Lewis in Limbo: DOT Chief Awaits Confirmation

Lewis in Limbo: DOT Chief Awaits Confirmation

Halfway into the 2011 legislative session, with three years of experience under his belt, backed by Governor Lincoln Chafee, and in charge of the 1,100 miles of roadways and 800 bridges in Rhode Island, Department of Transportation Director Michael Lewis is still not confirmed for his job following his reappointment by Chafee when he took office.

Newbies like Department of Environmental Management Director Janet Coit, and far more controversial picks by the governor such as Richard Licht for Director of Administration and former House Finance Committee chair Steven Costantino as head of Health and Human Services, have been confirmed, and Lewis is still out on a limb.

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Veteran transportation advocates at the State House offer no behind-the-scenes intrigue to explain the delay: “I just don’t know why,” were the exact words of two of them when asked “Why?” point-blank.

Transportation on the Move

This comes at a time when transportation funding is looking at a total facelift in Rhode Island, with viable proposals for fixing what’s broke on the table and greeted with rare support from all quarters.

Chafee has proposed targeting the overwhelming RIDOT debt service obligation with re-directed revenues from the auto registration fees.

In the General Assembly, the Transportation Investment and Debt Reduction Act of 2011 has been introduced in both the House and Senate.  It offers a variation on using an increased commitment of funds from the auto registration fee, while spreading the funds out to both municipalities and the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority.

In need of a leader at RIDOT for these efforts, Lewis can only hope that the delay is inconsequential.  In addition to the governor, he also has the backing of the Coalition for Transportation Choices, a partnership of over 45 of RI’s leading public advocacy groups, who have commended Chafee for his reappointment of the RIDOT director.

“It's our opinion that Director Lewis shares the CTC's commitment to achieving and maintaining a 21st century multimodal transportation system that's so vital to the health of our economy and environment,” Coalition co-chair John Flaherty of Grow Smart RI said. “We believe that his leadership has already demonstrated that the department is investing wisely in a ‘fix-it-first’ approach. Combined with enhanced public transportation options, we believe Rhode Island can take better advantage of our energy-efficient development patterns as concerns continue to increase about rising energy costs.”

Answer Me Why

Getting the answer to the “Why?” question in the Senate leadership is confusing.

Less than two weeks ago, the chair of the Senate Committee on Government Oversight, Sen. Frank Ciccone (at left), said he had asked the Senate Committee on Housing, which will hold Lewis’s eventual confirmation hearings, to hold off. Ciccone said he had concerns about a number of items his committee wanted to look into at RIDOT, and that he wanted to question Lewis about first.  These included change orders on construction projects, the cost of legal consultants engaged by RIDOT, and state-contractor disputes over work on the new Sakonnet River Bridge.

When asked yesterday (April 5) about the promised Government Oversight hearings that were delaying Lewis’s confirmation hearings in Housing, Ciccone told GoLocalProv through an aide, “The Government Oversight meetings have nothing to do with the confirmation.”

At RIDOT, a spokesman for Lewis said that he and RIDOT “were willing to discuss their projects” with members of the Senate, an obvious allusion to Ciccone’s previous remarks. Calls Tuesday to Sen. John Tassoni, chair of the Senate Committee on Housing, were not returned. 

The only aspect of this mare’s nest that begs a question are that both Ciccone and Tassoni have strong ties to organized labor, a segment of the workforce that often benefits from RIDOT’s construction contracts.  But to what end?

National Recognition for RI Work

So as national transportation experts descend on the Providence Convention Center Wednesday for a major conference, "A Wake-up Call to Action: Rhode Island's Transportation Funding Crisis,” at which Lewis will give a presentation; and with a recent Smart Growth America report giving the state top marks for its use of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act transportation funds, Lewis quietly waits for his review and a decision by the Senate to confirm his reappointment. 

And possibly the answer to “Why?”...it has taken so long.

 

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