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By Katherine Gregg
Journal State House Bureau
PROVIDENCE - Despite the state's deepening budget hole, General Assembly leaders have been doling out raises to select employees, including the son of a current legislator and the brother of a former legislator.
The most recent beneficiaries include 13 employees in the legislative office -- which audits the spending of other state agencies -- who got raises ranging from 1.8 percent to 8.5 percent on April 12. Employees in other wings of the legislature got even more generous raises.
Some of the increases were attributed to changes in job titles.
On Jan. 18, for example, Senate leaders elevated Patrick Butler from a "constituent liaison'' to "deputy director of constituent services,'' with a $12,236 raise that hiked his pay to $63,872. Kristen Silvia went from a $71,504 a year "legislative coordinator'' to a $93,822 "deputy chief of staff/legislation.'' With his new assignment as chief legal counsel to the Senate president, veteran Senate lawyer Edward Fogarty got a $6,250 raise that boosted his salary to $135,125.
Senate spokesman Greg Pare explains: "Following changes in the Senate leadership earlier this year, the Senate's staff was reorganized and professionalized. Several staff members received additional responsibilities as a result of the transition process, and their salaries were adjusted accordingly."
Others were given the same automatic salary hikes that go to every state employee at certain benchmarks in the state employment: a 5-percent increase after 5 years, 10 percent after 11 years, 15 percent after 15 years, 17 ½ percent after 20 years and 20 percent after 25 years.
Other raises were based solely on performance or a need "to make some salaries consistent with others performing similar responsibilities,'' according to House spokesman Larry Berman. Berman acknowledged that House Speaker William J. Murphy, D-West Warwick, had to sign off on every raise as the chairman of the Joint Committee on Legislative Services.
They include: legislative aide Paul Church who got a 9.5-percent raise last September that hiked his pay to $42,285; Lisa Cloutier, who got a 41-percent raise in February that boosted her pay as a part-time legal counsel to $36,110; legislative aide Kyle Fellela, a 20-percent raise to $27,917; secretary Susan Nolin, a 13-percent raise to $42,283 in January; Victor Parrillo Jr., a 14.8-percent raise to $33,276; part-time lawyer David Spinella whose pay nearly doubled from $14,623 to $27,420; administrative assistant, Alyssa Rae Tillier, a 10-percent raise to $36,101, and part-time lawyer Brian Van Couyghen, a 4.8-percent raise to $38,131 in March.
Fellela is the son of incumbent Rep. Deborah Fellela, D-Johnston, and Church is the brother of a former Rep. Raymond Church.
The information came to light in response to an April 23 Providence Journal information-request sparked by this report in the Sacramento Bee that same day: "Pay hikes granted to more than 120 Assembly employees were rescinded Wednesday amid an uproar that threatened to affect balloting in next month's election.'' With voters in California being asked to approve a series of measures "to help ease the state's fiscal mess,'' California Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, said: "In hindsight, this was really becoming a distraction.''
The Journal asked how many people were receiving paychecks from the Rhode Island legislature, and how many of them had received raises during the 22-month stretch since most other state workers got their last across-the-board raise on June 24, 2007. The answer: 109 employees got salary increases since Jan. 1, 2008.
"To offset this,'' Berman said, "the Assembly has been fiscally prudent by not filling 15 full-time positions that it has been authorized in the budget this year, and it has six fewer full-time equivalent positions on the payroll than last year at this time.''
However, the head of the legislative business office, Marisa White, refused to disclose how many people are on the legislative payroll.
Berman said she won't release the information because she does not believe the law requires her to do so, and prefers to provide the number of "full-time equivalents,'' which by her count totals 312. The tally includes 241 full-time and 71 part-time employees, but does not include any of the "pages, doorkeepers, and seasonal committee clerks and attorneys who are paid on a daily rate or monthly rate.''
According to the state controller's office, there were, in actuality, 560 people receiving paychecks from the legislature in the last pay period, including the 113 lawmakers.
