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McKee names new RI housing secretary. What we know.
US cities with ‘impossibly unaffordable’ housing markets, per report
Researchers found the least affordable housing markets by comparing average incomes with average home prices.
PROVIDENCE – Gov. Dan McKee has named a new housing secretary: Deborah J. Goddard.
Who is she? Goddard, the former managing director for policy and program development at MassHousing, currently leads the Massachusetts-based DJ Goddard Consulting, which has done consulting work for the Rhode Island Department of Housing among other public, quasi-public and nonprofit agencies, according to a press release from the McKee administration.
Prior to this role, Goddard served at the executive vice president for capital projects at the New York City Housing Authority from 2016 to 2019, where she oversaw $3 billion of construction builds and helped advance the agency’s energy and sustainability programs, the press release said.
She is scheduled to start her new $238,597 job on Dec. 2. In the interim, her name has been submitted to the Rhode Island Senate, which is in recess, for advice and consent after the legislature convenes in January.
“Deborah Goddard is a deeply committed and accomplished housing professional whose work has benefitted people from all backgrounds,” said McKee. “Housing affordability and availability in Rhode Island have never been more important than they are right now. I am confident Deborah’s knowledge and experience will guide the department to achieving our housing goals.”
Senate President Dominick Ruggerio said he “look[s] forward to the Senate’s thorough review of Ms. Goddard’s appointment through the advice and consent process.”
House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi said he met with Goddard for the first time a day earlier “and she was very impressive.”
In her own turn, Goddard said her career has been “dedicated to creating and preserving housing opportunities … for the unhoused, for renters and homeowners, alike, with attention to equity.” As such, she said, “I am very aware of the persistent headwinds that we face in this arena, but they are not unique to Rhode Island nor are they new.”
The Rhode Island Department of Housing has been run by an interim chief – former Senate Majority Leader Daniel Connors – since Housing Secretary Stefan Pryor’s last day in July in one of the state’s most critical jobs.
A former Senate majority leader, Connors – who quit a job as a top aide in the Raimondo administration after his arrest for driving under the influence – had most recently been chief of staff in the state Executive Office of Health and Human Services, making $184,000 annually.
On the day of his interim appointment, the governor’s office said: “He is not being considered for the permanent position and will return to his role at EOHHS at the end of this process.”
Pryor is now a partner in Palm Venture Studios, which “works to rescue and build companies that positively impact human and planetary health,” according to his LinkedIn profile..
How did we get here?
Spokesman Andrea Palagi told The Journal at that time that McKee’s office would interview local candidates for the permanent position over the coming weeks, and a national search would only be initiated if a qualified candidate could not be found. As it turned out, there was no national search.
Pryor announced that he was leaving in late June after close to a decade leading Rhode Island’s economic development efforts as its first commerce secretary and, for a year-and-a-half as head of its Department of Housing,
The hunt for his replacement stretched out over several months, amid significant jockeying between the many arms of Rhode Island’s housing community for advantage − and appointment.
The Department of Housing is responsible for managing hundreds of millions of previously dedicated state dollars and the newly approved $120-million housing bond.
But the picture that has emerged in the wake of Pryor’s departure was of an agency beset by employee infighting, leaks about end-runs in the award of contracts, and complaints to the governor’s office about the management styles of both Pryor and Assistant Secretary Hannah Moore, whom Pryor brought into the department with him.
More recently, Rhode Island’s deputy housing secretary, Deborah Flannery, resigned to take a job with the Vermont Housing Finance Agency. Her last day is imminent.
The Department of Housing was unable to pinpoint the amount Goddard and her firm have been paid as a consultant or promised. As for her role, spokeswoman Emily Marshall listed non-specific duties, such as: “drafting regulations for internal review, and co-authoring multiple grant applications, among other responsibilities.”
New East Bay Bike Path bridges are open and ready for bikes
What’s it like to ride over the new East Bay Bike Path bridges? We sent a reporter to try them out.
I’ve long thought bike paths are among Rhode Island’s premier attractions, up there with the beaches, the mansions and the bay.
We like to knock government, but credit where it’s due, the state has done an amazing job building out an incredible pedaling network.
It’s clearly a priority.
At least I thought it was.
But they’ve just dropped the ball on what should have been a beautiful new stretch.
The plan was to finish a mile-long connector from the East Providence end of the Henderson Bridge all the way to the East Bay Bike Path.
There was even $25 million set aside to get it done.
Except WPRI recently reported that it’s now been canceled.
The main fault lies with the Trump administration, which is no friend of bike paths, and moved to kill that $25 million.
But it gets complicated, as government funding always does.
To try to rescue that money, the state DOT reportedly worked with the administration to refunnel it into a road project. Specifically, the $25 million will now be spent helping upgrade the mile-long highway between the Henderson Bridge and North Broadway in East Providence, turning it into a more pleasant boulevard.
That totally sounds worthy.
But it’s insane to throw away the bike path plan.
Especially for a particular reason in this case.
They’d already put a ton of money into starting it.
When state planners designed the new Henderson Bridge between the East Side and East Providence, they included a bike path.
It’s a beauty – well protected from traffic by a barrier, a great asset for safely riding over the Seekonk River.
The plan was to continue it another mile or so along East Providence’s Waterfront Drive, ultimately connecting with the East Bay Bike Path, which runs all the way to Bristol. Which, by the way, is one of the nicest bike paths you’ll find anywhere.
