EDITORIAL: Kudos to Governor Chafee, Now It’s Raimondo’s Turn
Wednesday, August 24, 2016
Leadership is not always easy.
As 38 Studios was imploding, Governor Lincoln Chafee took on some of the most powerful and entrenched interests in Rhode Island, as well as some of the largest financial institutions in the country, in an all-out effort to recover as much of the taxpayers' investment in the failed 38 Studios as possible.
Many were not pleased with his approach, but his decision four years ago has proven to be highly successful, as now more than $40 million has been recovered. There are still dollars to be to come. Staffer George Zainyeh and outside advisor Jonathan Savage deserve credit for helping Chafee to build the strategy.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTNow, it is Raimondo’s turn
Raimondo Must Deal with Cynicism - and Push Harder for Docs
The failed criminal investigation has ended after four years, millions spent, an outcome with no one prosecuted, and the only result is a heightened cynicism on the part of Rhode Islanders.
Now it is time for Governor Raimondo to separate herself from the insiders and the connected, and place herself on the side of taxpayers and residents. Yes, she will get angry phone calls and some may not donate to her in the future, but it is time to finally restore the community’s confidence in Rhode Island’s leadership.
Forty elected officials and civic groups have asked for the documents from this ordeal to be released. As former Assistant Attorney General Tom Dickinson said, “Of course in any case the Attorney General would be willing to receive new evidence, even long after the case has been closed, so the glimmer of hope that something new might surface is hardly justification for maintaining secrecy. In fact, putting the information out to the public might well be the very thing that sparks some new witness to come forward.”
Dickinson, who served as the number two in the Attorney General’s Office under the leadership of Jeffrey Pine, is assisting GoLocal's legal pursuit of the documents.
“There's just no excuse to deny public access to records that are highly pertinent to one of the most serious financial collapses in Rhode Island history, a collapse that appears to lie at the feet of public officials in two of the three branches of state government," said Dickinson.
It is an opportunity for Governor Raimondo to shake the reputation of being the insider tied to Wall Street and other wealthy financial interests. It is the opportunity to help Rhode Islanders move from a “nattering nabobs of negativism" towards one of optimism and trust.
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