corruption in RI – RI Future

October 30, 2014

Votes for the good

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I’m an idealist. I think that government can be by the people and for the people. It’s why I ran a hard campaign against Gordon Fox and it’s why I am supporting a diverse group of people for public office. There needs to be both a positive change and a counterbalance to the ‘way things are run in Rhode Island’ that seems to be the default reset of our politics.

I invite you to vote for these people, not against others. That said, I’ll also give a few anti-hits because it seems necessary.

FOR Mayor: Jorge Elorza
I first saw Mr. Elorza months ago at the Institute For the Study and Practice of Nonviolence‘s Martin Luther King event. He spoke softly and eloquently. Mr. Elorza is not a blowhard candidate. He doesn’t know how to play the media circus the way a former felon turned talkshow host does. He offers himself, honestly.

AGAINST: Felons who have been convicted of betraying the public trust
The big signs are illegal. The former mayor doesn’t care. It’s a small thing, but it says so much. He’s paid off a rape victim. He’s been convicted of assault. He’s been convicted of running a criminal conspiracy in City Hall. I have a friend who’s been through the penal system, and he’s spent the past few years doing amazing work to redeem himself. This “independent” candidate’s been on a talk show and hasn’t taken responsibility. He laughed at us in his autobiography. Yes, like every other citizen of Providence who lived here during his long tenure, I have some examples of good things that he’s done. But let me ask you this: If you hired a guy as a babysitter to watch your daughter and he invited a bunch of his friends over to your house for a party, and they raided the liquor cabinets, robbed your coin collection and got arrested would you ever hire that guy to watch your daughter? Hello, Providence. It’s one thing to fantasize about good times. It’s another to put a bag over your head and hope that you’re not being led over a cliff.

FOR Governor: Robert Healey
Yes, I completely disagree with some of his ideas. But the same is true for both of his opponents. What I like about Healey is his honesty and intelligence. He has run his (admittedly brief) campaign with integrity. He will be a complete counterbalance to the anointed dictatorship that exists in the General Assembly. Neither of the other two candidates impress me. Healey answers questions on his website with honesty and without the political trick of saying nothing that will lose you a vote. Is Healey a longshot? Probably. When people talk about wasting a vote, they’re really trying to “game” the system. How about casting a vote that might really game the system?

FOR Lt. Governor: Cathrine Taylor
I’ve known Ms. Taylor since her son was at school with my children. She is hardworking, honest, and nice. She will do an excellent job with the non-position that is the Lt. Governor, and if something should happen to the governor, I would gladly support her.

FOR: Attorney General: Dawson Hodgson
Everything Mr. Hodgson has said impresses me. I’m tired of the 38 Studios crowd lingering in government. And having an attorney general who is in direct opposition to the “leadership” in the legislature strikes me as a great option.

FOR City Council, Ward 3: Write in Marcus Mitchell
This is another personal contact. I met Marcus Mitchell when he joined the board of the Friends of Rochambeau. Mr. Mitchell worked hard to bring the Providence Community Library system into existence. No, I don’t know enough about his policies, but I know he’s an earnest man. He’s running against Kevin Jackson, who would otherwise be unopposed. Mr. Jackson hasn’t filed his campaign finance reports, and he has signed onto the Circus Parade to elect a felon. I can’t support that.

FOR City Council, Ward 2: Sam Zurier
If they hadn’t moved the line, I’d still be voting for Sam Zurier. He works hard. If you don’t subscribe to his email newsletter about what’s going on in City Council, you should.

AGAINST Bond Issues
Yes, I want all the good things. But the sitting politicians running for reelection won’t raise taxes to pay for things. Instead, citizens are asked to vote on bonds. Nobody ever publicizes the true cost of these bonds, which adds about $5 million per $10 million to the cost of everything borrowed. There’s $243 million on the table, which will cost us at least $340 million over time. Do the math.

