01.20.2014
Four of Rhode Island’s part-time legislators are on the city of Providence payroll. Two work for arms of the Laborers International Union.
Sen. Joshua Miller’s restaurant — Local 121 — was home for the annual meeting and annual holiday reception held by the lawyers’ lobby known as the “Defense Counsel of Rhode Island.”
And state Rep. Grace Diaz, who doubles as vice chairwoman of the state Democratic Party, received a $13,650 no-interest loan from the “hardest-hit fund” run by another entity with a stake in decisions made at the State House: Rhode Island Housing.
Most of these financial relationships were disclosed on the annual reports that entities with State House lobbyists are required to file by Jan. 15 every year if they have given “anything of value” — including a paycheck, loan or special discount — to a state lawmaker.
The Laborers voluntarily disclosed the compensation paid Senate Majority Leader Dominick Ruggerio and Sen. Frank Ciccone that wasn’t reflected in any report because the specific entities for which they work do not have lobbyists.
Ruggerio’s salary and benefits as the administrator of the New England Laborers Labor Management Cooperation Trust totaled earned $200,772 last year. He received an additional $1,500 as an officer of the Rhode Island Laborers District Council, according to Laborers’ legal counsel Darren Corrente.
Ciccone, who has recently scaled back the number of union titles he carries, received $191,225 in salary and benefits as the president and field representative for the Laborers District Council and $38,896 as business manager for Laborers Local 808 representing state court employees, among others.
The reports were born out of the paroxysm of reform that followed the conviction of former Sen. John Celona on charges that he sold his influence in the legislature for personal gain.
In most cases, the reports reflect the day jobs of part-time legislators. he City of Providence reported paying $86,908 last year to Rep. Scott Slater, $58,861 to Rep.Anastasia Williams, $72,405 to Rep. Raymond Hull and $75,000 to Senate Majority Whip Maryellen Goodwin.
Slater is a budget analyst; Williams, a senior compliance monitor in the Department of Planning and Development; Hull, a police sergeant; and Goodwin a deputy chief of staff to the mayor.
The Beacon Mutual Insurance Co. reported payments totaling $101,849 to eight lawmakers in the form of commissions, dividends and fees. The largest payments went to Senators Frank Lombardi and Paul Jabour, both lawyers, for representing injured workers. Lombardi’s fees totaled $55,940; Jabour’s, $31,218.
Diaz’s no-interest loan in August came from a now-empty $79-million pot of money the federal government gave Rhode Island housing “to help borrowers, who were at risk of foreclosure, avoid foreclosure,” according to the agency’s deputy assistant director, Michael Milito.
Milito said income-qualified recipients — which in Diaz’s category means an income below $87,800 a year — do not have to pay the money back if they are still the “owner-occupant” of the property five years after getting the loan.
Diaz, a onetime at-home child-care provider, is a consultant for Ready to Learn Providence, where, she says, she instructs “new child-care operators on how to best teach their children.”
In an email exchange on Friday, she explained her circumstances: “I own a two-family home, and I was unable to rent the other apartment for two years, which put me behind in my mortgage payments.
“Also, I was living off my salary as a legislator ($14,630 last year) and I was just starting a new career in real estate, and business was slow for many months.
“I received a notice of foreclosure and was in danger of losing my home. But with the help from the Hardest Hit Fund, my mortgage is now current and I was able to stay in my home. I also found a tenant for my apartment and it has been rented since July 1, 2013.”
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