Dan Barry, former ProJo scribe-turned-NY Times reporter-and-acclaimed author, makes another one of his occasional forays back to Rhode Island, offering a sharp column today on Buddy Cianci and his perch at WPRO:

At first, Mr. Cianci says, “I was rather docile on the air,” calling a couple of new buildings ugly, criticizing a tax break. But when a city official took the Cianci name in vain again before the City Council, the former mayor chose a road — it wasn’t the high one — and he zeroed in on his successor’s administration.

“When I was locked up, I don’t recall those guys having any qualms saying things about me,” he says. Of course, “those guys” were cleaning up the mess created in part by his betrayal of the public trust.

On the air, Mr. Cianci, 66, tends to tiptoe past the circumstances behind his racketeering conviction (other than to joke that he has a pet dog named Rico); past the corruption that infected his administration, reflected in the F.B.I. videotape of his top aide taking bribes; past the police scandal in which favored officers received advance information about tests for promotions.

Instead, he gleefully attacks Mayor Cicilline and his police commander, Dean M. Esserman. Intermixed with sharp analysis and legitimate criticism — of the city’s poor response to a snowstorm, for example — are taunts and half-truths, released into the radio air like toxic puffs. ....

When asked about this, Mr. Cianci says his job is to be an entertainer, and his on-air persona should not be confused with the real — and changed — Buddy Cianci. Besides, he adds, because he cannot help himself: “I do think they like each other.”

Darrell West, who came to Rhode Island in 1982 and is departing in June for a job at the Brookings Institution, also stopped by the Newsmakers' set today. Like journalists, West has had a rich vein of fodder here, and he says the Ocean State will stay with him after he moves to DC.

Among the highlights of his exit interview:

-- Rhode Island remains handicapped by a lack of long-term economic planning. The General Assembly habitually responds to the governor's budget at the last-minute and in a frenzied fashion. It will not be surprising if the state experiences another fiscal crisis another 10 or so years down the road.

-- Rhode Island remains a place with a high quality of life and where the economic base has grown more multi-faceted since the sharp decline of the old industrial base in the '80s.

-- Bruce Sundlin's airport expansion was controversial in the early '90s, but now looks like a genius idea.

-- The jury is out on Buddy Cianci's impact as a radio talk-show host. West says that although Cianci has a platform with which to criticize David Cicilline, the mayor's office is generally a stronger position from which to operate.

-- The jury is out on Governor Carcieri's record. While Carcieri exhibited an early strong suit in communication skills, he has gotten bogged down by taking on too many different fights and by not having more of a single-minded focus on budget issues, West says. The governor has had some success, the professor adds, in changing the discussion on budget-related topics.

-- It remains a challenge for some Rhode Islanders, including those elected as reformers, to overcome the "insider" mentality once in office, but the state has strong ethics laws for use in responding to the situation. "You can not reform human nature," West says, who also referred to Elmer Cornwell's observation that the Ocean State is marked by "the politics of intimacy."

-- Asked what he would leave as a gift to Rhode Island, West says it would be a greater emphasis on regionalization.

The show will be broadcast Sunday, at 5:30 am on Channel 12, and at 10 am on Fox 64. 

Seth Gitell has a tasty post up on his blog: Buddy Cianci analyzing the fall of Eliot Spitzer and diagnosing his future prospects.

Of course, it's natural that Cianci's story makes political reporters (see here and here) invoke F. Scott Fitzgerald. Gitell, formerly a political scribe for the Boston Phoenix, does this, too.

F. Scott Fitzgerald once famously said “there are no second acts in American lives.”

Fitzgerald never met Vincent “Buddy” Cianci was the larger than life former mayor of Providence, Rhode Island not once, but twice. Cianci’s first 9 consecutive years in office came to an end after his resignation in 1984 after he plead no contest to charges that he assaulted his estranged wife’s paramour. Cianci came back as mayor in 1990 having won a rousing election campaign. He lead Providence for another twelve years, helping to revitalize downtown Providence and making it one of America’s comeback communities, all until being convicted on one count of racketeering conspiracy, out of an indictment that originally carried 30 counts. He resigned and completed four and a half years in federal prison. Since last May, he has been back in the limelight in Providence, hosting a highly-rated radio talk show on WPRO appearing as a political analyst on the city’s ABC television affiliate.

If any politician in American can help the disgraced former governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, find a way to rebuild his life and reputation, it’s Cianci.

Cianci is quick to distinguish his case from Mr. Spitzer’s. First, he says, he fought prosecutors tooth-and-nail on the charges against him, ultimately being convicted on only one of a slew of charges against him. Second, he always maintained a significant portion of his popularity in Providence: “I was mayor for 22 years and I’ve been to ever bar mitzvah and every first communion and every wake. I became part of the fabric of the city.” Third, he points out, he never portrayed himself as a moral paragon as Mr. Spitzer did.

Of the events that lead to his first comeback, Cianci says, “the first thing … a guy was fooling around with my wife and I gave him a couple slaps. It’s a lot different.” Of the charges that lead to the second, he says “I was found not guilty of all the predicate acts but guilty on the conspiracy.” All this, he emphasizes, is different than being linked to prostitution, particularly for a politician who made a name prosecuting others. “When you fall from grace, it’s a lot more difficult to come back.”

The first shock Mr. Spitzer will have to overcome, Cianci says, is the adjustment after years of being an elected official to returning to life as an ordinary citizen. “This guy’s going to go through some tough time when he wakes up and finds he doesn’t have the trappings of office,” Cianci says.