AGAINST Gambling in Newport (and Providence)
Just No.

CONFLICTED on the Constitutional Convention
The fear campaign by the ACLU has worked. I’m frightened of outside interests. I’d like to think that Rhode Island would be immune from their PAC dollars. I want to see stuff change now, rather than at the convenience of the legislature. If there is a convention, I’m running.

August 18, 2012August 18, 2012

I’m not Bruce Bayuk, and Other Tidbits from the Trail

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When I started this column, Bob suggested that I stick to “Progressive political issues.” This column is one exception. It’s going to be a collection of political shenanigans, conversations with constituents, notes and anecdotes from the trail so far.

The Article that Was/Wasn’t…

I’ve been noticing a lot of divergence between the Providence Journal’s paper paper and it’s online editions… Huge hunks of articles, and even entire pieces are missing online.

Maybe you saw the big piece that Ed Fitzpatrick wrote last week? Chances are, you didn’t, or if you did, you were scratching your head. I spent an hour or so talking with Ed in my favorite part of the district, down by the Seekonk River. We watched herons and cranes and gulls, and discussed the 38 Studios debacle as well as the important issues that I’m focusing on. Ed followed up with some phone questions.

Then, last Thursday, I woke up at 5:30, excited to see the article about the campaign in the Providence Journal. I’d had long conversations with the reporter, and was hopeful about the piece.

The headline? Bruce Bayuk hopes to buck history, beat Fox. In blog terms, WTF?

What might have been a breakthrough article about the campaign became a head scratcher. A fair and balanced article with a headline that might have been written, Mark Binder hopes to buck history, beat Fox, was instantly irrelevant and inconsequential.

The cynic in me might think that the headline was rewritten on purpose. I wrote Ed and he called the headline the “ridiculous” mistake of a copy editor. A correction was posted in the paper the next day, but the article remains uncorrected in the online archive, and invisible from the newspaper’s website.

We sent an email today to the newspaper requesting they fix it online, but nothing has changed yet. I finally wrote a letter to the editor, which appeared online a few days ago, and finally appeared in the paper: Bad Headline Indeed, (Providence Journal, August 16.) Only one mistake… it says I’m running in the primary as a Democrat… I’m not. I’m running in the General Election as an independent. Sigh.

Q: If the online archive is incorrect, and a correction is issued, should the online edition be changed in retrospect?

Her Health Insurance is Killing Her

She was shaking her head as the kid a few doors up chased a ball into the street. Aside from the general economic climate, her biggest concern was health insurance. She worked, but her boss didn’t provide health insurance. Instead, she had to pay $640 a month. As a candidate, and not a reporter, I didn’t ask what her job was, or what she was getting paid. If she was making $10 an hour, though, that would be roughly 40% of her income before taxes.

The problem, she said, was that the only insurance available in Rhode Island is Blue Cross. “Even if you go to the United Way, they tell you that you have to see Blue Cross.”

Taxes and Roads

“What issues are important to you?” I asked the fellow answering the door.

“Taxes and roads,” he said. “The excise tax on cars is too high and the roads stink. Lower the taxes and fix the roads.”

How do you fix roads, I wanted to say, without taxing the cars that use them?

But he didn’t really want to talk just then. He was in the middle of watching a ball game.

Not Now!

It was about 7:30 on a Thursday night. I knocked on the door, and was about to walk off, when the door opened.

“What is it?” the woman said. “What?”

“I’m Mark Binder, I’m running for…”

“Not now! Not during dinner,” she said, turning away and shutting the door.

Note to self about campaigning in the evening: they’re either at work, just back from work, relaxing after work, about to sit down to dinner, eating dinner, just finished dinner, watching a ball game, or getting ready for bed. Aim for the windows in between those.

Student Loan Rip Offs

One man owns a garage, works 60 hours a week, and his wife works as well. They’ve put two children through college and are enrolling their third. They’re mostly paying for their child’s education, but wanted to give their son some responsibility, so they applied for a loan. (I believe he said it was Fannie Mae, but I could be wrong.)

