EDITORIAL: Opening Up JCLS Is Shekarchi’s Opportunity to Modernize General Assembly

EDITORIAL: Opening Up JCLS Is Shekarchi’s Opportunity to Modernize General Assembly

It is time to end the antiquated and secret legislative spending of the state legislature --  and for the Joint Commission on Legislative Services (JCLS) to meet and vote in public.

This issue is a test for Speaker of the House Joe Shekarchi. Is he an old-school Rhode Island pol or a leader that will bring the General Assembly into a more modern and open era?

GoLocal News Editor Kate Nagle on January 23, 2020, asked then-Majority Leader Shekarchi if he would hold a meeting of the JCLS — the legislative committee empowered to oversee the General Assembly’s approximately $46 million budget. It has not met in a dozen years or more.

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In the interview, Shekarchi said, “If [Rep. Blake Filippi] asks for a meeting...we'll have a meeting.”

There are five members of the JCLS and Shekarchi is the chair. Moreover, the House has the majority of the members -- Shekarchi, House Majority Leader Christopher Blazejewski, and House Minority Leader Blake Filippi.

Filippi has been calling for the JCLS to meet for more than two years.

When Shekarchi took the mantle of leadership as Speaker, he again promised a more open, transparent, and responsive leadership.

In his initial Democratic caucus, he promised members that he would begin to hold meetings of the JCLS.

But, to date, Shekarchi has failed to hold a meeting. He refuses. He claims that because Filippi has filed a lawsuit, he can't have a meeting.

Huh?

The State of Rhode Island, governmental agencies, and elected and appointed officials have been sued regularly and yet still managed to conduct the people's business.

Shocking. 

“I was planning to have regular public meetings of JCLS after Leader Filippi lost his first lawsuit. But after Leader Filippi filed a second lawsuit, personally suing all of the current members of JCLS, the public hearings have been put on hold upon the advice of our respective legal counsels until the pending lawsuit has been resolved,” Shekarchi told GoLocal in August of 2021.

Then, Shekarchi refused to respond to follow-up questions from GoLocal. 

After Filippi won a Superior Court lawsuit last week, Shekarchi again refused to budge.

The Shekarchi thought process is anti-Democratic. It is outdated. It is unlike him. Shekarchi throughout his career has been pragmatic.

Shekarchi should move the legislature forward and schedule a meeting of the JCLS. It is solely in his purview to schedule a meeting.

A little sunshine is a good thing. Vitamin D makes you healthier.