Chamber News

This is your RISC-Y Business email for July 21, 2010

SEE YESTERDAY'S RBN PRESENTATION ON RISCTV

“We don’t care about your party,” said RISC political consultant Jeffrey S. Deckman, on hand as the group announced the candidates at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. “We care about what you think.”

...RISC leaders said the endorsements — and the financial support that will come with them — will help to balance the influence of public-sector unions on Assembly races and help Network-endorsed candidates who face union-backed challengers.

The Providence Journal, Business group endorses General Assembly slate, July 21, 2010

Click here for an invitation to the RISC Annual Summer Meeting on August 7th!

TO TRACK KEY VOTES OF YOUR LEGISLATORS, SEE THE RISC WEBSITE

Today's News!

Rhode Island Statewide Coalition is on FaceBook and myRISC.com

RISC Business Network is on FaceBook , Twitter, LinkedIn, and myRISC.com

THE RACES ARE ON!!

SEE RISC TV FOR MORE INFO!

SENATE AND HOUSE SEATS ARE SEEING CHALLENGES IN ALMOST EVERY DISTRICT! THIS IS AN HISTORIC MOMENT FOR RI, AND RBN 2010 IS AN HISTORIC IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS ARRIVED!!!

We've reached the $100,000 mark in funding and campaign pledges, but we need EVEN MORE PLEDGES to elect a slate of pro-business, pro-jobs candidates!

THIS IS AN AMAZING OPPORTUNITY TO CLEAN UP RI AND GET SOME FRESH BLOOD FLOWING IN THE STATE LEGISLATURE! ARE YOU IN?

WE MAY NOT HAVE SUCH AN OPPORTUNITY AGAIN!

TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW:

RBN2010.COM IS GOING TO CHANGE THE R.I. GENERAL ASSEMBLY!!

FIND OUT MORE!

Vote on this week's poll: www.statewidecoalition.com:

The election effort of the RISC Business Network (RBN2010) is releasing its list this week of General Assembly candidates endorsed to-date. These candidates are signing a pledge to run on a pro-jobs/pro-growth agenda for the state. Would you be more inclined to vote for a candidate who has the endorsement of RBN than one who does not?

Business group endorses General Assembly slate

WARWICK — Voicing support for a pro-business, pro-jobs agenda, the Rhode Island Statewide Coalition’s Business Network endorsed nine General Assembly candidates Wednesday based on what the group said is the candidates’ willingness to put the state’s interests ahead of politics.

The endorsements, the first for the business arm of the state’s largest taxpayer advocacy group, struck a precise balance, with support going to four Democrats, four Republicans and one independent.

Click here to read more...

Business Group Endorses ‘Pro-Jobs’ Candidates

A coalition of local business owners is throwing its weight into the 2010 election, endorsing up to 20 pro-business candidates for the General Assembly and promising to pump more than $200,000 into their races.

“If the state of Rhode Island were a patient it would be on a resuscitator because the patient is more than anemic, it is virtually incapacitated by years of chronic abuse,” said former Attorney General Arlene Violet, who is a spokeswoman for the coalition, known as the RISC Business Network. She said supporting businesses would lead to more jobs and help Rhode Island recover from the recession.

Yesterday, the Business Network—which has 200 to 300 business members and is a project of the Rhode Island Statewide Coalition—endorsed nine candidates for the General Assembly.

Click here to read more...

Political group backs pro-business candidates

WARWICK, R.I. --

A new political action group is supporting candidates, regardless of their party affiliations.

The Rhode Island Statewide Coalition has formed a political action committee, and it's hoping to spend more than $200,000 this election cycle supporting candidates to change the culture at the State House.

"Our goal is to promote small business initiatives, support pension reform, and also to provide a balance of power in the General Assembly because the public sector unions just have entirely too much control," said Jeff Deckman of the RISC Business Network.

Click here to read more...

Comparing Pay in the Federal Government and the Private Sector

The federal government pays its employees substantially more than they would earn in the private sector. The current federal pay system:

• Pays hourly wages 22 percent above that of comparable private sector workers;
• Provides more generous health care and pension plans;
• Provides total compensation on the order of 30 percent to 40 percent above similarly skilled private sector workers; and
• Offers near-total job security and insulates federal employees from recessions.