Another obstacle Mr. Spitzer faces, according to Cianci, is the possibility that legal charges could be brought against him. “He’s lucky he’s rich,” Cianci says, noting the financial cost of protracted court fights.

Despite the differences he cites, Cianci talked about the pain of a draining legal battle and prison sentence. “I went to work every day after court,” he says. “But it does take a toll on you. You have to have a lot of testicular fortitude to go through that.”

Surviving prison, he says, was a challenge. “It’s boring. It’s not a pleasant place to be,” he says. “The first six months I was there, I worked in the kitchen mopping floors. Then I got a job in the library.” Through it all, he took things “one day at a time.”

Before Mr. Spitzer or anyone else reclaims his public image, he must restore his relationships with his family and his own psyche, Cianci says. “You have to reach down into your soul and believe in yourself and have tremendous self-confidence,” he says.

Cianci’s come back has been helped that his gift of gab is coupled with a roguish but inherently likable personality, which, of course, is one recipe for a successful talk show host.  Cianci has shown up on the airwaves after both instances of downfall. It’s hard to imagine the often-dour Mr. Spitzer jousting with work-a-day callers on the airwaves. Still, it’s possible to envision Mr. Spitzer some day down the line teaching or writing after the passions of the moment subside.

In a performance straight from Politics 101, Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline this afternoon took responsibility for the city's troubled response to last week's snow storm and outlined steps that he said will prevent a future repeat of the same thing. The ultimate goal, of course, is to put the whole episode in the past.

"I want to begin by saying that the ultimate responsibility for the safe transportation of our children in the public schools rests with me," Cicilline said during a City Hall news conference. "And while the entire region was hit hard by a severe storm, including our state, on Thursday, causing major gridlock on interstate highways, which impacted travel within the city, there was a major breakdown in communications that resulted in students being stranded on school buses for long periods of time. In addition, timely and accurate information was not provided to many parents. Having children on school buses for three, four, or more hours was totally unacceptable. First to our kids, this should have never happened and it will not happen again."

Flanked by Police Chief Dean Esserman, other police commanders, and outgoing director of administration John Simmons, Cicilline described what he called the "overall systemic failures of that night:"

First, by mid-afternoon it should have been clear that a serious problem with school delays was brewing, and no red flag was raised; second, by late afternoon it was clear that a serious problem was at hand, and still no red flag was raised; third, for lack of this red flag there was a total breakdown in the parental notification system. Finally, in a broader sense, there was no coordinated cross-communication across city departments to respond to the school bus issue."   

Cicilline said he has communicated his "grave disappointment" to School Superintendent Donnie Evans for his performance in the storm, although he said Evans still enjoys his confidence. The mayor announced that he was removing Leo Messier, as director of EMA, and suspending without pay Tomas Hannah, chief of operations for the Providence schools, for 30 days.

According to a news release:

Mayor Cicilline outlined five action steps to prevent a similar situation from occurring in the future:

 

• The City has modified its Emergency Operations Plan to require the Emergency Operations Cabinet to be automatically activated whenever school children are being transported during extreme weather with dangerous driving conditions.

 

• First Student Transportation has agreed to establish a communication system that will improve the ability of bus drivers or bus monitors to communicate directly with the bus yard in order to report any difficulties in transportation students.

 

• Mayor has directed the School Superintendent to establish a communication procedure that requires parents to be notified every hour by an automated phone call system when there are substantial delays on school buses.

 

• Mayor has directed the School Superintendent to establish, immediately, a dedicated hotline to answer parents’ questions regarding their children’s transportation. The hotline will be staffed with sufficient personnel during emergencies so that parents will not be kept on hold for unreasonable periods of time.

 

• Mayor has directed the School Superintendent to reverse the current transportation schedules in weather emergencies to ensure that the youngest and most vulnerable children are transported first.

Last week's storm, considering its pace and timing, was bound to be a mess. And considering how Governor Carcieri has not come off well, Cicilline isn't the only elected official who didn't emerge as a superb leader in responding. Let's not forget that parts of I-95 were unpassable.

The difference for Cicilline, who has enjoyed a high statewide approval rating in polls out of Brown University, is that the storm response clashes with his self-description as the guy who has improved and professionalized city government. While the mayor maintained that his overall record holds up well, Christmas came early for his political opponents -- who have been egged on, in part, by WPRO talk-show host Buddy Cianci. All this presents a more complicated environment for Cicilline as we approach the 2010 gubernatorial race.

Some of the mayor's critics are using the occasion to rap Esserman, who, according to Dan Yorke and ABC6, worked out at the Gold's Gym near the Pawtucket line at about 4:30 pm on the day of the storm (no questions were asked about this during the news conference). While this might constitute an error of judgment, Providence police performed a valuable public service as their recognition of storm-related problems grew last week. And let's keep the big picture in mind: Esserman deserves a lot of credit for reforming what had long been a seriously dysfunctional and problem-plagued department.

The Providence City Council plans to discuss the snow response tonight.

Quasi-surreal Providence PS: Walter Miller, the unofficial jester of Cianci's late tenure at City Hall, performed a card trick, indicating, he says, that the storm response in Providence wasn't Cicilline's fault. He also predicts the Patriots will win their next game.

From City Hall:

PROVIDENCE – Mayor David N. Cicilline will announce a series of action steps the City is taking in response to the findings of a week-long review into the circumstances surrounding the release of Providence school children during the December 13th winter storm.  The news conference will be held on Thursday, December 20 at 1 p.m. in the Mayor’s Office at Providence City Hall. 

