Projo — Opinion/Stone: R.I. Supreme Court decision shows why CRMC needs reform

An aerial view of Champlin’s Marina on Block Island. The Hummel Report

Nov 1, 2022

By Jonathan Stone, Guest Columnist — Jonathan Stone has served as Save The Bay’s executive director since 2008.

The R.I. Supreme Court’s rejection of the “settlement” between Champlin’s Marinaand the Coastal Resources Management Council should serve as a wake-up call to all Rhode Islanders. The decision makes it clear that the agency’s structure is fundamentally flawed and in need of immediate correction by the governor and General Assembly. Rhode Island’s coastal environment and Rhode Islanders themselves deserve nothing less.

In its denial of the settlement between Champlin’s Marina and CRMC’s Council, the Court found that the settlement failed to address how the expansion would impact the environment and the Council failed to follow the state processes required by CRMC’s own regulations.

According to the court, Council members did not engage in a “traceable decision-making process.” Instead, as reported by The Providence Journal on Oct. 16, two lobbyists — Champlin’s attorney Robert Goldberg and CRMC legal counsel Anthony DeSisto — decided the case should be resolved by alternative means despite the CRMC’s repeated expansion denial, upheld by the Superior Court in 2020. Then, acting with complete disregard for the public process established in their own regulations, Council members approved a modified expansion. The court found the Council did not have the authority to discuss the settlement in executive session, then approve it in open session. Yet that’s exactly what happened.

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