ecoRI News — CRMC Council Loses Member to Resignation, Reducing Coastal Decision-Making Body to 6

The Coastal Resources Management Council was created in 1971 to manage coastal development along Rhode Island’s 420 miles of shoreline. (Frank Carini/ecoRI News)

Jan 6, 2025

By Rob Smith — PROVIDENCE — The state’s coastal regulating agency is already starting the new year on the wrong foot.

The Coastal Resources Management Council quietly announced last month that longtime council member and Little Compton resident Donald Gomez was resigning. Gomez, who prior to his professional retirement worked as an electric engineer for the Navy in Newport, had been serving in some capacity on CRMC’s executive panel since 2007.

“For me it’s a bad day if I don’t learn something,” Gomez said at CRMC’s Dec. 10 meeting. “I learned a lot in my 17 years here.”

“Don has been a great Council member and friend, and we thank him for his many years of service to the CRMC and State of Rhode Island,” CRMC board chair Raymond Coia said in a statement. “Don always brought analytical thinking and pragmatism to our proceedings. We wish him the best in his retirement from the Council and know we’ll most likely see him in the audience in the future.”

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