Thanks for stopping by for my weekly column. Put the PawSox on your summer itinerary, while you still can. As usual, your tips and comments are welcome, and you can follow me through the week on the twitters. Here we go.
The recess of the General Assembly session last month has done little to dispel some fresh chilliness between House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello and Gov. Gina Raimondo. A case in point was the release this week of CNBC’s latest ranking of the best states for business. Raimondo’s Commerce Corporation accused the business news site of overlooking improvements in the Ocean State (and a worst-place score for infrastructure seems at least a little conspicuous, given the ongoing RhodeWorks’ campaign to improve crumbling roads and bridges). But Mattiello offered a very different message in reacting to CNBC’s description of Rhode Island as the nation’s worst state for business. “Having our rating drop even lower is disappointing but not surprising,” the speaker said in a statement. “In recent months, I have repeatedly called attention to the fact that our economy is losing ground compared to other states, despite years of major investment to reverse that.” Sounding not unlike some of the Republicans who challenged Raimondo last year, Mattiello added, “The administration must look at the economy more comprehensively and not just pay for individual companies to locate here.” While the Raimondo-Mattiello relationship has had its ups and downs, the cut or elimination of some gubernatorial priorities in the House budget helped spark fresh rancor between the duo. Raimondo still has more than three years left in her term, and her push to improve Providence schools shows that she’s taking on some weighty goals. But Mattiello has signaled a desire to remain in power beyond Raimondo’s slated exit in 2023. While looking to burnish his own legacy, the speaker may be banking on a belief that most Rhode Islanders still question the ongoing economic comeback repeatedly touted by the governor. (Then again, as critics noted on Twitter, Mattiello has been in office longer than Raimondo and he has ample power to chart the state’s course.)
2) Speaking of the speaker: time will tell whether Speaker Mattiello inoculated himself against a backlash from opponents of abortion rights, after he let a related bill come to the House floor while himself voting against it. It’s hindsight now, with the pending move of the PawSox to Worcester drawing ever closer. Yet the political cost of calling a House vote last year on the Senate’s plan to keep the team in Rhode Island might have been far less than fatal.
3) Rhode Island’s new education commissioner, Angélica Infante-Green, is vowing to deliver measurable improvements in Providence’s troubled schools over the next three to five years even as she underscores the depth of the problems. Asked on Political Roundtable this week about the biggest surprise in the Johns Hopkins report, Infante-Green said, “What has been the most shocking is that Johns Hopkins does this for a living and the reviewers cried many times when they walked out of our classrooms. That doesn’t happen – they said that it’s never happened. We are one of the worst that they have been to, if not the worst district that they have seen.” At the same time, on Bonus Q&A, Infante-Green said that sustainable change for the better can happen “in three to five years, for us to see real marked change. We will see some steady gains and we will see some differences.” The new commissioner has declined to so far outline next steps for her strategy, but Infante-Green said she’ll unveil the approach during a July 23 meeting of the Council on Elementary and Secondary Education. She said she wants to conclude an ongoing public outreach process before discussing short terms steps to try to deliver improvements. “One of the main reasons is that I’ve been committed to listening to the community …. Their voice is important. One of the findings of the report was that the community feels silenced, so this is a first and most important step for me.”
4) The last Rhode Island education commissioner to make a major push in changing schools was Deborah Gist, and she left in 2015 for Oklahoma. Many people thought she was run out of town by teachers’ unions, so why will it be different this time when changes backed by Commissioner Infante-Green run into opposition? “Well, I’m a New Yorker, so I’m not going to be run out of town,” she said with a laugh on Roundtable. She added: “I consider myself a teacher and I don’t know any teacher that doesn’t want to do right by kids.” Asked about the collective bargaining agreement with the Providence Teachers Union – identified by the Johns Hopkins report as a systemic barrier to improving schools – Infante-Green said the contract can be changed without alienating teachers. “The contract right now the way it stands, doesn’t even allow them to continue to grow. I’ve said this multiple times – would you go to a doctor that doesn’t continuously learn and grow? We have teachers that are given a curriculum where they’re told, ‘figure it out.’ They don’t even get any training, because right now, they have one training that they must attend. So I think we can get to a place where everyone can feel like they’re winning.” While the commissioner is saving the big reveal on next steps for later this month, she dropped a few tidbits about her plans. They include introducing a tool for tracking absenteeism and moving quickly in trying to bolster safety in Providence schools.
5) Former Gov. Lincoln Almond used to liken the influence of state-sponsored gambling in Rhode Island to a camel getting its nose under a tent – and how once that happens, there’s no turning back. That calls to mind the ongoing clash between IGT and Twin River, as both maneuver for a bigger slice of the state’s third-largest revenue source.
6) The Wall Street Journal delivered one of the classic all-time slights to Rhode Island in 1983 when it called our fair state “little more than a smudge beside the fast lane to Cape Cod.” Thirty-six years later, the WSJ has weighed in with an editorial (“An Education Horror Show”) and a news story focusing on the crisis posed by Providence schools. Some critics glom this coverage together with the last-place CNBC ranking, troubles at DCYF and assorted other problems as evidence of a deeply dysfunctional state. But the reality is more nuanced. Within a few years of the 1983 WSJ story, Newsweek (during Joseph R. Paolino Jr.’s administration) was pointing to Providence as a comeback city. The so-called Providence Renaissance got hyped through much of the 90s, even as shady deals later became grist for court. Rhode Island has scored well in other surveys. And CNBC itself seems conflicted about Rhode Island, giving the state poor grades and positive press in the same week. Suffice it to say, the state has serious challenges. But as Gary Sasse of Bryant University’s Hassenfeld Institute for Public Leadership notes, business scorecards should not be considered without an examination of the assumptions and biases.
