Gov. Lincoln Almond and his “quasi public” Economic Development Corporation are acting in the public’s worst interest by stonewalling the release of a white paper on the development of a container port at Quonset Point.
For Almond to suggest there are other options, including a challenge in court, to Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse’s demand that he and the corporation release the paper is simply ludicrous. There are no other options. And it should never have reached this stage.
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While Almond and his administration ponder whether release of what they call a “working paper” would require all communication between the administration and a “quasi public” agency to become public, we ponder whether this whole notion of “quasi-public” isn’t being abused.
We suspect that when these quasi public agencies were developed it was not done to shield them from public scrutiny, or to relax the way they do business, such as the credit card fiasco at EDC under prior leadership. We understood that it would help them develop the kind of funding that allowed for easier economic development, in the case of EDC, and airport development, in the case of the airport corporation.
Not only do we believe that legally this white paper is a public document, but morally it must be released.
We suspect that what we are really viewing here is not so much a question of legal positions, or public interest, but sheer lack of leadership, something that has plagued this Quonset port project from the outset.
It has been a project fraught with speculation about its economic impact, and the lack of interest from developers or shipping lines; about its environmental impact, from none to monumental; about its public acceptability, from support to opposition. We’ve had stakeholder groups, and active opponents, and port developers who were virtually fired. We’ve heard from an administration that favored a port, then favored a scaled down port, asking for an Environmental Impact Study, and now is stonewalling the release of a document that could give the public insight into what EDC and the governor really think about a port.
No other project in recent memory has been shrouded in as much chaos and controversy. Quonset Point/Davisville holds vast potential for Rhode Island, if not as a container port, at least as an industrial/business area.
And while there has been some development, we feel this area will never reach its potential unless we see strong, decisive leadership. Leadership that is unafraid to share with the public the contents of this draft report. To do otherwise lends only to the feeling of indecisiveness that is producing an enormous sense of frustration from opponents and proponents alike.
