Secrets & Scandals: Reforming Rhode Island, 1986-2006 - Softcover

H. Philip West Jr.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0990629317 ISBN 13: 9780990629313

Publisher: Rhode Island Publications Society, 2014

Synopsis

Between 1986 and 2006 Rhode Island ran a gauntlet of scandals that exposed corruption and aroused public rage. Protesters marched on the State House. Coalitions formed to fight for systemic changes. Under intense public pressure, lawmakers enacted historic laws and allowed voters to amend defects in the state s constitution.

Since colonial times, the legislature had controlled state government. Governors were barred from making many executive appointments, and judges could never forget that on a single day in 1935 the General Assembly had sacked the entire Supreme Court.

Without constitutional checks and balances, citizens suffered under single party control. Republicans ruled during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; Democrats held sway from the 1930s into the twenty-first century. In their eras of unchecked control, both parties became corrupt.

Secrets & Scandals tells the inside story of events that shook Rhode Island s culture of corruption, gave birth to the nation's strongest ethics commission, and finally brought separation of powers in 2004. No single leader, no political party, no organization could have converted betrayals of public trust into historic reforms. But when citizen coalitions worked with dedicated public officials to address systemic failures, government changed.

Three times in 2002, 2008, and 2013 Chicago s Better Government Association has scored state laws that promote integrity, accountability, and government transparency. In 50-state rankings, Rhode Island ranked second twice and first in 2013 largely because of reforms reported in SECRETS & SCANDALS.

About this title

About the Author

H. Philip West Jr. served from 1988 to 2006 as executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island. SECRETS & SCANDALS chronicles major government reforms during those years (secretsandscandals.com/reforms).

West hosted delegations of officials from many countries from the U.S. State Department s International Visitor Leadership Program. After retiring from Common Cause, he taught Ethics in Public Administration to graduate students at the University of Rhode Island. Previously, West had served as pastor of United Methodist churches and ran a settlement house on the Bowery in New York City. He helped with the delivery of medicines to victims of the South African-sponsored civil war in Mozambique and later assisted people displaced by Liberia s civil war.

He helped create affordable housing, day care centers, youth programs, and other community services in New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.

West graduated, Phi Beta Kappa, from Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., received his masters degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York City, and published biblical research he completed at Cambridge University in England. In 2007, he received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Rhode Island College.

He is married to Anne Grant, an Emmy Award-winning writer, a nonprofit executive, and retired United Methodist pastor. They live in Providence and have two grown sons.

Edition details

• Publisher: Rhode Island Publications Society
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0990629317
• ISBN 13: 9780990629313
• Binding: Paperback
• Illustrator: Lars Grant West, Cover, Cliff Garber, Layout, Jim Bush, Cartoons
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 799
• Editor: Patrick T. Conley And Cynthia Logan Shattuck