EDITORIAL: McKee’s Ugly Inability to Manage This Crisis
EDITORIAL
EDITORIAL: McKee’s Ugly Inability to Manage This Crisis
McKee took no responsibility for the failure to implement a functional strategy to secure a contractor to rebuild the failed Washington Bridge.
He made no apology to Rhode Islanders for the ineptitude of his administration in executing a request for proposal (RFP) for a vendor to build the bridge, in which no one bid for the project.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTMcKee gave no explanation as to how, on March 15, he told Rhode Islanders that the consulting firm his office hired — and claimed the new westbound bridge was going to cost $250 million to $300 million and would be completed by an "early finish” date of March of 2026 and at the worst a “late finish” date of September of 2026 — now is appearing so completely wrong.
His sidekick, RIDOT Director Rhode Island Peter Alviti, added to the insult to Rhode Islanders and said that the RFP was too aggressive and said it was the fault, not of his agency, but of Rhode Islanders and the media who he said were somehow responsible for pushing the timeline.
GoLocal has previously outlined false statements after false statements uttered by Alviti.
It is easy to detect when Alviti is lying.
In poker, a “tell” is a change in a player's behavior that gives a clue to that player's assessment of their own hand.
Alviti has a “tell” when he is lying to the public.
His lips are moving.
When asked if RIDOT made an error in how the state structured the RFP, Alviti said, “We don’t have regrets; we adjust.”
The pathetic press conference was just another event in McKee’s administration’s response to the failure of one of Rhode Island's two most important highways.
Remember when McKee appointed a top staff member to oversee the response to the Washington Bridge crisis.
As GoLocal reported in January, McKee's office issued the following statement.
“Today, we are announcing that the Governor has dispatched Senior Deputy Chief of Staff Joseph Almond to RIDOT and charged him with providing oversight and cross-agency coordination for all operations related to the Washington Bridge. Joe has a background in both municipal leadership and public safety that will position him well for this role,” said McKee’s Olivia DaRocha, Press Secretary, on January 29th.
That clearly did not work either.
McKee insists on being saddled with truth-plagued Alviti.
McKee repeatedly blamed his predecessors for the failure of the Washington Bridge but cannot seem to understand the responsibility of maintaining the Washington Bridge since he was appointed by former Governor Gina Raimondo in 2015 — nearly a decade ago.
We all know how Alviti got the job.
At Tuesday’s press conference, the public and reporters had to listen to blithering by the McKee administration Secretary of Commerce, Liz Tanner, who said, among other things, that she visited a florist in East Providence.
She made no reference to the growing list of failed businesses who blame the closure of the Washington Bridge — Minerva Pizza, Salted Slate, Noodles 102, and so on.
Another example of the McKee team being once again completely tone deaf.
McKee has never gotten this crisis.
He has repeatedly claimed that those who were complaining about the impact on travel commuting were exaggerating.
And, who can forget, the night after the Washington Bridge and commuters and school children were trapped in cars for hours, McKee attended a political fundraiser for John Igliozzi, a top RIDOT official.
At Tuesday’s press conference, GoLocal’s News Editor Kate Nagle asked McKee, "Is your administration competent in managing this project, and do you still stand by Peter Alviti as director of the RI Department of Transportation?”
McKee said, “Yes.”
To date, the answer to anyone who can see is an undeniable “No.”