They were told that a $5,000 student loan would be payable at an interest rate of more than 9%.

Previous student loans for other children were in the 5% range.

Given that the current prime lending rate is so low, and that student loans are guaranteed by the Federal Government, and that they can’t be waived away in bankruptcy, they asked why it was so high. Was there something wrong with their credit rating?

“No,” the loan officer said. “Your credit rating is good, and the loan is for a small amount. That’s why the rate is so high.”

Time off for good behavior

“What are you going to do about criminals getting time off for good behavior?” the woman asked.

I hesitated. I’m learning how to be a politician. “Why do you ask?”

“My brother was killed by a man who had gotten fifteen years in prison for a violent crime, but got out in three. If there wasn’t any time off for good behavior, my brother would still be alive.”

What do you say to this? I was speechless.

On the one hand, I believe in people being able to redeem themselves. On the other, this woman’s brother was murdered.

“I don’t know,” I said. “If I think of something, I’ll let you know.”

July 9, 2012July 9, 2012

Cronyism Is Everywhere

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Whenever I talk about Rhode Island and corruption, invariably, someone always argues against the facts (which are that Rhode Island isn’t particularly corrupt, in comparison with other states). I’ve already covered the fact that in every ranking of state corruption, Rhode Island never places particularly high. So let’s address the counter argument, which is always anecdotal.

“What about the ‘I know a guy…’ mentality?” is the usual retort. There’s always an example, and indeed, it’s not hard to find examples. The problem is that the arguer isn’t pointing to corruption, it’s that they’re pointing to cronyism. And cronyism isn’t illegal. Sad but true. So while it may be “corruption,” it’s not corruption that leads to prosecutions.

When we argue against cronyism, what we’re attempting to do is argue for meritocracy. Cronyism, nepotism, patronage, etc., etc., these are all direct threats to meritocracy. But there’s the problem: meritocracy is an incredibly difficult system to put in place.

We don’t always “earn” our jobs via merit. In fact, we rarely do. We get our foot in the door because we knew a guy. Or because we smiled the right way, or someone had a good feeling the right way. Maybe we were first to be interviewed. Maybe we were last. Maybe we arranged our resume in manner that pleased the person who looked them over.

When you start discussing meritocracy, you start asking yourself all sort of hard questions about ability. Do you hire someone who’s nice but not particularly good because you think that they’d get along well with the rest of the office, boosting happiness and productivity? Do you hire the arrogant jerk who’s arrogant precisely because they’re excellent at what they do? Should a person’s messy personal life be included for evaluation when their professional work is spotless?

And that’s just the beginning. Is it any wonder that many employers, and folks in government, rather than evaluate people based on merit choose to go with the people they know? Not at all. Youknow Pete. Pete’s a good guy. Pete was at your wedding. You get along with Pete. You know his work history, you know his abilities. It’s a hell of a lot easier to hire Pete than wade through resumes and interviews (just as an aside, interviews have about the same success as drawing names from a hat of finding the right person for the job).

The great irony in the argument against government cronyism is that those who would espouse that government should be more businesslike would find that cronyism would increase. Most corporations remain a stark feudal construct, completely undemocratic, and at higher levels, often anti-meritocratic. Also ironically, to ensure meritocracy in government, faceless bureaucracy would have to increase, so that candidates could be selected without regard to personal feelings. It’d be a cruel world.

All this isn’t to say that cronyism or corruption shouldn’t be addressed. I hate cronyism. It ruins the idea that you’ve made your own place in the world, it makes you doubt your own victories. But every time we here the phrase “well, you have to network,” what we need to realize is that that’s just code for saying “you have to participate in cronyism.” It’s the way the country has been functioning.