 

Last Friday, Mayor Cicilline directed Police Chief Dean M. Esserman and Chief of Administration John Simmons to conduct a thorough review of the events that led to Providence school children being stranded on gridlocked buses for hours.  The Mayor will also announce a series of action steps the City is taking to ensure the safe transport of children home from school under any circumstances.

Meanwhile, self-styled good government watchdog Buddy Cianci is suggesting on his WPRO radio show that Bud Cicilline's big loss in Newport is due to his sharing the same surname, in the aftermath of last week's storm, as the Providence mayor.

The two biggest beneficiaries of last Thursday's snow storm and the related mess? AG Patrick Lynch and General Treasurer Frank Caprio, according to Buddy Cianci on his WPRO radio show, since they had nothing to do with it.

Cianci also asserts that the storm-related problems have effectively dashed the gubernatorial hopes of David Cicilline and Elizabeth Roberts. That's a stretch, IMHO, in part because Massachusetts was gripped with similar woes, although you can practically imagine the campaign commercials.

A few years ago, during the Providence Newspaper Guild Follies, emcee Scott MacKay took Ciciline to task for lax snow removal early in his tenure, noting that Harvard's Kennedy School doesn't offer courses in such stuff. The allusion referred to the many advanced degrees among the 'Sixers -- residents of the 02906 zip code -- in the mayor's administration.

(Cianci, of course, was mayor when the Blizzard of '78 caused serious problems, although there's a difference between responding to six or so inches of snow and more than two feet of the white stuff.)

There's a long time -- almost three years -- between now and November 2010. If last Thursday remains an aberration, it won't have much of an effect. Yet if similar snow removal problems occur again in the run-up to 2010, the political fallout could be more severe.

As public developments involving Operation Dollar Bill have periodically unfolded in recent years, an FBI investigation related to the Cadillac Lounge in Providence has received far less attention. Last week, WJAR-TV's Jim Taricani offered an update:

NBC 10's I-Team has learned that a convicted felon tried to influence Providence city officials about a liquor license.

In 2005, the Cadillac Lounge in Providence received a liquor license even after the city’s lawyer told the licensing board not to issue the license.

But the I-Team has learned that a Providence police officer was told that a former city employee, who was a convicted felon, tried to influence a high-ranking city official to get the strip club a liquor license.

Because the Cadillac Lounge is in a zone that doesn’t allow nudity in a club with liquor, the club at first was a "bing your own beer" club.

Perhaps the most interesting thing in Taricani's story is the role played by Edward "Buckles" Melise in advocating for the club's liquor license.

Melise, as anyone who has read Mike Stanton's The Prince of Providence well knows, was part of the checkered cast of city workers during Buddy Cianci's time at City Hall in the 1980s. Taricani notes how Melise was convicted on a number of corruption charges.

So the Providence Board of Licenses under David Cicilline -- who claimed office as the anti-Cianci -- awarded a liquor license to an establishment whose advocates included Melise. And Melise, as Taricani reported, is represented by the mayor's father, Jack Cicilline -- who, long ago, was an aide to Cianci. Sounds like, in the words of Bill Reynolds, a Full Rhode Island.

In response to the investigation, Cicilline issued a statement.

"It's a common practice for individuals to advocate for a certain position or outcome on a matter pending before a city board or commission. I have made it perfectly clear that I expect boards and commissions to exercise good judgment … and to issue fair and impartial decisions free from political influence," the mayor said.

At 12:40 pm today, Governor Carcieri is slated make his first second appearance on WPRO-AM's Buddy Cianci Show.

While David Cicilline is leaving it to others to assess Cianci's credibility, it obviously helps the pol-turned-talk-show host when he's able to attract an appearance by the governor, who previously leaned against making such an appearance. AG Patrick Lynch is also booked to join Cianci today.

Cianci appeared as a panelist this week on A Lively Experiment, although the show will not be broadcast until Sunday because of a station fundraiser that aired last night.

Earlier this year, the Phoenix's Brian C. Jones was the first to broach the question of whether Carcieri would appear with Buddy on the radio:

Masters of the medium: Will Carcieri join Cianci on talk radio?
These are two of Governor Donald L. Carcieri’s favorite roles:

 • Wearing the white hat in debates about government ethics.

 • Appearing frequently as a guest on talk radio.

 So what will Carcieri do when former Providence Mayor Vincent A. “Buddy” Cianci, freshly sprung from the federal pen, resumes his role as a talk show host, as is widely expected?
 “I knew Buddy when I was in the private world,” the governor says, noting the ex-mayor is “very bright, very personable . . . with a terrific skill set.”

 On the other hand, Carcieri says he knew business people who wouldn’t open up shop in Providence when Cianci was there, and that his public corruption conviction is “a very sad chapter in the city.”

 So will the governor do the Cianci show? “Probably not.”

Conspicuously absent from today's ProJo coverage of John Simmons's ascension to the top job at the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council is any mention of the recent Fund for Providence issue. Buddy Cianci and Dan Yorke, who have used this topic to deem Simmons unfit for the RIPEC job, will no doubt focus more criticism on this development today.

In a nutshell, the Fund for Providence, which is managed by the Rhode Island Foundation, previously paid a chunk of Simmons's salary as director of administration in Providence. A few years back, Yorke seized on the anonymity of the donor/donors as being at odds with good government and David Cicilline's self-description for transparency. Cicilline has defended the approach, noting the city was facing a $60 million deficit after he came into office, and describing the fund as a way to meet important city needs. He has also cited safeguards against potential conflicts.

