Posted Mar. 17, 2008
The R.I. Economic Policy Council is merging with the R.I. Economic Development Corporation, under an initiative announced by Gov. Donald L. Carcieri to tighten the focus of the state’s economic-development efforts and reduce spending by about $300,000 a year.
The council’s 28-member board will become an advisory body to the RIEDC. Saul Kaplan, RIEDC’s executive director, will remain a member of the council “and will assume responsibility for providing staff support,” the governor’s office said last week.
The council’s four staff positions, including Kip Bergstrom – the EPC’s executive director since May 1998 – are being eliminated and its headquarters closed. Bergstrom did not respond to PBN’s requests for comment.
“The budget has been eliminated for this program,” Melissa Withers, director of communication for RIEDC told Providence Business News. “The decision has been made to eliminate the current EPC staff positions, which will take effect in early April.
We will be working through the transition over the next few weeks,” Withers continued. “During this time we will evaluate all issues related to the consolidation … including any outstanding lease obligations” for the council’s headquarters, at 17 Gordon Ave. in Providence, where the organization moved last March. The state does not own the building, she said.
The council’s state budget appropriation “has been a little more than $300,000 annually,” Withers added. “These funds will not be requested moving forward and RIEDC will manage the council within its current budget.”
In announcing the merger last week, Carcieri called this “an important time for Rhode Island’s economy. We are at a tipping point and must move forward confidently to create a stronger economy. RIEDC has developed a good plan to accelerate growth and create jobs. It is time for Rhode Island’s public and private sector leadership to rally around a common vision for a brighter economic future and a specific action plan to achieve it.”
“I will ask the council to lead the private sector effort to improve our business and tax climate and to accelerate our positioning as a high-wage knowledge economy,” Carcieri said.
Paul J. Choquette Jr. – chairman and CEO of Gilbane Inc. – will no longer co-chair the policy council with Carcieri, as he has for the past six years, the governor said. Instead, Carcieri himself will assume sole chairman honors, although Choquette will continue to serve on the council board.
In an interview last week, Choquette said that while there were strong arguments both for and against the move, it was ultimately Carcieri’s call as how to get the best results for the state.
“This is the governor’s prerogative as to how he wants to organize to get better results in the area of economic development,” Choquette said. “I have no quarrel with what he has decided to do.”
Kaplan and his staff at the RIEDC “will oversee the consolidation process and will immediately begin work to merge the two organizations,” the governor’s office said.
Kaplan in an interview said the council “will continue to meet quarterly, as it has in the past. The only difference there is we will staff the meetings. It’s very important that we continue the engagement of business leaders … they’ll help set the agenda” for economic development.
He said the merger will help the state to “aggressively move toward a clear and common vision for the economy we are trying to build and create. We need a single, clear strategy with all our efforts focused” on bringing more good-paying jobs to Rhode Island.
“RIEDC is working closely with our public- and private-sector partners to aggressively move toward this vision and to implement our Economic Growth Plan,” Kaplan said in a statement after the governor’s announcement.
The R.I. Economic Policy Council has been a nonprofit corporation deriving its support equally from the private sector and the state. The council includes members from business, labor, higher education and government, including the governor and leaders in the General Assembly.
Its goal has been to provide objective analysis of challenges facing the state’s economy, create new economic development initiatives, and mobilize the public and private resources needed to put those initiatives into practice. •
