Rhode Island Senate appoints five to CRMC

Five of Gov. Dan McKee’s six nominees for the downsized Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council easily won confirmation from the Rhode Island Senate Tuesday afternoon. The remaining nominee still awaits a date with the full chamber’s calendar.

The coastal regulatory panel has been reduced from 10 members to seven under reforms approved by state lawmakers on the final day of the 2025 legislative session. The slimmer panel was intended to fix the problem of recurring vacancies that force meetings to be canceled due to lack of quorum. The reforms also required all six members to have experience in coastal and environmental management with at least one engineer, one coastal biologist, and one representative of an environmental organization. 

McKee unveils 6 picks for revamped CRMC. Critics are underwhelmed.

In addition, the panel will have one non-appointed member from the Department of Environmental Management.

McKee’s appointments left some environmental advocates underwhelmed. Critics called for eliminating the entire politically-appointed council and reshaping the agency to empower its administrative, expert employees.

The most opposition came during the Senate’s vote to confirm the council’s chairman, Raymond C. Coia, for a term expiring Jan. 31, 2028. There were 29 yes votes from the chamber and eight no votes. Coia’s seat is designated for a member of the public. 

Sen. Sam Bell, a Providence Democrat, urged his colleagues to vote in favor of Coia, who has been chairman for the past six years and a council member for over two decades. 

“Before he took over, there were serious problems,” Bell said. “Primarily too many decisions were harmful to the environment and legitimately sloppy legal compliance with processes. It hasn’t been perfect under his tenure, but the improvement has been quite dramatic.”

Bell said those who are upset when they see news coverage about the courts overturning CRMC decisions should look at the date from when the cases originated to see if it was under Coia’s tenure as chair.

“There’s been concern from environmentalists, that I normally strongly agree with, that political influence over the CRMC has been harmful,” Bell added. “But the reality is I think the influence that we exerted through the advice and consent process over the CRMC has improved it, and one of the reasons why is that Chair Coia actually listened to our concerns.”

Opposed to Coia were Sens. Jonathan Acosta of Central Falls; Dawn Euer of Newport; Meghan Kallman of Pawtucket; Tiara Mack of Providence; Melissa Murray of Woonsocket; Linda Ujifusa of Portsmouth; Bridget Valverde of North Kingstown; and Samual Zurier of Providence, all Democrats.

Coia works as an administrator at the New England Laborers Health and Safety Fund and as chief judge of Cranston Municipal Court. 

The Senate voted unanimously to appoint W. Michael Sullivan for a term expiring Jan. 31, 2029, and Richard Bernardo for a term expiring Jan. 31, 2027. 

Sullivan is a Richmond Republican and state senator and former Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management director who went on to lead the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency in Rhode Island. He fulfills the designated spot for an environmental organization representative. 

Bernardo is a professional engineer at Warwick firm Crossman Engineering and Cranston public works director and fills the seat designated for an engineer.

The Senate voted 37-0 to appoint Carder Starr to fill a seat designated for a member of the public for a term expiring Jan. 31, 2029. He is an entrepreneur who now heads a word game app company. Sen. Victoria Gu, a Westerly Democrat, did not vote.

A 33-4 vote confirmed Warwick real estate attorney Stephen Izzi to a seat for a member of the public with a term expiring Jan. 31, 2027. Voting no were Sens. Euer; Mack; Elaine Morgan, a Hopkinton Republican; and Valverde. Gu abstained from voting.

On May 20, the Senate Committee on Environment and Agriculture recommended all six of McKee’s nominees for advice and consent. But nominee Scott Rabideau, who would fill the designated role as coastal biologist, was not among the nominees up for an appointment on Tuesday’s calendar.

Consideration of Rabideau’s appointment by the full Senate “has not been scheduled yet due to logistics and scheduling issues, but it will be scheduled for a later date,” Senate spokesperson Greg Paré said via email Tuesday.