But alas, that connector plan has been canceled.
So the expensive stretch over the Henderson Bridge to East Providence is now a bike path to nowhere. Once the bridge ends, the path on it continues a few hundred yards or so and then, just … ends.
Too bad.
We were so close.
Most of the stories on the issue have been about the complex negotiation to rescue the $25 million by rerouting it to that nearby highway-to-boulevard project. But I don’t want to get lost in the weeds of that bureaucratic process here because it loses sight of the heart of this story.
Which is that an amazing new addition to one of the nation’s best state bike path systems has just been scrapped.
You can knock the Rhode Island government for blowing a lot of things.
The PawSox.
The Washington Bridge.
But they’ve done great with bike paths.
And especially, linking many of them together.
Example: not too many years ago, Providence bikers had to risk dicey traffic on the East Side to get to the more pleasant paths in India Point Park and on the 195 bridge to the East Bay Path.
But the state fixed that by adding an amazing connector that starts behind the Salvation Army building and beautifully winds along the water of the Seekonk River for a mile or so.
That makes a huge difference – and no doubt has avoided some bike-car accidents.
We were close to a comparable stretch on the other side of the river – that’s what the $25 million would have done.
But it’s now apparently dead.
Online commenters aren’t happy about it.
On a Reddit string, “Toadscoper” accused the state of being “complicit” with the feds in rerouting the money from bikes to cars.
And there was this fascinating post from FineLobster 5322, who apparently is a disappointed planner who worked on the project: “Mind you money has already been spent on phase one so rejecting it at this point is wasting money and also against the public interest … but what do I know? I only worked on the project as an engineer … I didn’t get into this to build more highways. I do it … to give back to communities and give them more access to their environment.”
Wow. One can imagine the state planning team is devastated. That’s not a small consideration. Good people go into government to make life better in Rhode Island, and it’s a bad play to take the spirit out of the job by first assigning a great human-scale project and then, after a ton of work, trashing it.
A poster named Homosapiens simply said, “We just accept this?”
Hopefully not.
The first stretch of the path over the Henderson Bridge is done, money already sunk.
What a shame to leave that as a path to nowhere.
It doesn’t have to happen.
Between Governor McKee and our Washington delegation, there’s got to be a way to get this done.
There’s got to be.
mpatinki@providencejournal.com
WARWICK, R.I. (WPRI) — Two people are dead and another person seriously hurt after a crash involving two vehicles on the highway in Warwick Saturday.
Rhode Island State Police said the crash happened around 1:34 p.m. on the ramp from Route 113 West to I-95 South.
According to police, a Hyundai SUV that was driving in the middle lane of the highway started to drift to the right, crossed the first lane, and then crossed onto the on-ramp lane. The car struck the guardrail twice before driving through the grass median.
The Hyundai then struck the driver’s side of a Mercedes SUV that was on the ramp, causing the Mercedes to roll over and come to a rest. The impact sent the Hyundai over the guardrail and down an embankment.
The driver of the Hyundai, a 73-year-old man, and his passenger, a 69-year-old woman, were both pronounced dead at the hospital.
A woman who was in the Mercedes was rushed to Rhode Island Hospital in critical condition.
State police said all lanes of traffic were reopened by 4:30 p.m.
The investigation remains ongoing.
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A federal judge on Friday tossed the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) lawsuit aiming to force Rhode Island to hand over its voter information as part of the Trump administration’s push to acquire voter data from several states.
Rhode Island U.S. District Court Judge Mary McElroy wrote that federal law does not allow the DOJ “to conduct the kind of fishing expedition it seeks here,” siding with Rhode Island election officials. She added that the DOJ did not provide evidence to suggest that Rhode Island violated election law.
McElroy, a Trump appointee, wrote that she sided with the similar decision in Oregon. That decision ruled that the DOJ was not entitled to unredacted voter registration lists.
“Absent from the demand are any factual allegations suggesting that Rhode Island may be violating the list maintenance requirements,” she said in her ruling.
Rhode Island Secretary of State Gregg Amore (D) praised McElroy’s decision. He said in a statement that the Trump administration “seems to have no problem taking actions that are clear Constitutional overreaches, regularly meddling in responsibilities that are the rights of the states.”
“Today’s decision affirms our position: the United States Department of Justice has no legal right to – or need for – the personally-identifiable information in our voter file,” he said. “Voter list maintenance is a responsibility entrusted to the states, and I remain confident in the steps we take here in Rhode Island to keep our list as accurate as possible.”
The Hill reached out to the DOJ for comment.
The DOJ called for the voter lists as it investigated Rhode Island’s compliance with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which allowed Americans to register to vote when they apply for a driver’s license.
The DOJ sued at least 30 states, as well as Washington, D.C., in December demanding their respective voter data. This data includes birth dates, names and partial Social Security numbers.
At least 12 states have given or said they will give the DOJ their voter registration lists, according to a tracker operated by the Brennan Center for Justice.
The department stated after it lost a similar suit against Massachusetts earlier this month that it had “sweeping powers” to access the voter data and that, if states fail to comply, courts have a “limited, albeit vital, role” in directing election officers on behalf of the administration to produce the records. The DOJ cited the Civil Rights Act as being intended to unearth alleged election law violations.
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