Was this funding mechanism an ideal approach? Perhaps not, but I don't think it's necessarily the second coming of Watergate, either.

The larger issue, with Cicilline gearing up for a gubernatorial run in 2010, is the relative impact of his critics -- particularly Cianci, who recently took a new post at Channel 6. Yorke, meanwhile, appeared Sunday on ABC6 On the Record with Jim Hummel, using the occasion, in part, to share some harsh words about Cicilline.

Perhaps believing that much of Yorke's audience is unlikely to vote for him, the mayor seems to have made a calculated bet to ignore the talker's criticism. Regarding Cianci, Cicilline has used the velvet gloves approach, suggesting that Rhode Islanders can draw their own conclusions about the former mayor's credibility as a good-government watchdog.

In the tiny place that is Rhode Island, the battle lines are being drawn, an issue complicated in part by some of the related professional relationships. Matt has a provocative post, looking, for example, at some of John DePetro's past critical statements about Cianci, who now, of course, is one of his WPRO colleagues.

Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline suggests that he doesn't concern himself much with criticism of his administration by Buddy Cianci, who has ramped up his talk-radio based critiques of Cicilline in recent weeks.

Speaking this morning during a taping of WPRI/WNAC-TV's Newsmakers, Cicilline said he doesn't listen to Cianci's late-morning talk-radio show. When Arlene Violet asked Cicilline for his reaction to Cianci's criticism, Cicilline said he would leave it to others to judge Cianci's credibility. (The show will be broadcast Sunday, at 5:30 am on Channel 12, and at 10 am on Fox 64.)

As we know, Cianci was released from federal prison earlier this year after having served about four-and-a-half years on a single count of racketeering conspiracy. More than 20 individuals associated with his first tenure at City Hall were covicted of corruption-related charges.

Cianci has nonetheless presented himself as a self-styled Providence watchdog, saying earlier this week that no one connected the dots while he was "away," and now that he's back, "I'm the dot-connector." His criticism has focused, among other things, on the city's approach to funding part of the salary for John Simmons, Cicilline's director of administration. (Following the circulation of related rumors, Cianci has called Simmons a finalist to succeed Gary Sasse as the executive director of the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council.)

As was recently reported here, Cicilline's spokeswoman says the Fund for Providence, which is administered by the Rhode Island Foundation, hasn't been contributing to Simmons's salary for about two-and-a-half years.

During today's taping, I asked Cicilline why his administration has declined to identify the donor or donors who, through the Foundation, previously paid part of Simmons' salary.

The mayor started to respond by saying it was the Foundation, not his administration, that declined to identify the source of the funding. He also called the Fund for Providence a mechanism to get useful things done when the city was facing a $60 million deficit early in his first term.

I interjected, asking if anonymous donations to the Fund for Providence posed potential conflicts of interest since, for example, a company with business before the city could be among the contributors.

Cicilline answered by saying that protections were incorporated into the process to guard against potential conflicts. He says the board administering the Fund for Providence screened donors, so that donations would not be accepted from companies with business before the city.

John Simmons's salary as director of administration for the City of Providence is fully paid by the City -- and it has been for about two-and-a-half years, according to Karen Southern, spokeswoman for Mayor David N. Cicilline.

As I blogged earlier today, the issue of Simmons' salary was raised yesterday by Buddy Cianci on his WPRO-AM radio show. Dan Yorke, who has criticized Cicilline about this issue in the past, continues to hammer it this afternoon. The two talkers are critical of how the Rhode Island Foundation paid part of Simmons' salary for his work with the city.

Southern, however, tells N4N that the foundation's Fund for Providence hasn't contributed to Simmons's salary for about two-and-a-half years. She was unable to identify specifically when the foundation stopped contributing to Simmons' compensation.

Southern says the Fund for Providence, which is overseen by the Rhode Island Foundation, paid Simmons's salary when he initially worked for the Cicilline administration as a consultant, and then supplemented it when he became director of administration a direct employee of the city. Asked if the city now pays 100 percent of Simmons' salary for his work for the city, Southern said, "Yes, and it has been [doing so] for about two-and-a-half years." 

The spokeswoman recounted how the Fund for Providence was established as a partnership between individuals and philanthropy "to support the reform of city government." It was established, she says, "in recognition of the fact that the City has limited resources and in recognition of the fact that transforming government would require a significant amount of resources."

Southern noted that the same fund paid for a review of Providence's finances by Public Finance Management (PFM), which began in 2003. "PFM helped draft the city's five-year strategic plan, basically the road map for improving the city's [fiscal] health," she says. "The city was tackling a $60 million budget deficit."

 Southern notes how the city has since enjoyed some good news on its bond ratings.            

UPDATE: As I've subsequently posted, Cicilline spokeswoman Karen Southern says the city pays 100 percent of the salary for Simmons's work for the city.

. . . .

Speaking of Yorke, the WPRO talk-show host has long been critical of the Cicilline administration's use of a fund at the Rhode Island Foundation to help pay for the services of director of administration John Simmons.

Here's how I described the situation in a profile of Yorke earlier this year:

The talk-show host, who calls Cicilline “the most thin-skinned politician I’ve ever encountered,” seems most irked by the mayor’s unwillingness in recent years to appear on his show. As Jim Taricani related in a recent profile of Yorke in Rhode Island Monthly, the talk-show host — whose mantra is that he won’t say anything about people that he won’t say to their face — tends to save his most fiery tirades for news figures that spurn his interest in an interview.

