Dee DeQuattro: Pulse on Politics - Who Started the Fire?

The return of Pulse on Politics -- can you guess this week's musical theme?

Dee DeQuattro

Now that the secret is out and we know that former State Representative Donald Lally is working on the Governors’ administration making more than $87,000, can he please pay back the town of Narragansett, which had to hold a special election after he abruptly resigned from office in March just months after being re-elected? 

Not only was the resignation outrageous and costly for the town, which had to hold a special election, but now we find out it might have been a political trick. Lally probably knew he wanted to get a job working on the Governor’s administration but at the same time he couldn’t risk losing his seat to a (gasp) Republican, so he ran, got the seat, and then let it go to a special election where it would all come down to voter turnout, a political skill the Democrats have mastered. In a special election the Republicans stood no shot.

Lally's earnin' since the door's been turnin'

It's genius sort of, in a take advantage of the tax payers kind of way. He locked down the seat for the Democrats and then moved on to bigger and better things. Despite accusations from the media of cronyism, Raimondo denies it, simply saying he was the best man for the job. Common Cause Rhode Island is questioning how this is legal under the “Revolving Door” Statute in Rhode Island which prohibits state lawmakers from taking a job with the state within a year of leaving office.

Maybe the job was a favor to House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello, who recommended Lally to the position. Even if he was the best man for the job, he should not have run for re-election just to resign -- because that amounts to a huge waste of tax payer resources, but ultimately, the Narragansett Tax Payers are to blame: they elected him.

Elorza didn't light it, but we tried to fight it

The temperature is still rising in Providence as the city and the firefighters union continue to take jabs at each other. The firefighter recently held a rally against Elorza as Elorza continues to push for changes to the platoon structure. Elorza lost the biggest battle though as a Providence Judge released a decisions saying that while the city does have the power to change the platoon structure the firefighter are eligible to go to arbitration to resolve their grievance over the new structure and compensation. Naturally, the city will likely appeal and this seems to indicate that this decision is only round one in what promises to be a heated debated.

Meanwhile, the city of Providence did seem to reach a deal with the teachers union. We find out on Sept. 21 if the union as a whole will agree. The teachers wanted the same raises as firefighters, but they decided to let that go in exchange for security surrounding layoffs.

Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser, and Prokofiev (couldn't live together)

While on the topic of the city, the Providence City Council made an interesting move when voting to limit the number of college students who can live in a single family house to three. Now if they could only pass the same legislation about gang members.

If the students are unhappy they have one option, rally amongst their ranks and register students to vote in the city and vote out the city councilors who supported this in the next election.

Einstein, James Dean, Pawtucket's got a losing team

Big surprise: The Paw Sox had the worst season since 1993, as the fate of the team and the stadium has become a hot button political issue. Although game attendance does seem to have been steadily declining since about 2008 according to figures released by WPRI.

While the Pawsox continue to seek land in Providence for a new stadium Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian says he would be happy to have the Pawsox call Warwick home. In fact, he has proposed three possible locations for the stadium in Warwick.

Not surprisingly the team doesn’t seem to be jumping at the offer that was made back in May telling the Warwick Beacon that the letter must have gotten lost when team owner Jim Skeffington died. That’s like one of those, “Oh, it must have gotten lost in the mail, thanks but no thanks.” Through their spokeswoman the team said they still have their eyes on Providence.

Of course they do, it’s hard enough getting a Rhode Islander to drive to Providence, forget about going to Warwick.

Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Brady going to Disneyland

By the way, go Patriots. Game one of the season and the team destroyed the Steelers. Now the Steelers are looking for excuses as to why they lost blaming faulty headphones. As Taylor Swift says, “The haters are going to hate and the players are going to play” and that’s just what the Patriots did; played.

---

---