Elorza Administration Improperly Paid Powerful Lobbyist $33,000 - Total Payments Exceed $100K

Elorza Administration Improperly Paid Powerful Lobbyist $33,000 - Total Payments Exceed $100K

The powerful State House lobbyist Joe Walsh has received $33,000 in payments from Jorge Elorza’s Administration that were not approved by the Board of Contract and Supply. Previously, Walsh's firm was paid $72,000 — and the approval from the Board of Contract and Supply was only made after Walsh did work for more nearly two years and checks had already been cut, but held by the City Treasurer Jim Lombardi.

Elorza is the chairman of the Board of Contract and Supply.

In an interview with GoLocal, Walsh confirmed that his firm continues to be paid by the City of Providence.

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Walsh told GoLocal that his firm, Government Strategies, does not have a contract with the city. “We may have had one in the beginning, but we haven’t in the past couple of years."

Elorza and full-time lobbyist and part-time City Council President David Salvatore refused to respond to questions about the payments to Walsh’s firm — which have neither been approved by the Board of Contract and Supply nor is there an executed contract in effect between the City with the Warwick-based lobbying firm.

Walsh and others in the firm have been campaign donors to both Elorza and Salvatore.

Salvatore has received five donations from Walsh and others in the firm totaling $435.00.  And Elorza has received $2,900 from Walsh and the others at the lobbying firm, according to RI Campaign finance reports.

Both Elorza and Salvatore refused to answer:

* How were these payments allowed?

* How could they be approved by the City’s Finance office?

* Why has his firm been paid for months of lobbying when the General Assembly session is out?

According to City records, eleven payments of $3,300 payments were made monthly from August of 2017 thru to June of 2018.

In 2017, City Treasurer James Lombardi was holding the checks because of the lack of authorization by the Board of Contract and Supply. "He hasn't cut a $36,000 check to Government Strategies Inc. because the administration never asked the city's Board of Contract and Supply for approval to hire the firm. Lombardi contends that all city contracts worth more than $5,000 must be approved by the board before he releases a payment. He said he doesn't believe the lobbying contract needs to go out to bid, but the board does need to vote in favor of the agreement," reported WPRI.

"I am surprised by the lack of transparency in the hiring of outside attorneys and consultants," Lombardi told WPRI.

In October 2017, the Elorza administration finally brought the issue before the Board of Contract and Supply and sought retroactive approval of the payments to the lobbying firm "in a total amount not to exceed $72,000 for FY 2016 and FY 2017."

The retroactive approval of the older payments was the last time the payments were brought before Board for approval.

Walsh is being paid $3,000 per month even for those months the General Assembly is not in session.

Walsh, who has been a power broker at the Rhode Island State House for decades, is also the lobbyist for the Providence Journal and was hired by the newspaper to fight off efforts by the League of Cities and Towns as well as then-Governor Lincoln Chafee and Governor Gina Raimondo to eliminate the decades-old and arcane requirement that legal notices have to be published in a print newspaper.