Finally, all Rhode Island governments need to be seen as addressing corruption. That’s something that should be done, regardless of where Rhode Island stands in rankings. The problem is that Rhode Islanders perceive their government as corrupt. And that perception is deadly to trust and faith in government.

March 25, 2012March 25, 2012

Bits & Pieces: Spring in America and Underdogs

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Osmar Schindler David und Goliath — (via Wikipedia)

Al Jazeera Examines Occupy Wall Street: Occupy Providence has thrown the buzzwords “American Spring” around on their Google Groups page a bit, and I’m still skeptical, but this video on Al Jazeera English’s “Fault Lines” program gives us a reminder of just what was going on then. Undoubtedly, Occupy changed the debate. Since Occupy retrospectives seem to be in vogue (bringing some attention to Rhode Island due to the negotiated ending), this one is good.

“Fault Lines” is a pretty good program, and I’ve largely enjoyed each new one. Most interesting to Occupiers is probably this one on Chile’s mass actions. I’d argue that Chile, with its Chicago School-designed free market economy, relative modernity and democratic government is far more similar to the United States than either Spain or Greece or any of the Arab nations that have faced mass movements, and it’s been far more successful at mobilizing youth despite a far more traditional organizing model.

How Underdogs Can Win: Malcolm Gladwell provides a on the idea of David vs. Goliath, and dissects how undermining the rules of the game creates havoc when facing more traditional-minded opponents. For anyone who’s ever had to run on tight resources, it’s definitely rewarding. Mr. Gladwell is/was a tobacco industry shill, but there’s no denying he’s a capable writer. Though… I’m still not sure if on closer examination the whole thing doesn’t fall apart.

RI 10th Least At-Risk for Corruption In Nation: According to the corruption risk report cards released by the State Integrity Investigation. Since I’ve previously written about how RI isn’t really corrupt versus other states, I feel vindicated. Unfortunately, we got a C overall and the least corrupt was New Jersey with a B+. The naysayers are bound to point out that we got an A in redistricting, despite the CD1 maneuvers. But we got Fs in Judicial Accountability and State Civil Service Management, so I guess that’s where the conversation should focus (it probably won’t). The next step for the Investigation is to suggest solutions. Keep an eye out.

New Hampshire Libertarian Republican/Democratic Coalition Defeats Marriage Repeal: In a 211-116 vote in the House, libertarian Republicans and state Democrats joined up to defeat a socially conservative Republican attempt at repealing the extension of marriage to cover homosexual couples. Given that in Rhode Island, it was a struggle even with a gay Speaker of the House to pass civil unions, this defense of the right of marriage by social liberals in New Hampshire proves that it doesn’t matter what letter stands next to your name, you can still defend people’s rights. The question for the Republicans is if this means that the party’s social conservatives are finally facing a backlash after their success in 2010.

96% of Americans Admit to Receiving Welfare (When Told What Counts As Welfare): Yes, apparently when you don’t have to check in with a government agency to get welfare, you don’t acknowledge it as welfare. However, when you’re aware you’re receiving government welfare, you’re much more pro-government. Ezra Klein’s post for Washington Monthly ends up reinforcing the notion that our welfare system is dangerously screwed up. Basically, tax policy transfers a lot of wealth from the poor to the wealthy. The post doesn’t go into it, but in many ways, deficit spending does the exact same thing. Poor people don’t buy government bonds.

Rhode Islanders Take On Payday Lenders:* Speaking of tax policy, over at the Barrington Patch, a large group of people, churches, politicians, and advocacy groups have a letter laying out why reforming payday loans is a smart idea. It’s pretty clear that the industry makes an exorbitant profit and won’t go belly up if they have to deal with reduced profits, nor that the current rate (260% APR) is particularly necessary. In case you missed it, Cracked.com’s John Cheese wrote an article long ago about how one gets screwed being poor, and payday loans took #4.

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*Correction: Earlier, this letter was falsely attributed to Barrington Patch editor William Rupp. Apologies for the mistake.