Congress should not overtax all Americans to overpay the privileged workers in the federal civil service. Aligning federal compensation with market rates would save taxpayers approximately $47 billion a year. Congress should immediately act to bring equity to federal pay.

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Chariho: Teacher evaluation on agenda tonight

An evaluation model will be unveiled at the Chariho school board meeting.

By VICTORIA GOFF

Sun Staff Writer

WOOD RIVER JCT. — Chariho Regional School District teachers would undergo more frequent performance reviews under a new evaluation model developed by a joint committee of district administrators and teachers’ union members.

The joint committee’s model, being unveiled publicly tonight, would make all teachers subject to an annual performance review to determine their effectiveness. Currently, tenured teachers — those with at least three years of experience — are evaluated once every three years, and nontenured teachers are assessed annually at Chariho.

The proposal is expected to be revealed during the school committee’s 7 p.m. meeting in rooms 105-107 at the Chariho Career and Technical Center.

The joint committee’s model is meant to comply with the state’s new evaluation rules. Districtdeveloped models must be approved by the Rhode Island Department of Education for the 2011-12 school year, when the state’s new rules take effect.

Chariho is looking to begin phasing in its new model ahead of that deadline, beginning with the upcoming school year — if the school committee approves the joint committee’s proposal.

That is because Chariho’s new evaluation plan is tied to the district’s new “performance based compensation” program, which includes giving individual teachers pay bonuses if they are rated as “highly effective” in their evaluation and then selected by a review committee for the incentive.

The performance-based compensation program and new evaluation model would apply to members of NEA Chariho, the National Education Association local union representing 350 certified employees, including teachers, guidance counselors and nurses.

One of the benefits of the new evaluation model is that it would establish different criteria for each type of certified position, said union President Robert Mayne, a member of the joint committee that developed the plan. For example, a school psychologist would be reviewed using criteria that are different than that for a teacher.

The current model does not differentiate between positions.

Other proposed changes to the district’s evaluation model include incorporating comments from students, parents and colleagues and taking into account student performance.

The district plans to hold off on the latter until the 2011-12 school year so it can get more input from the state, which is currently developing evaluation guidelines, said Mayne and Chariho Superintendent Barry Ricci, also a member of the joint committee.

Student performance data that could be linked to evaluations include common assessments, attendance and graduation rates, and disciplinary outcomes, Ricci said. The joint committee, established in the latest NEA Chariho contract approved in fall 2009, has met eight times since March to create its proposal, according to Ricci, who does not consider the joint committee to be a public body.

“The meetings were conducted with the superintendent to develop a revised instrument I’ve called for in the teacher negotiations,” Ricci said as his reason why the meetings were held in private.

The union has not yet seen the entire proposal, although employees were asked to give input on evaluation criteria. That was primarily because the joint committee wanted to ensure standards used for positions other than teachers were accurate, Mayne said. The district could have waited to use an evaluation template model now being developed by a statewide committee, but instead it opted to come up with its own plan.

“Not knowing what the RIDE [Rhode Island Department of Education] model would look like, I would prefer to develop it locally,” Ricci said.

Scotland: Windfarms only giving half power

SCOTLAND'S wind farms have produced only around half the amount of power they were expected to this year, Scotland on Sunday has learned.
The government blamed the low generation levels on unusually calm weather, but critics said the figures showed the danger of becoming too dependent on renewable energy.

Turbines are expected to operate at an average output of about 30 per cent of their maximum installed capacity.

But the average output over five months this year was 17 per cent – just over half the expected average.

Click here to read more...

Westerly: $6.5M bond goes to voters

A question about continued consolidation of municipal and school support staff will also be on the November ballot.

By EMILY DUPUIS

Sun Staff Writer

WESTERLY — Town councilors agreed Monday to ask voters in November to support a $6.5 million road and infrastructure bond as well as continued consolidation of town and school support staff. Councilors decided to place the two questions on the ballot to help fund costly road, sidewalk, drainage and other infrastructure projects and to measure whether the public wants more mergers of town and school support staff.

