Posted by Mike McKinney at 6:03 PM | Permalink

February 12, 2008

Ethics board: Warren shouldn't hire chief's son-in-law

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