Projo Politics Blog

With all the news swirling around the state Department of Transportation these days, its new director, Jerome Williams, is hoping a new Customer Service Office will help the agency’s public image.

Most of the buzz so far has centered on two of his four appointees to the staff: Cynthia Parker and Lori Capaldi, who got new assignments but nothing extra in their DOT paychecks.

The $74,005-a-year Capaldi returned to the agency with the same title she had — chief real estate specialist — before she was loaned to the state Economic Development Corporation, at DOT expense, for the duration of husband James Capaldi’s tenure as DOT director. He retired in December.

Though her salary far outpaces that of her colleagues in the new office, Williams said the job is demanding, involving interaction with engineers, cities and towns, utility companies and the like and “it is where I can use her services.”

Parker is a $57,769-a-year administrative assistant at the DOT and the wife of the agency’s chief engineer, Edmund T. Parker.

They join community liaison officers Brendan Fogarty and Paul Rizzo, who make $53,550 and $52,396.78 respectively.

In an April 9 memo to staff before the DOT was embroiled in the controversy that led to Ed Parker’s paid suspension last week pending the outcome of state and federal investigations of the agency, Williams said the new four-member customer service office would serve as “a link between our customers and RIDOT personnel by getting the public the information they need in a timely manner.”

In the memo and a follow-up interview last week, Williams said the goal is to connect people calling the agency — including city and town officials, legislators, police and fire departments, chambers of commerce, community advocacy groups and the general public — with the right people within the agency.

The new office can be reached at customerservice@dot.ri.gov or by telephone at (401) 222-2450.

--BY KATHERINE GREGG, ELIZABETH GUDRAIS and AMANDA MILKOVITS

Journal State House Bureau

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