During the course of a typical legislative session, our newsroom is inundated with press releases from members of the General Assembly. Many of them come from Senate or House leaders touting a variety of proposals ranging from those designed to create jobs, streamline government services or protect the environment, just to name a few.
Some legislators are more aggressive than others, never missing an opportunity to remind constituents that they are in fact quite busy up there on Smith Hill. At the end of this most recent legislative session, at least a dozen individual legislators sent out releases after a state budget agreement was reached, extolling the benefits of the spending plan for his or her particular community.
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Funny though, in the wake of former Sen. John A. Celona pleading guilty to federal fraud charges, we haven’t seen any press releases – or heard any sound bites – from legislators condemning his actions.
It’s not as if the question of guilt or innocence hangs in the balance. It doesn’t. Celona pleaded guilty. He will be sentenced in early December. He betrayed the public – and he certainly betrayed his colleagues.
We would think they would be angry. But who would know?
One of the saddest parts of the Celona story is that it will give good, honest people who might have considered public service another reason to stay away – another piece of evidence that all those cynics, who criticize the state Legislature for being more about self interests than public interests, aren’t that far off, after all.
Those press releases we get aren’t much more than taxpayer-paid publicity pieces for legislators. It would be refreshing to see some – any – lawmaker use them now for a more noble purpose. That is, to condemn Celona’s actions and defend the integrity of the General Assembly.
Because if we don’t hear otherwise, are we left to assume that what Celona did was simply business as usual up there?
Answer property survey
The Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, along with the city and the Providence Economic Development Partnership, is surveying more than 2,500 property owners on the availability of local commercial and industrial space. The goal – and it’s a good one – is to create a comprehensive database the Chamber and the city can use to foster economic development projects.
The survey is being mailed by New England Economic Development Services Inc. It is designed to catalog local properties that are for sale or lease and will be used to assist businesspeople looking for available real estate.
In short, it will help make responses to real estate inquiries more timely and effective.
That’s good government – and good business.
The initiative is part of the Rhode Island Commercial and Industrial Land and Building Inventory, a statewide electronic database typically used by cities and towns, economic development agencies and private companies and real estate brokers.
Several cities and towns are now part of the initiative. The capital city’s participation is important.
We hope that if you receive the survey, you take the time to fill it out and return it. Any attempt to make doing business easier here is time well spent.
