Projo Politics Blog

He’s back.

In April, Gerald Bedrick resigned from his dual roles as a highly paid consultant to the Department of Administration and as the “public” member of the agency’s three-member contract review committee. By then, the onetime insurance man from East Greenwich had become the poster child for a Senate inquiry into the Carcieri administration’s use of a private employment agency — Smart Staffing Service — to fill hundreds of state jobs.

At the point he quit, Bedrick had been on the state’s temporary-employment payroll since October 2005 in a $45.94-an-hour job in which he was said to be “managing the transition” to the state’s new financial-accounting system while also serving on the committee that screens applicants for millions of dollars in state contracts.

In his April 2 resignation letter, Bedrick said he felt he had done a good job, but was “aware that certain members of the General Assembly have alleged that since I am a consultant that does work for the state, there could be a perception in the mind of some members of the public that I might be influenced by my working relationships as a member of the Architectural, Engineering and Consultant Services Selection Committee. While this has never happened … I am mindful that often perception is more important than reality. Therefore, I reluctantly resign.”

But Bedrick quietly started a bona fide $45,931-a year-state job on July 22.

The state’s official personnel records list him as an “administrative secretary” in the governor’s office, in a position vacant since Merrill Drew left in December 2006. But Jeff Neal, Carcieri’s spokesman, said the job title does not match the job to which Bedrick was hired.

Neal said Bedrick was actually hired to serve as an assistant director of community affairs under Deborah Smith, and alongside deputy director Sue Stenhouse, the former Warwick councilwoman who waged a Republican campaign for secretary of state last year.

In this new role, Neal said, “Mr. Bedrick’s primary role will be community outreach. One of his many duties at the Department of Administration was to work with communities to share services in order to lower costs for the state and for local governments. I expect he will continue that effort as one of his duties in this office.” Noting the state is “facing another large budget deficit.” Neal said, “Mr. Bedrick is helping with that process as well.”

He said Bedrick has not been appointed to any other board or commission.

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