In Cicilline’s case, Yorke points to how a private fund managed by the Rhode Island Foundation pays a fraction of the nearly $200,000 salary earned by John Simmons, the mayor’s director of administration. While the mayor has said that Simmons’ private-sector experience has yielded millions in savings for the city, through enhanced bond ratings, Yorke calls the arrangement’s partial anonymity at odds with open government and Cicilline’s self-description as a reformer.

This week, Buddy Cianci jumped on the same issue, raising his profile as a possible thorn as Cicilline continues to gear up for a gubernatorial run.

I didn't hear it, but it apparently began when Cianci had departing Rhode Island Foundation chieftain Ron Gallo on his show yesterday. Just a few moments ago, Cianci pointed to how conflicts could arise from the foundation's funding arrangement for Simmon's salary.

In particular, Cianci asserted that GTECH may be contributing to the related fund at the foundation, and he noted how Donald R. Sweitzer, a senior VP at GTECH, is a Democratic fundraiser. (Btw, as I first reported, Mike Mello, Cicilline's former chief of staff, took a job overseen by Sweitzer.)

I need to declare a mea culpa here. Steve Aveson asked me about the Simmons-RI Foundation issue during the roundtable portion of today's taping of Newsmakers. In noting the tension between Cicilline and Yorke, and how Simmons is professionally well-regarded, I concluded that this isn't a huge deal. After thinking about it a bit more, I've changed my mind.

The element of anonymity in funding Simmons's salary is at odds with the good government/transparency philosophy espoused by Cicilline, and it does create at least the potential for conflicts.

Marc has a good post about this issue at Anchor:

According to the latest City of Providence compensation numbers (PDF, line A18, p. 15), Simmons should be making in the mid-$60K range. Yet the fact that the public doesn't know for sure who exactly funnels money to pay $140K worth of Simmons' salary doesn't bother the Mayor. In a post by Brown Prof. Darrell West in 2004, West reported that Mayor Cicilline defends this setup.

According to Cicilline, the concept is "new to Providence, but not new to cities" around the country. Responding to complaints about possible conflicts of interest between outside donors and the city, the mayor defended the practice and said "we never would have gotten half the things done without this."

So the ends justify the means, right? Didn't someone else get in trouble using that logic?

The DVD-release party for Cherry Arnold's Buddy Cianci documentary will be held tonight, appropriately enough, in the ballroom of the Providence Biltmore. Doors open at 6:30. Tickets are $40.

The highlights, Cherry says, will include:

* The last showing (7 pm) of this award-winning movie on the big screen, with a post-film party

* Every ticket holder gets a special pre-release copy of the BUDDY DVD;

* Cherry will be doing a post-film Q&A, with special guests (Buddy will probably do the Q&A)...;

* Cherry will be presenting Buddy Cianci with the buddycianci.com domain;

* Raffle prizes, movie posters and more!

The City of Providence's effort to revoke the $64,000-a-year pension of former police chief Urbano Prignano Jr. is among the topics slated for tomorrow's meeting of the Providence Retirement Board. Also slated for consideration are the retirement benefits of Buddy Cianci and his former right-hand man, Frank Corrente.

Mary Ann Sorrentino and Greg Smith are among those who've written about Prignano and the fallout from Dean Esserman's internal probe of the cheating scandal that preceded his time at the Providence Police Department.

Here's the relevant part of the agenda for tomorrow's retirement board meeting:

7. New Business:

a. Revocation and/or reduction of Retirement Benefits of Frank Corrente – Law Department

b. Revocation and/or reduction of Retirement Benefits of Vincent A. Cianci – Law Department

c. Discussion regarding pension violation of Honorable Service Section of Tanya King – Harold Zacks

d. Discussion relative to the revocation and/or reduction of Retirement Benefits of Urbano Prignano – Law Department

-- N4N got a good feeling when old friend Kevin Millar offered encouragement to Sox Nation before the start of Game 5 with the Indians. It was probably El Bencho who approached Fox, rather than the other way around.

-- Joe Torre is a classy guy, but he let himself twist in the wind too long, IMHO, before deciding to walk.

-- Not much of a surprise here, but RI Report has the details on Buddy Cianci seeming bound for a gig with Channel 6.

-- Governor Carcieri continues his media offensive with an appearance Sunday on 10 News Conference.

-- Matt has the details on the special House District 22 election slated for Tuesday.

-- Two noteworthy events next week: Obama campaign manager David Plouffe will be in town for a fundraiser Tuesday, 5-7, at the Providence Black Repertory Company, and Cherry Arnold hosts her DVD-release party at the Biltmore Thursday.

-- Events this weekend: Eric Jay Dolin, the author of Leviathan, about the bygone whaling industry, talks tomorrow afternoon at the PPL; Circle A Cycles, everyone's favorite anarchist bike manufacturer, has an open house at its new digs on Sunday.

With the debut this morning of his latest inception as a radio host, former Providence Mayor Buddy Cianci scores an impressive media hat trick -- landing on the front of three publications: the Phoenix, the ProJo, and the new issue of Rhode Island Monthly. 