“I feel it’s very important to be able to put the town in a position to address some long-neglected projects and also give us the ability to jumpstart our pavement program in town,” said Town Manager Steven Hartford.

“Hopefully the voters will see the value in approving the bond,” he added. “And we will be prepared with detailed costs … of what we intend to do with the bond funds prior to the actual election in November so that we can communicate that as well as we possibly can to the public, to the voters.”

Town officials said they hope to combine the bond funds with money remaining from a prior road bond, federal and state highway funds, the town’s operating budget and anticipated Federal Emergency Management Agency aid.

The highest priority project would be repaving pothole-riddled Canal Street and White Rock Road, streets that were in poor condition even before they were made worse by spring flooding.

Bond funds would be used to redesign and rebuild the east end of Atlantic Avenue between the state beach and Weekapaug Bridge, an area that also floods. Town officials said engineering work has not been completed, but options include raising the road or building a water pumping station.

Other projects include completing the second and third phases of the Misquamicut drainage system; replacing the more than 50-year-old heating, ventilation and air conditioning system at Town Hall; redesigning and rebuilding storm drains on Bowling Lane, a Bradford street that also saw significant flooding in the spring; and constructing a storm drainage system on Bay Street in Watch Hill, a project currently in permitting. Funds would also be used to partner on projects to place utilities underground on Bay and Canal streets and for general resurfacing and rebuilding of town roads and sidewalks.

“These are projects that are worthy of our consideration. It’s not the end of the list by far,” said Councilor Christopher Duhamel, who also chairs the town’s Public Works Committee, which endorsed the proposed bond.

Councilor Caswell Cooke Jr. said the bond could draw voter support because it would cover projects throughout town.

“We do want to do these projects right,” he said. “To do it right costs money, and the only way to do it is to ask the people of Westerly: ‘Do you want to pay for it?’” Voters will also be asked if they support consolidation, under the non-binding referendum question that all councilors except Dick Anthony agreed to place on the ballot. Anthony said the public’s sentiment is already clear. And, he added, new candidates, “who appear to more independent minded” are running for three open seats on the school board.

Proposed by Councilor Jack Felber last week, the ballot question caught school officials off guard. School Committee Chairman James Murano Jr. said the council was “jumping the gun” because consolidation details, including projected cost savings, had not been provided to the board.

Council President Diana Avedesian said she and Hartford met the next day with the schools superintendent and Murano — a discussion she described as “positive” and a “breath of fresh air.”

To improve communication between the two bodies, however, she said they agreed to appoint two councilors and two school board members to participate in consolidation talks. These meetings are not open to the public.

The decision to place the non-binding question on the ballot “does not stop this group from working together in a positive way,” Avedesian added.

And Felber said, “I would hope that our doing this in no way shows any disrespect for the school board.” Discussion has centered on merging school and town human resources operations, a plan already approved by the council and school board, as well as the finance departments, a change not yet voted on.

edupuis@thewesterlysun. com

Firefighters’ new contract held up over COLA flap

PROVIDENCE — The proposed new contract for city firefighters has stalled in the City Council’s Finance Committee over protests that the deal might further deplete the already fragile city pension system and open the door for other unions to seek costly benefits.

Council members say the agreement, negotiated by Mayor David N. Cicilline’s administration earlier this year after a nine-year stalemate, would formalize a controversial benefit that makes firefighter and police pensions more lucrative than most: the 3-percent compounding cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA.

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EDC, company predictions disagree on economic impact of RI wind farm

An analyst hired by the state Economic Development Corporation estimates that the direct economic benefits for Rhode Island of a small offshore wind farm would be $92 million to $107 million, depending on how the number is calculated.

In filings submitted to the state Public Utilities Commission on Tuesday, Seth G. Parker, vice president of the Boston-based consulting firm Levitan & Associates, said that the benefits of Deepwater Wind’s proposed eight-turbine project would be centered on the Quonset Business Park, where the project would be staged, and Block Island, which would receive cheaper energy from the wind farm.

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RISC
P.O. Box 567, Charlestown, RI 02813/ Phone: 401-213-6316 / Fax: 401-213-6307 Email: info@risc-ri.orgWeb: www.statewidecoalition.com

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