PROVIDENCE – Two years ago, when the Rhode Island Supreme Court killed a contentious marina expansion on Block Island, the office of Attorney General Peter Neronha played a key role when it came out against a private side agreement between the developer and the Coastal Resources Management Council that would have allowed a scaled-down version of the project to go forward.
The Champlin’s Marina deal, which excluded input from opponents of a proposal that had been stalled in the regulatory process for nearly two decades, was just the highest profile of the controversies that have swirled around the coastal council in recent years.
Now, Neronha’s office is working with lawmakers and environmental advocates to try to ensure that more questionable decisions aren’t made by the powerful state agency whose responsibilities range from offshore wind power permitting to climate change planning.
They have proposed legislation that would restructure the agency chiefly by abolishing the 10-member council of political appointees that currently has final decision-making powers and placing its authority in the hands of a professional director and staff.
In the council’s place, a new Department of Coastal Resources would be created that would be on par with the Department of Environmental Management and other departments within state government. Public input would come from a citizens’ advisory committee that would meet twice a year.
At a hearing Wednesday before the Senate Committee on Environment and Agriculture, Assistant Attorney General Sarah Rice said the Champlin’s case brought the problems with the council’s structure to the fore.
“We need the entity that is charged with these really weighty responsibilities to be transparent, to have clear procedures and to be empowered to make administrative decisions that are defensible,” said Rice, deputy chief of the office’s public protection bureau. “We can see that over the case of the Champlin’s matter that there were multiple failures by all sorts of different configurations of the council. This isn’t about one or two people. This is about the structure.”
For the second year running, the legislation was introduced by Sen. Victoria Gu, a Charlestown Democrat. Last year, her bill and a House version appeared to be moving forward after receiving committee hearings and going through rewrites before being pulled at the eleventh hour because of reported discrepancies between the two.
This year, the bill not only has Neronha’s backing, but Senate President Dominick Ruggerio and Senate Majority Leader Ryan Pearson have signed on as sponsors.
A House version introduced by Rep. Terri Cortvriend, a Portsmouth Democrat, is awaiting a committee hearing.
More:Champlin’s Marina expansion on Block Island struck down by state Supreme Court. Here’s why.
The legislation was written by staff from the Attorney General’s office in consultation with Save The Bay, the Providence environmental group that has long been calling for structural changes in the coastal council.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Gu said “reform is long overdue” at the agency, which is unusual in state government because even though it has a staff with degrees in engineering and related fields, all decisions are made by a 10-member council of appointees who are not required to have expertise in coastal policy.
Critics say the structure, which puts so much power in the hands of the voting council, is at the root of the agency’s problems. Appointees, who are nominated by the governor and approved by the Senate, have included in recent years a dental hygienist and the head of a chain of physical therapy offices.
“They’re making these big decisions on our coastal resources, but they sometimes end up undermining our CRMC staff’s recommendations, resulting in major lawsuits,” Gu said. “We want people who are making those decisions to be qualified.”
Formed by the General Assembly in 1971, the coastal council has been a lightning rod for criticism for many years. In 2021, after the Champlin’s deal came to light, the legislature formed a commission to consider the future of the agency.
The commission’s members came back with a list of recommendations, including the creation of full-time positions for a staff attorney and a hearing officer to consider contested cases. (A hearing officer was finally hired last June.)
But even while it was under the spotlight, concerns were again raised about its decision-making when it ignored the recommendation of its staff on an issue related to related to an offshore wind farm. In December 2022, the council found itself at odds with lawmakers after voting not to refer a lease for Revolution Wind’s transmission cables to the General Assembly even though staff advised members that state law required legislative approval.
Gu’s bill was not the only one on the agenda that would make changes at the council. Sen. Susan Sosnowski, a South Kingstown Democrat, is sponsoring one bill that would require a three-fifths majority for the council to overrule staff and another that would change the council membership. She also expressed support for the larger reforms proposed by Gu.
A host of advocacy groups, including the Conservation Law Foundation, Clean Water Action and Climate Action Rhode Island, also came out in support of restructuring the council.
Topher Hamblett, executive director of Save The Bay, said the current structure has led to inconsistent decisions, that it lacks accountability, that it’s “rife with conflicts” and that it “invites abuse.”
“The structure that has been in place for the last 50 years is a relic of the past,” he said. “It’s a relic of the bad old days of Rhode Island politics.”