Here's an excerpt from our Q+A with Cianci by Joe Vileno, a former aide:

What can you tell us about your job as a talk radio host on WPRO-AM? How did the contract negotiations go? How much will you earn, and how do you see your radio show going?
I can’t tell you about my contract talks and salary — that is confidential — but it will be very good, I can tell you that. I can say clearly that I will be earning considerably more on radio than I earned in prison at $11.84 per month! As for the show itself, as I said publicly already, there will not be any negativity to my show when I get going. I have no axe to grind, I am not out to get anyone. I’ll be addressing the issues Rhode Island has, like how to achieve economic growth, the state and cities’ tax burdens, things like that. Right now, the growth industries in Rhode Island are gambling and the landfill! I will be talking about issues such as the advantages of consolidating school districts in Rhode Island — we have too many now — and whatever else comes up. And we will discuss national issues. I will be talking about stories you won’t read about in the Journal, stories the Journal may not run involving their favorite public figures. I mean, since I went away, the Journal now charges families for obituary space — imagine, a family is mourning a loved one and you have to pay the Providence Journal to let friends know publicly!
 
My show will not be about me as a political person, but my views as a citizen. I missed not being on talk radio. It was the happiest time in my career. I enjoyed it more than being mayor, because you feel free to talk about anything, to speak your mind without concern for how something will “play” with the voters or with the City Council, which you need to govern. I really look forward to going back on the radio.

Former Providence mayor Buddy Cianci -- who is slated to resume his career as a talk-show host this Thursday -- says he has been in talks with Robert De Niro's Tribeca Films about a possible movie deal. The revelation comes in an interview that will be published in this week's Phoenix.

When asked about the Michael Corrente-helmed movie to be based on Mike Stanton's The Prince of Providence, Cianci tells interviewer Joe Vileno, a former aide, "They have been talking about that for years and nothing seems to be happening . . . Who knows if the movie will ever be made?"

Cianci goes on to say this:

I have nothing to do with Michael Corrente or with any movie about me with him. I am in discussions with Tribeca Films, which Robert De Niro founded, which has made overtures to me, as they are interested in making a film of my career and will also involve a major Hollywood studio. I am now awaiting further talks.

As far as who will play me, there is no particular one in mind now,. I like De Niro and Paul Giamatti, too. I knew his father [Bart Giamatti, the late former Yale University president and Major League Baseball commissioner.] I met him at a conference at Yale.

It's little surprise that Buddy is landing at WPRO-AM. In the short term, with the station vowing that it will maintain its current hosts, this is the main upshot of Cianci's plan to start at WPRO next month:

-- It provides a revenue stream for Cianci, who was not in the best financial shape before going away.

-- It further strengthens WPRO (disclosure: I'm a weekly guest on the Dan Yorke Show), which has emerged since as Rhode Island's dominant local talk station since WHJJ axed Arlene Violet and diminished its local presence last year.

While WHJJ is thought to have made a serious bid for Buddy's services, the prospect of going to the less popular of RI's two talk stations may have been a factor.

For now, the big question is how Cianci's arrival will jibe with the personal dynamics of John DePetro and Yorke, who are hardly bosom buddies.

The scene above is the Buddy stakeout last Friday outside the Old Canteen on Federal Hill. I use this as the jumping off point for my look at the Rhode Island icon's return to the local limelight.

Buddy Cianci was already making the media wait.

Last Friday, as he lunched with friends and family at Joe Marzilli’s Old Canteen on Federal Hill, Rhode Island’s rascal king still had another 11 hours or so under the jurisdiction of the US Bureau of Prisons, his keeper for the last four-plus years. And though it was wholly predictable that he would elude —as he did —the assembled throng of reporters, Cianci’s mere presence was enough to keep 15 scribes, photographers, and TV cameramen posted outside, mostly in front of the old-school Italian restaurant on Atwells Avenue, sweating in the humidity and seeking shaded relief from a scorching late July sun.
 
This was the dawn of a whole new Buddy era, and there was no doubt that the media would be there to cover it.
 
In the parlance of local scribes, Rhode Island is the gift that keeps on giving. And in the last 33 years, no one in this tiny news-rich state has offered more journalistic fodder than Buddy Cianci, a charismatic and gifted politician, by turns charming and bullying, who has exhibited a considerable penchant for self-destruction. US District Court Judge Ernest Torres nailed this duality while sentencing Cianci in 2002 for a single count of racketeering conspiracy, likening the twice-fallen mayor to a Jekyll-and-Hyde character.
 
And now Buddy is back.
 
What form will he take? How much juice will he wield? To what degree does he remain relevant? Was a man who had once talked of screwing his friends and marrying his enemies capable of mellowing, at 66, into something approaching an elder statesman? Or was the sunny exterior he flashed a day later just a cover until Buddy starts settling scores from a well-paid perch on talk-radio?
 
These questions formed the subtext as the reporters waited for the well-turned quotes that, at least that day, would not arrive.
 
While Cianci had been released in May from a federal prison in Fort Dix, New Jersey — taking up residence at a halfway house in Boston, and then, his nephew Brad Turchetta’s East Greenwich home — ongoing federal oversight spelled public silence for the typically loquacious former mayor.
 
Yet with the snipping of his electronic monitoring bracelet last Friday morning at the Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office on Cape Cod, it was only a matter of hours before Buddy was, again, suddenly front-and-center in the Rhode Island media.
 
For now, it was Charles Mansolillo, a longtime Cianci confidante and his former city solicitor, who eventually emerged to answer questions from the press, describing how Buddy will likely hold a news conference about his plans this week, and as widely anticipated, probably take up a talk-radio microphone right here in Rhode Island.
 
