PROVIDENCE – A 2-year-old lawsuit brought by former state Rep. Blake Filippi against former House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello and other members of the Joint Committee on Legislative Services was dismissed Friday after House Republican leaders filed a “stipulation of dismissal” in R.I. Superior Court.
General Assembly leaders issued a joint announcement Friday calling the 2020 lawsuit “unusual.”
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Filippi, who was House Minority Leader and member of JCLS at the time, claimed that while the committee had not held public meetings since 2009, Mattiello had personally ordered an audit of the R.I. Convention Center as retaliation for the treatment of an employee who was a personal acquaintance.
The committee, which oversees the legislature’s annual budget and General Assembly operations, is comprised of the House speaker, majority leader, House minority leader, Senate president and Senate minority leader.
House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi said that JCLS had not met while the suit was pending due to “advice of counsel,” and pledged to reconvene JCLS meetings now that the lawsuit is settled.
“I look forward to the commencement of the work of the committee with the common goal of efficient management of the General Assembly on behalf of every Rhode Island taxpayer,” he said.
Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio, who was also named in the suit, said on Friday the JCLS “should meet on a regular basis and vote on matters before us.”
“Now that the suit is behind us, I expect that regular meetings of the committee will commence,” he said.
Minority Leader Michael Chippendale vowed “transparency in this process” of reinstituting JCLS meetings.
“Rhode Islanders can be assured that the day-to-day operations of the General Assembly will be executed responsibly and in a public forum,” he said.
(Story was updated to cast the lead sentence to clarify that the dismissal of the lawsuit took place because of a “stipulation of dismissal” filed in R.I. Superior Court by House Republican leaders.)
Christopher Allen is a PBN staff writer. You may contact him at Allen@PBN.com
