The Valley Breeze

ARLENE VIOLET - Kando, Stern unfit for judgeships

Recently, two men emerged as leading candidates for top judgeships in Rhode Island. It's surprising that they made it through the process.

Both in experience and demeanor, neither seems a fit choice but for their political connections.

Take Robert Kando, the executive director of the state Board of Elections. Recently, the Moderate Party (whose efforts for recognition I supported) won an important court victory. A federal judge deemed the statute relating to the commencement of the collection of signatures for party recognition to be constitutionally onerous and struck down the starting date. Enter Ken Block, chairman of the Moderate Party. After the court victory he went to the Board of Elections to make sure the paperwork was drafted for signature collection. Mr. Kando reportedly was less than helpful. He also told Mr. Block and later confirmed to the media that unless attorney fees were waived by the successful litigant, the board would probably appeal the decision. Now, in law you are really only supposed to appeal based on merit. This very statement that attorney fees would have to be waived to insure that no appeal (and therefore delay) would be initiated smacked of quasi-bribery and a lack of recognized merit for an appeal. For a wanna-be judge, the threat of appeal on anything other than merit is untoward.

Another candidate for a top judge post is Brian Stern, the governor's chief of staff. He appeared before the Committee on Governmental Oversight during the 2008 session and seemed to blank out about a major contract awarded to Gilbane Construction under his watch. Here are the facts: Gilbane was initially hired to be program manager for the construction of the Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences at URI following the public's vote passing a $50 million bond. In this capacity, the program manager (Gilbane) steps in the shoes of taxpayers to make sure the building is constructed with the best standards, at the price allowed and on budget. For this service, Gilbane was paid a whopping fee. Somehow, without bid, Gilbane then became the contractor on the project. In effect, Gilbane now had oversight of itself, which went out the window. The construction costs bloomed and the top floor to this building is unfinished because there was no more money after running through the bond money.

The travail of how Gilbane got this job is a story in and of itself for another time. The process is pockmarked with partiality, a lack of honest opportunity to bid by others, a lack of transparency, and a waiver of performance and payments bonds, all of which is unheard of in construction. The latter also constituted an unfair competition in bidding since other companies would have had to factor in this cost. To add insult to injury, liability was shifted from Gilbane to taxpayers for any deficit in the construction, and after being tagged in New Jersey for a mold problem in a school construction, Gilbane built into its contract with R.I. that it would not be liable for any environmental problems. Again, this waiver results in unfair competition as well. Other concessions, including a material expansion of the contract without bid, created a process of favorability for Gilbane and against other potential bidders for the work.

Mr. Stern repeatedly had amnesia during his testimony about his role as boss of the division with oversight of this project. He wasn't sure at what time he came into the department with the primary responsibility to monitor this project. When stymied, he passed the buck off to URI officials when he was asked about these problems above or blamed underlings. Something as simple as why there was no contract for the duties that Gilbane was to perform or why there was no compliance with state law re: bidding left him flummoxed.

Yet, this sorry performance won't hinder him, either, from ascendancy to the bench. Although he showed dismal managerial skills and legal analysis, he probably will become the next chief justice of District Court, a job which requires both attributes. Then again, he apparently has the only credential that matters: He's now the governor's chief of staff.

God help the court.

- Violet is an attorney and former state attorney general.

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