Most violations found at Rep. Palumbo beach concessions corrected

Marion pointed to a section of the Rhode Island Code of Ethics that says no "member of the General Assembly shall seek or accept state employment" or "service as an independent contractor or consultant to the state or any state agency" while serving in the Assembly or for a period of one year after leaving.

But Marion said the regulation would not apply to Caprio, who left the General Assembly in 2010, or to Palumbo working as a subcontractor for Caprio.

Marion referenced a 2011 Ethics Commission advisory opinion to state Rep. Jared Nunes, D-Coventry, which said a company partly owned by Nunes could not bid on new state snow plowing contracts but could work for other companies with state contracts.

It appears the state was not in violation when it entertained Palumbo's bid, Marion said, because the ethics rule in question applies to lawmakers.

The state "should be aware of all of the laws and rules of bidding on public contracts, that's part of the job of bidding public contracts," he said. "But I don't see how they could be considered to have violated the code of ethics."

Allison Rogers, director of policy for the Department of Administration, echoed that stance when asked why Palumbo was allowed to bid.

"Compliance with the Rhode Island Code of Ethics is the full responsibility of the individual and/or office holder," she said in an email. Rogers also said the department requires bidders to complete a certification form in which they "certify that they will disclose any conflicts of interest."

"As previous stated, Mr. Palumbo withdrew his bid prior to any award and prior to a determination involving his responsibility as a bidder," she said.

The Providence Journal attempted to reach Palumbo on Friday for comment. Concession stand workers at Scarborough beach said he was working in a back office, but he did not come out when a reporter asked to speak to him.

Dr. Ernest Julian, the state's chief of the office of food protection, told The Journal Friday that inspectors first went to Misquamicut State Beach on July 2 after receiving a customer's complaint of uncooked chicken. Inspectors then decided to inspect the two other concession stands after learning they were under new management.

Over the course of three separate inspections at Misquamicut, inspectors found 32 violations. They found 25 violations during one visit to Scarborough and 16 violations during one visit to Roger Wheeler.

The violations included: meat improperly cooked and dated, a fish fillet thawing on the counter in stagnant water, a hand-washing sink blocked by boxes of vegetable oil, food being stored at improper temperatures, raw eggs and meat being stored on top of ready-to-eat food such as vegetables.

Julian said the most serious violation was the discovery of a refrigerator at Misquamicut State Beach running at 50 degrees, several degrees too warm to safely preserve food. All the food had to be discarded.

The concession stand operators have responded quickly to correcting the food violations, Julian said, including hiring a licensed consultant in food preparation and cleaning for all three beaches until their own employees could become certified in safe food handling.

Neither the number or type of violation found warranted closure of any of the concession stands, he said.

The four outstanding code violations were minor, Julian said, such as a defective refrigerator gasket found at the concession at Wheeler beach and tape over a leaky sink spray nozzle at Misquamicut.

The questions surrounding the state's handling of the bids have drawn calls for stronger safeguards.

"The integrity of the public purchasing system is built on transparency," said Gary Sasse, who headed the Department of Administration under former Gov. Donald L. Carcieri and now leads the Hassenfeld Institute for Public Leadership at Bryant University.

"You want a public purchasing system that is perceived as being fair, not playing favorites," he said. "If Caprio gets the contract and doesn't tell the state that he's subcontracting to the guy with the highest bid, then that should raise a lot of questions in the mind of the public."

With reports from staff writer Jennifer Bogdan

___

(c)2014 The Providence Journal (Providence, R.I.)

Visit The Providence Journal (Providence, R.I.) at www.projo.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services