7) Here’s reaction from the Rhode Island Coalition for Children and Families, made up of 40 community-based organizations, to the pending exit of DCFY Director Trista Piccola: The Rhode Island Coalition for Children and Families (RICCF) believes that an independent, top-to-bottom review of the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) is critical in the wake of the tragic death of a young child with disabilities in state care, and the lapses identified in the subsequent child fatality report issued by the Office of the Child Advocate. When the report was issued, the Coalition began calling for a top-to-bottom review conducted by an independent, trusted and credible expert or team of experts to provide guidance and recommendations on the Department’s practices, organizational structure, and personnel systems. RICCF believes that neither the Coalition nor any entity currently working with the Department should conduct the review. Craig Gordon, Chairperson for the Coalition states, “We need a fully independent review of the Department to make recommendations for systemic and comprehensive improvement. This review needs to be embraced by all branches of government so that its recommendations will be implemented. We can’t afford to have this report collect dust on a shelf.” The Coalition also holds that all findings should be made public.”
8) Don’t miss the installment from Mosaic, the immigration podcast from The Public’s Radio, on Roger Williams and the Pequot War.
9) With recordings of Buddy Cianci returning for a time to the airwaves of WPRO, it’s worth noting how the longest-serving mayor in Providence history has escaped notice in the on-air hand-wringing over the city’s troubled schools. For starters, Cianci was in a position to influence the situation, since he served as mayor for more than 20 years, in two stints stretching back to 1975. Then there was the evidence presented during the 2002 Plunder Dome trial. Prosecutor Richard Rose “sought to contrast a corrupt $1.2-million School Department lease, in a former body shop that was a fire hazard, and the stately University Club, which Cianci alleged was a firetrap, to extort a free membership,” Mike Stanton reported in the ProJo at the time.” ‘It seems that, in the Renaissance City, City Hall is more concerned whether there’s a fire hazard at the University Club than a place where children register for school,’ Rose said.”
10) Changes in the RI Democratic Party. Executive Director T. Kevin Olasanoye is leaving for a similar role in New Jersey. On FB, he writes: “I am especially proud of the partnerships we have built with our city and town committees, which helped deliver decisive and resounding victories all across our state from Barrington and East Greenwich to Smithfield and Portsmouth. I do not make this decision lightly. Instead, I do so knowing that the infrastructure that our party has built is stronger than ever.” …. Meanwhile, Tracy Ramos is stepping down as chair of the RIDP’s Women’s Caucus. “For the last two years, I have spent much of my time dedicated to the growth and success of the Caucus,” she said in a statement. “Today, I am proud of the work we have done together, and I am excited for its next phase. I continue to believe in the Caucus’s critical goal of bringing more women into leadership in our government and in our party. For personal reasons, however, I can no longer give the time and energy necessary to effectively lead the Caucus.”
11) Meanwhile, in a recent FB post that was later deleted, Rep. Dennis Canario (D-Portsmouth), a supporter of Speaker Mattiello, said he was stepping down from the local Democratic Town Committee after 15 years. “[S]adly with much regret, it is plainly clear to me that I can no longer participate due to the radical ideologies of a few members that I feel sometimes loudly hijack our committee’s goal,” he wrote. Canario said he was honored to represent his district, “but I will no longer accept and tolerate some of the views of a loud minority that does not represent the views and values of the majority of District 71.”
12) How cities and immigration drove a Census controversy 100 years ago.
13) Why you have to keep logging in to read news on your phone.
14) Chas Walker, who came of age with a host of other young Rhode Islanders with an orientation toward politics, including Matt Jerzyk, Tony Simon, Paul Tencher, and Cara Camacho, is getting ready to leave his post at SEIU District 1199NE for a different gig in Boston. On FB, he writes, “It’s been an incredible journey, and I am proud to have played a part in it over these last 18 years — but the union and our movement is always bigger than any one person. I am fully confident in 1199’s officers, staff, and most importantly in our members and our rank-and-file leaders, to continue to grow and build this incredible fighting organization in the coming years. If the union has taught me anything, it’s that there is only one real pathway for people to improve our jobs, our communities, and our world: in unity.”
15) From Columbia Journalism Review’s update on how Massachusetts lawmakers are assessing the local media landscape: “Massachusetts is not the only state whose government is taking the temperature of the local news industry. Last year, New Jersey passed a bill establishing a Civic Information Consortium, a body that will fund media projects tasked with improving “the quantity and quality of news and information in New Jersey communities,” according to a press release from Free Press, a media advocacy nonprofit that helped push the initiative forward. The consortium was established in 2018, but has yet to secure funding — although $2 million was set aside for the group as part of the next fiscal year’s budget.”
16) Jim Bouton was a minor celebrity in the town where I grew up in New Jersey. He had been a Major League Baseball pitcher, crafting a 21-7 record for the Yankees in 1963 before later injuring himself and trying to make a comeback as a knuckleballer. What Bouton was really known for was “Ball Four,” his ultra-candid diary about what baseball players are like off the diamond. “In his telling, players routinely cheated on their wives on road trips, devised intricate plans to peek under women’s skirts or spy on them through hotel windows, spoke in casual vulgarities, drank to excess and swallowed amphetamines as if they were M&Ms,” noted the NY Times. Bouton’s unvarnished story made him a baseball outcast for years, and it took guts to write such a book (although tell-alls have since become common in sports). Bouton died this week at age 80. Rest in peace, Bulldog, and my sympathy to his family.
