Projo Politics Blog

The state Ethics Commission has yet to weigh in on the legality of Governor Carcieri’s hiring of his niece-in-law, but Carcieri has won a round in his battle with WJAR-Channel 10 over the station's handling of the story, first reported five years ago in The Journal.

On May 28, Carcieri’s communications director John F. Robitaille sent a letter to WJAR President and General Manager Lisa G. Churchville demanding an apology for the way reporter Bill Rappleye "badgered'' the governor about the hiring during a taping the previous week of NBC10 News Conference.

In his letter, Robitaille said the governor made time to tape the show “in the midst of an extremely busy legislative season and while working on solutions to a significant budget deficit. What ensued was nothing more than a carefully orchestrated partisan attack on the governor.’’

Robitaille took issue with the “disrespectful’’ and “sarcastic’’ tone in which Rappleye posed his questions and accused him of lobbing “an unsupported and poorly researched accusation of an ethics violation on the part of the governor.’’

Governor-elect Carcieri’s hiring of Stephanie Accaputo in November 2002 was first reported in the Providence Journal in 2003. At the time, Carcieri spokesman Jeff Neal said Accaputo "very clearly earned" the position, by doing "glowing service" during the 14 months she worked on the Carcieri-for-governor campaign.

At the time, the report barely raised eyebrows, though there was an ethics regulation on the books since 1991 that banned public officials from hiring a select group of relatives "by blood, marriage or adoption," including nieces.

Five years later, however, the state political and financial environment has changed: more than 100 state employees have gotten layoff notices. Others have been told they may be next. Program administrators across state government have directives to cut expenses. In the years since, the ethics commission has also fleshed out the list of relatives who fall under the state’s nepotism ban to include “nieces-in-law.’’

The daughter of one of Mrs. Carcieri’s brothers, Accaputo, 40, currently makes $52,119.90 a year as an "administrative support specialist" in the executive department.

Last week, Carcieri’s State House lawyers asked the Ethics Commission for an opinion on the legality of Accaputo’s hiring. At the same time, they argued strenuously that a "niece-in-law" was not considered "family" under the state’s anti-nepotism law at the time and therefore her hiring was allowed.

In his written June 4 response to Robitaille, Channel 10 ombudsman Paul M. Giacobbe said: “I respectfully suggest that reasonable people might conclude differently, and that a prudent public official with any concern about the appearance of impropriety would, at a minimum, have sought an Ethics Commission advisory opinion.’’ He said there was nothing wrong with a reporter questioning the hiring again, and Carcieri “invited continuing inquiry’’ with his dismissive answer: “As far as I am concerned, everything was fine.’’

That said, Giacobbe acknowledged: “The demeanor of the reporter and the nature and tone of questions regarding the employment of the niece was inappropriate.’’

He acknowledged that the reporter should have reached beyond state Democratic Party chairman Bill Lynch for an opinion on the legality of the hiring, and mentioned that no ethics complaint had been filed in the five-plus years since the story first surfaced.

The letter did not contain the word “apology,’’ but a companion letter to Robitaille from Churchville said: “We share Mr. Giacobbe’s views and will use this opportunity to reiterate the station’s commitment to fair and thorough reporting. ... Mr. Rappleye has been reminded of his responsibilities to the public as an impartial journalist.’’

Robitaille today said he viewed the two letters as "a subtle apology,’’ and “definitely a vindication. They really acknowledged most of the complaints that I had as being valid in terms of the story having been skewed to more of supporting a preconceived position rather than an open and unbiased talk about the issue.’’

“I do feel satisfied. I think the governor is satisfied with the response and we’ve got to move ahead. There’s a lot of important work that’s got to get done here with the budget. We want to focus on the future.’’

-- Katherine Gregg, Journal State House Bureau

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