29 November 2019
Chairman Ross E. Cheit
State of Rhode Island Ethics Commission
40 Fountain Street, 8th Floor
Providence, RI 02903
Dear Chairman Cheit:
I hope this message finds you well. With any luck, your Thanksgiving was outstanding. Now we can get back to work before all the Holidays surrounding the Solstice dominate our time.
As I wrote to you a little bit ago, I am going to start the FOIA process to prove that James Lombardi is outside the bounds of our ethics laws. There are several troubling parts to this. Thankfully, some of them are fixable.
It is troubling that current statute does not prevent someone from holding multiple jobs that all conflict with each other. If it is your job to seek state aid via grants or other forms of expenditures for one community, by definition in order to do that job to the best of your abilities, you must deny those services to the other communities where you have that role. How do you choose who you are going to inadequately serve on any given day?? When do you notify the people you “represent” that you have inadequately represented them?? It is hopeful we can fix this with statute.
It is troubling for the person involved. James Lombardi is an honorable and talented man. This is not about him being sneaky or underhanded or “feathering” his own nest. It is about school kids and taxpayers in 3 different communities being told he represents them, since Wyatt is technically supposed to help fund Central Falls, to the best of his abilities. Meanwhile, knowledge he obtains in one of the positions could be used to harm the other 2 communities just by keeping it under his vest. If I do have to file a meaningful ethics complaint against him, I hope no one takes that as an excuse to try and disbar him. That would be tragic.
It is troubling just due to the process. I have to FOIA three different entities. Normally, I sit on those results and never publish them. The only details that leak out rise to the surface when I go to pursue further information.
In this case, people are going to want to see the results on my blog. At least in two cases, where I compare and contrast how Mr. Lombardi uses specific information to enhance one community and hurt another even though he “serves” both, the results will become part of the ethics complaint. Another community, perhaps even in another state, could weaponize that information in order to better compete against the communities Mr. Lombardi represents.
With any luck, no taxpayer in any community will suffer a tax increase as a result of the Lombardi FOIA investigation leading to a loss of revenue in their community. When those people who got harmed get angry, I of course am going to ask them to speak with you since you thought the 3 different position setup was not worthy of review. I am sure they will act like mature adults.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to give me a call. Thanks in advance for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Robert T. Oliveira
315-864-1229
Quahogs United 
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