(Corrected, May 9)
PROVIDENCE – Four new faces could arrive at the agency that regulates Rhode Island’s shorelines if the state Senate confirms Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee’s nominees.
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The governor Wednesday nominated Anne Maxwell Livingston of Jamestown, Guillaume de Ramel of Newport and Tony Affigne of Providence to the R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council. He also nominated current member Raymond C. Coia of Cranston for another term. The governor plans to nominate Michael Hudner on Thursday.
The state Senate must confirm all of the nominees.
Not among the nominees is current council member Robert G. Driscoll or long-serving CRMC Chairman Michael Tikoian, whose terms expired.
Tikoian, appointed to the R.I. Board of Governors for Higher Education earlier this year, said he asked Chafee not to reappoint him to the CRMC.
“Like any organization you can’t be the chairman forever and … it was a time for a change for me,” Tikoian told Providence Business News Thursday.
Tikoian said he would remain chairman until the Senate confirms Chafee’s nominees. The governor’s office expects the Senate to hold hearings on the nominees next week. Chafee will then select a chairman from among the council members.
Tikoian decided more than six months ago not to continue on the CRMC, where he has held a seat for 17 years, in order to focus on his new role at the board of higher education.
“I’ve been on [CRMC] for 17 years and I’ve served three governors,” Tikoian said. “This job takes a lot of time and it’s time to spend more time with my wife and my family and give someone else an opportunity.”
During his time at the CRMC, Tikoian has feuded publicly with the agency’s executive director, Grover Fugate. Nevertheless, Tikoian said Thursday his relationship with Fugate did not play a role in his exit. Nor, Tikoian said, did the governor ask him to step off the council.
Tikoian also said he is proud of his record. Under his leadership, the CRMC oversaw the dredging of the Providence River, the implementation of aquaculture regulations, the establishment of a clean marinas program and initiated habitat-restoration programs. The council also adapted the state’s first ocean Special Area Management Plan, which outlines uses of the waters off Rhode Island in preparation for possible development of projects such as a wind farm.
“We’ve worked really, really hard over the years,” Tikoian said.
Staring in 2008, the council worked with only half its members after lawmakers serving on the board stepped down in wake of the Separation of Powers constitutional amendment. But lawmakers and then-Gov. Donald L. Carcieri sparred over how to reform the board.
Last summer, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the lack of council members was threatening the council’s ability to operate. The agency, which has oversight of the CRMC, called on the governor to fill the remaining seats by May 1, 2011.
Earlier this year, the R.I. Senate passed legislation shrinking the council from 16 members to 12 members and providing the governor the power to appoint members. The House has yet to act on the bill.
With the departures of Tikoian and Driscoll, the 16-member council will have 10 members if the Senate confirms all of Chafee’s nominees.
There are no immediate plans to fill the remaining, said Stephen Hourahan, a Chafee adviser who handles appointments.
Hourahan later said the governor’s office is assuming the legislation that cleared the Senate will pass the House and leave the council with two empty seats, not six empty seats.
Hourahan said the director of the R.I. Department of Environmental Management and “others” had suggested that the governor only boost the council to 10 for now.
Hourahan said even with the empty seats, the governor’s office felt confident it addressed NOAA’s concerns. If the legislation passes, NOAA will find just two empty seats rather than the eight it saw last year.
In October, Carcieri, then governor, appointed four people to the CRMC board but the Senate did not confirm them and the appointments have now become void.
Save the Bay, which had encouraged Carcieri and Chafee to fill the seats, hailed the Chafee nominations.
“We certainly welcome the action by the governor,” Jane Austin, a senior policy analyst, said. “We’ve been pushing hard for him to make his mark on CRMC.”
Austin said the additional people should allow the council to more easily meet its quorum requirement of seven members.
As for the governor leaving seats open, Austin said the environmental group would wait and see how the shorthanded council behaves.
“We wouldn’t consider that a significant concern at this point and time,” she said. “I think we would have to look and see if they have a quorum problem after this. Then we would look at that issue but I think this is a major step in the right direction.”
An earlier version of this article incorrectly said the CRMC had 12 seats. The council has 16 seats, but the governor’s office is calling it a 12-seat council under the assumption that pending legislation will pass.