A short time later, Buddy slipped away with enough guile to impress a freshly minted Hollywood starlet, moving from a side entrance at the Old Canteen into the passenger seat of a waiting silver Mercedes SL500, which sped away, photographers snapping all the while.
 
The departure was a variation on how Cianci used to make reporters wait for an audience in his imperial court at City Hall. In time, he would talk and talk some more, revealing a bit about the next chapter in a remarkable life. Yet even in his uncharacteristic silence, the former mayor’s headgear — a Providence Journal baseball cap — marked a wry nod to his longtime journalistic nemesis.

Is the media too obsessed with Buddy Cianci?

Rhode Islanders have been innundated with Cianci news over the last week, and I'm as guilty as the next wretch in dishing it out on this blog. In this week's Phoenix, I take a look at the media frenzy surrounding Cianci's reemergence, and I'll post that link after it goes up.

In some ways, the media's fascination with Buddy is probably greater than that of the public at large, although he certainly is a legitimate story.

WPRI's Tim White has described this duality: on one hand, some people ask why the media won't leave Buddy alone; on the other hand, many of these same individuals certainly take a keen interest in the changed appearance of the former mayor and related details.

White, formerly the managing editor at Boston's WBZ-TV, has a unique perspective on this. He's a relatively newcomer in the Rhode Island media, but as the son of the late, great Jack White, he's also something of an old hand. (I make no secret of the fact that I am a big fan of the White family. It was Jack who first invited me to appear on WPRI-WNAC's Newsmakers, and I think Tim has been doing a fine job, following in his father's footsteps, as Channel 12's investigative reporter.)

So I was curious about what White would say when I asked him how much news value there was in being there at the Barnstable County Sheriff's Office when Cianci's electronic monitoring braclet was removed last Friday morning. White was the only reporter there -- and Channel 12 trumpeted its exclusive. "I do think there is news value in such an iconic figure," White says. "Any time he does anything, people are interested. It also has news value for me," since it's much easier when a reporter is ahead of a story, rather than pursuing it after the fact. As it happened, WPRI reported this news on its noon broadcast last Friday.

It wasn't until the next day when White actually got a chance to meet Cianci, the storied political figure about whom he'd heard so much, for so long. Since he was reared on tales of Cianci, from when his father was an investigative reporter at the ProJo, "I was looking forward to covering that story for that reason." White says he wrote letters to Cianci when the former mayor was imprisoned in New Jersey, but had not heard back.

Yet when White had a chance to introduce himself as Buddy stopped to chat with reporters before a Saturday night dinner at Cafe Nuovo, Cianci quickly recognized his name, expressing sympathy for the death of Jack White in 2005 and praising Jack as a great man. (When Cianci was indicted as part of the Operation Plunder Dome investigation, he memorably described learning about it from Jack White.)

While the media is mostly interested in Buddy Cianci because of who he is, this anecdote shows how the personal relationships that help to form community remain close at hand in the small place that is Rhode Island.

While we await word on Buddy Cianci's future in broadcasting, the ProJo's Dan Barbarisi today takes a look at a question with broader implications: how will the rascal king's return to Rhode Island affect David Cicilline? (I wrote about the same question in July 2006.)

“Buddy’s return will change the public conversation about Providence. It creates another power center,” said Brown University political science Prof. Darrell West. “Buddy’s return empowers those who are unhappy with the current direction of the city.”

Cicilline, of course, is widely anticipated to be a Democratic gubernatorial candidate in 2010. Once Buddy gets on the air, though, he will have a forum to bedevil the man who effectively succeeded him.

If Cicilline is dreaming of higher office, the best thing he can do, [Joseph R.] Paolino said, is to meet Cianci head-on, on the first day of any potential radio show.

“Cicilline probably has advisers telling him, ‘Don’t do it, don’t do it,’ but it would be better if he did.”

“Knowing what I know today, he should want to be his first guest,” Paolino said. “Buddy’s got no reason to be angry with him. There’s no ax to grind. I think David should go on his show.”

CICILLINE laughed when told of Paolino’s advice. “I’ll respond to him the next time I see him,” he said.

Mansolillo confirmed to N4N that Buddy Cianci has explored a possible talk-radio job in Boston. His anticipated future in broadcasting is "likely to be here [in Rhode Island], although there have been discussions also with Boston, an opportunity," Mansolillo said.

Cianci confidante Charles Mansolillo says the newly freed former mayor will be present at tomorrow night's WaterFire in Providence.

Asked if Cianci would make a grand entrance, the former city solicitor said, "I don't think that's been given very much thought. I don't know the answer to that question."

Mansolillo says Buddy will speak with reporters later, rather than sooner, because "he doesn't want to go through a cacophony of questions."  

Cianci slipped away from a media gaggle after a late lunch -- haddock and broccoli rabe -- at Joe Marzilli's Old Canteen on Federal Hill. Mansolillo threw the gathered reporters a bone this afternoon by taking questions during an impromptu press conference outside the restaurant. A short time later, with camera crews staking out several exits, Cianci, riding in the passenger seat of a gray Mercedes with Florida plates, sped away. He was wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap.

Mansolillio says seven people were at the lunch, including lawyer David Igliozzi, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 2002.

David Segal pretty much nails it with his RI's Future post about Shaw's plans to close its supermarket in Eagle Square:

Many Olneyville residents and activists are (rightfully) saying “I told you so” at the news that the Shaws at Eagle Square will be closing.

