By Jim Hummel, The Hummel Report
PROVIDENCE A veteran lawmaker is renewing her call for a legislative commission to take a closer look at how the state’s Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council operates and whether the agency needs a reorganization.
“They’re making really important environmental decisions that are going to affect future generations beyond us,” said Rep. Deborah Ruggiero, a Democrat from Jamestown, who filed a bill late last week calling for a 15-member broad-based commission. Its mission would be to examine CRMC over the next year and bring back recommendations to the General Assembly.
Ruggiero filed the bill after two high-profile cases exposed by The Hummel Report, and published in the Providence Journal, over the past several months: one involving a controversial marina expansion on Block Island that was settled by CRMC out of the public view in December with no notice to opponents. The state Supreme Court - at the urging of Attorney Genera