McKee to select new R.I. Convention Center Authority board chairperson

Updated at 1:10 p.m.

A NEW BOARD CHAIRPERSON for the R.I. Convention Center Authority will be chosen by Gov. Daniel J. McKee, according to RICCA Executive Director Daniel P. McConaghy. / COURTESY R.I. CONVENTION CENTER
A NEW BOARD CHAIRPERSON for the R.I. Convention Center Authority will be chosen by Gov. Daniel J. McKee, according to RICCA Executive Director Daniel P. McConaghy. / COURTESY R.I. CONVENTION CENTER

PROVIDENCE – It will be up to Gov. Daniel J. McKee’s office to select the next chairperson for the R.I. Convention Center Authority’s board of directors, according to RICCA Executive Director Daniel P. McConaghy.

While McKee spokesperson Olivia Darocha says a new chairperson is expected within the coming weeks, it remains unclear why Bernard “Bernie” Buonanno Jr. retired from the board.

Buonanno had served on the board for 21 years before he retired from service with the authority – which oversees operations of both the R.I. Convention Center, the Veterans Memorial Auditorium and the Amica Mutual Pavilion. According to a Jan. 26 report from WPRI-TV CBS 12, Buonanno resigned from the board effective immediately, well before he was slated to leave in June.

Per the report, Buonanno was asked by McKee through board Vice Chairman George Nee – who is president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO – to step aside. Buonanno is also the father of former CVS Health Corp. executive and gubernatorial candidate Helena B. Foulkes, who lost to McKee in the September Democratic primary.

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McKee representatives did not immediately respond to questions from Providence Business News as to why McKee asked Buonanno to step aside, when the process of finding a new chair will begin and when does the administration expect to name a new chair by. The office also did not answer who, if anyone, will serve as interim board chair.

As of now, per the board’s by-laws, Nee would step in and serve as interim chairman, McConaghy told PBN. McConaghy said eight of the board positions are appointed by the governor’s office, two are from the mayor’s appointees and one is from the City Council.

McConaghy deferred all questions about replacing board members to McKee’s office.

In a statement to PBN, McConaghy lauded Buonanno for serving on the board for more than two decades, including the last eight at its chair. Among the successes the authority had with Buonanno on the board includes renovating the Amica Mutual Pavilion – then known as the Dunkin’ Donuts Center – between 2006 and 2008, helping with the complex’s new naming rights agreement with Amica Mutual Insurance Co. and leading the authority’s COVID-19 response by converting the R.I. Convention Center into a field hospital and the arena as a vaccination location.

“Bernie’s leadership and expertise have helped the authority successfully navigate constantly changing economic conditions in a way that has established each of the venues within the Rhode Island Convention & Entertainment Complex among the region’s premier entertainment, exhibition and cultural destinations,” McConaghy said. “We thank Bernie for his longtime dedication to the Convention Center Authority.”

(Update: Comment from McKee’s spokesperson added in second paragraph)

James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.

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