The Shaws was one of the major supposed benefits of the Eagle Square project, which got a huge tax incremental financing deal from the city — even while displacing countless residents and businesses and entailing the demolition of several historic mill buildings.

It gets back to that fundamental debate about what a “neighborhood” is, or needs to be. As the TIF moved through the Council, many argued that Olneyville was already well-served by a supermarket — PriceRite — and many smaller markets and bodegas. It appears that they were right.

More evidence that antiseptic gentrification and mega-chain retailers don’t make neighborhoods vibrant, or even functional — even as they raise property values. (And while taxes won’t be going up on Olnevyille’s many tax-stabilized developments, rank-and-file property owners and renters are about to get slammed.)

Gadfly Judith Reilly had earlier reported on how the Eagle Square Tax Increment Financing plan wasn't working out as planned.

As someone who was there when this whole controversy was going down, I share the lack of surprise described by Segal. As I wrote back in 2001, with a story that enraged then-Mayor Buddy Cianci:

There's certainly reason to be skeptical about Feldco. During meetings of the Providence Plan Commission last November and December, company officials did everything they could to demonize the mill buildings of Eagle Square as derelict structures and impediments to economic development. Preserving any of the buildings was not financially feasible, they said, because of floodplain and environmental issues. In fact, it was difficult not to imagine a better, more sustainable use for Eagle Square than a generic strip mall, and it was steady opposition by a coalition of artists, preservationists, and neighborhood residents that finally led Cianci to sit up, take notice, and demand changes.

Particularly when you're Buddy Cianci and still under the constraints of a federal sentence.

On the flip side, I agree with those who find it appalling that a blogger was ejected for filing a live report from an NCAA baseball game.

Is there any cognitive dissonance between how Charlie Bakst and Ed Achorn (and Richard Rose) just want Buddy Cianci to make a very, very, quiet return, and the way in which the ProJo continually features prominent coverage of its favorite bete noire? Just asking.

In related Buddy news, Cherry Arnold reports that her Cianci documentary won the Best of Festival Prize at the Pacific Palisades Film Festival in California. While Buddy is cooling his heels and waiting to start his gig at Fifteen Boston, Cherry's Buddy will screen two weeks from tonight, Thursday, June 21, at 8 pm, at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts.

Meanwhile, in this week's Phoenix, Mary Ann Sorrentino, no stranger to talk radio in Rhode Island, questions the widely held assumption that Cianci will wind up behind a microphone at WPRO AM.

As Brian C. Jones points out in this week's Phoenix, Governor Carcieri has superb communication skills and a penchant for putting on the white hat during appearances on talk radio. So, if Buddy Cianci gets a radio show, as is widely expected to be the case, will Carcieri go on the Buddy show?

 “I knew Buddy when I was in the private world,” the governor says, noting the ex-mayor is “very bright, very personable . . . with a terrific skill set.”

 On the other hand, Carcieri says he knew business people who wouldn’t open up shop in Providence when Cianci was there, and that his public corruption conviction is “a very sad chapter in the city.”

 So will the governor do the Cianci show? “Probably not.”

UPDATE: The ProJo's curious print byline on the Paolino story seems to be due to how WPRO's John DePetro broke this story yesterday, with an interview with Paolino. In classic ProJo fashion, RI's paper of record opted to pretend that other media doesn't exist in RI.

Mark Arsenault has the answer today to a question that a lot of people have been wondering about: when can the newly freed again run for his rightful place as perpetual mayor of Providence (2014). Yet even more interesting is a piece tucked away on page A7 -- attributed in print as a "projo.com staff report," but carrying Kate Bramson's byline online -- identifying former Prov mayor Joseph R. Paolino Jr. as the benefactor who helped Buddy to land his job at Fifteen Beacon: 

“Sometimes when people are in need of help, you put your political differences aside,” Paolino said on his cell phone while on a business trip in New York. “We’ve both done that. We’re old warriors. We’ve been adversaries. We’ve been friends. We’ve been colleagues. And he needed help.”

Cianci asked Paolino whether he knew anyone in Boston, and Paolino delivered. He called Paul Roiff, originally a Rhode Islander and now owner of the posh Fifteen Beacon hotel, which has signed Cianci on for some marketing work while he’s in the halfway house, Coolidge House, in Boston.

Cianci was released from federal prison at Fort Dix, N.J., at about 3 a.m. Wednesday and arrived at the halfway house less than seven hours later. He’s scheduled to start working at the hotel Monday.

“I called Paul Roiff and told him that Cianci was going to be in Boston, would be in a halfway house, needed some help and if he had any need to hire someone of his talent,” Paolino explained. “And without hesitation, Paul Roiff said yes.”

Paolino said helping Cianci, like helping anyone in need, “feels good.”

Someone who wrote a letter earlier this week to the ProJo thinks so (he also thinks that Cianci got railroaded):

Obviously, the people of Providence and Rhode Island did not appreciate Mayor Cianci’s tremendous talents — especially Judge Torres, who sent Mayor Cianci literally “up the river,” as the cliché goes.

As a lifelong Worcester resident (unfortunately), I would love to have Mayor Cianci come to Worcester and make it a great city — just like he made Providence a great city. Providence is paradise, whereas Worcester is simply an old, exhausted, run-down, filthy and bombed-out New England mill town which could sure use Mayor Cianci’s magical touch.

Let Mayor Cianci come to Worcester where he will be appreciated and not persecuted.

Scott Wolfe

Worcester, Mass