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  ‘HE’LL NEED TO LEARN EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT’

Lynch calls on Carcieri to explain how he’ll pay for both Kass and Robitaille

  ‘I guess the next time it’s raining cats and dogs we’ll know who to call’

PAWTUCKET - Rhode Island Democratic Party Chairman Bill Lynch called upon Gov. Don Carcieri today to explain exactly where he intends to find the money to pay for two high-priced communications directors, at a time when the state is being choked by a nearly half-billion-dollar deficit.

Lynch was referring to Carcieri’s Friday announcement that Kass would be the new spokesperson for the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency, a move originally reported in the media as a transfer from the Governor’s Office payroll, to the EMA. On Saturday the Carcieri administration said Kass was not being transferred; rather, he was being loaned to the EMA to help improve communications efforts. A Carcieri spokesperson said half of Kass’ salary would be covered by federal emergency management grants, a detail that was refuted by an EMA official familiar with the federal grant process.

“The truth is the governor has absolutely no idea how to pay for Mr. Kass and Mr. Robitaille’s salaries,” Lynch said in a release Monday. “Unless he intends on creating another new position in state government then one of these two gentlemen need to be let go because Rhode Islanders can ill-afford another high-priced message maven whose only purpose seems to be inflating the governor’s ego,” Lynch said.

“The governor is wrong to be playing politics with emergency management. I understand he wants to find a way to keep his pals on the state payroll, but even the man who heads up the EMA in Rhode Island admitted Kass knew nothing about emergency management. His brazen disregard for the people who actually pay these obnoxious salaries is appalling and another indication of just how out of touch this governor has become,” Lynch said.

Maj. Gen. Robert Bray, who heads the EMA, was quoted in Saturday’s Providence Journal as saying “…he’ll need to learn what emergency management is.”

“The only emergency management experience the governor’s office could offer to justify this outrageous move was that Kass had once helped organize a pet shelter. That’s embarrassing. I guess the next time it’s raining cats and dogs we’ll know exactly who to call,” Lynch said.

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