Should RI Have an Executive Board?
Stephen Beale, GoLocalProv News Editor
Should RI Have an Executive Board?
“There are the kinds of statements we heard from Don Carcieri in ’02 and we all know how that turned out,” said Bill Fischer, a spokesman for the campaign. “Government is not a corporation and Rhode Island is not a corporation.”
The so-called executive board would include the Governor, Attorney General, Treasurer and the leadership of the state House and Senate, but it would not have any constitutional or legal standing. Instead, Gemma says the executive board would be a way for state and Congressional leaders to discuss as a group the issues facing the state.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTBut Fischer said the proposal was a mere gimmick. “We don’t need gimmicks. We need hard work. We need solutions,” Fischer told GoLocalProv. “We don’t have time for gimmicks.”
But in an interview with GoLocalProv, Gemma maintained that the executive board was far from a gimmick.
Instead, he said it was a serious proposal for getting state leaders to work together and making them more responsive to the needs of citizens. “It’s just getting everybody together to talk,” Gemma said. “It’s about creating the best system we can to correct where we are now.”
He said his idea was inspired by a city in Florida, Coral Springs, which has taken a business model approach to local government. The difference, he said, is in how constituents are treated. “I think that the taxpayer should be treated as our best costumer because they are our customer,” Gemma said. “I don’t want people to get caught in the semantics of ‘business’ or ‘non-business.’ That’s not what this is about.”
The campaigns for the two other Democratic candidates for the First District seat in the U.S. House—David Segal and David Cicilline—both declined comment yesterday.
But the idea received public support from at least one quarter—state House Speaker Gordon Fox. “Any idea that involves more open and involved communication is a good one,” Fox told GoLocalProv. “The federal, state and local governments should all be working together in a more coordinated fashion, and I would be open to anything that facilitates that goal.”
Fox cited the economic stimulus program as one area where state and Congressional leaders should be coordinating their work. “Discussing how to best utilize the stimulus money that our state and municipalities are receiving from the federal government is just one example of why it is important that we all work well together,” Fox said.