2011/08/30

David Ciciline

David Cicilline

David Cicilline
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Rhode Island's 1st district
Incumbent
Assumed office
January 3, 2011
Preceded by Patrick Kennedy
36th Mayor of Providence, Rhode Island
In office
January 6, 2003 – January 3, 2011
Preceded by John J. Lombardi
Succeeded by Angel Taveras
Member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives
from the 4th district
In office
January 1995 – January 2003
Preceded by Linda J. Kushner
Personal details
Born July 15, 1961
Providence, Rhode Island(age 50)
Political party Democratic
Residence Providence, Rhode Island
Alma mater Brown University (AB)
Georgetown University Law Center (J.D.)
Religion Jewish
Website cicilline.com

David Nicola Cicilline (born July 15, 1961) is the U.S. Representative for Rhode Island's 1st congressional district. He is a member of the Democratic Party. He is formerly the Mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, and was the first openly gay mayor of a U.S. state capital.

Early life, education, and career

Cicilline was born July 15, 1961 in Providence to a Jewish mother, Sabra, and Italian American father, John F. "Jack" Cicilline. His father is a prominent attorney in Providence who defended local Mafia figures in the 1970s and 1980s and was an aide to Mayor Joseph A. Doorley.

He was raised in Providence before moving to Narragansett. In high school, he served as president of his graduating class before heading to Brown University, where he established a branch of the College Democrats with his classmate, John F. Kennedy Jr. He took a degree in political science, graduating magna cum laude in 1983. He then went to Georgetown University Law Center where he earned a J.D., remaining in Washington, D.C. for a while to work for the Public Defender Service.

Early political career

Cicilline worked as a lawyer before running for the legislature. He ran for the Rhode Island Senate in 1992 against incumbent senator Rhoda Perry but lost the Democratic primary. Two years later, he was elected to the Rhode Island House of Representatives, representing the 4th district on Providence's East Side. He won the Democratic primary to succeed retiring Rep. Linda J. Kushner with 56% of the vote and was unopposed in the general election. He took office in January 1995 and served a total of four terms in the legislature, during which time he came out as a gay man.

Mayor of Providence

Elections

Cicilline was elected in a landslide in November 2002 with 84% of the vote, following the downfall of controversial mayor Vincent Cianci and the aftermath of Operation Plunder Dome. He succeeded acting mayor John J. Lombardi, who served out Cianci's term and decided not to run in the following election. In 2006, Cicilline won an easy re-election with 83 percent of the vote. Brown University's survey in September 2007 found that 64 percent of state residents approved of the job Cicilline was doing in Providence. By February 2008, that number had dropped to 51 percent. And in September 2008, his popularity fell to 46 percent.

Accomplishments

Providence has experienced a significant drop in crime, attributed by some to community policing. As of 2007, Providence saw its lowest crime rate in 30 years, contrary to national trends. The city has eliminated 14 percent of management positions, dropped to 17th in the state for per-capita tax and received an "A" bond rating from all three major bond-rating agencies.

Affiliations

He was 2008 President of the National Conference of Democratic Mayors. As mayor, Cicilline is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, a bi-partisan group with a stated goal of "making the public safer by getting illegal guns off the streets." The Coalition is co-chaired by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Policies

Cicilline's administration has focused on the residential neighborhoods of Providence, as well as the "Renaissance" areas of downtown and Federal Hill that thrived under Cianci, and has continued the promotion of the city via the tax breaks given to artists and movie productions. A former state legislator, he was able to deal with the animosity with state government that existed under Cianci.

In May 2009, Cicilline gained national headlines after proposing a $150 per semester Head Tax on each of the 25,000 college students attending four universities in the city. The tax was an effort to close $6 to $8 million of a reported $17 million dollar city budget shortfall. The associated press reported that if enacted, it would become the first-in-the-nation tax on students simply for being enrolled and attending college within the city limits.

Cicilline has expressed concern for the Providence metropolitan area's carbon footprint. As mayor, he sought to implement a streetcar/light rail-type system for the city. He also focused efforts to fight poverty. He won passage of a vacant-and-abandoned property penalty, to provide an economic disincentive for banks to hold properties out of the housing market for extended periods of time. He also proposed municipal bonds for the purpose of buying foreclosed properties to expand housing.

Cicilline is a strong proponent of after-school activities as a means of improving opportunities for children. As mayor, Cicilline served as Chair of the Standing Committee for Children, Health and Human Services of the United States Conference of Mayors. He has also been recognized for his efforts to establish youth programming and to strengthen ties among schools, businesses and local government, in order to expand access to after-school programming. Under Cicilline, city officials worked with Rhode Island’s Education Partnership to form PASA, the Providence After School Alliance. Cicilline also serves on the board of the national nonprofit Afterschool Alliance, an organization that works to promote and to support after-school activities for all children.

Between 1980 and 2009, most prostitution was legal in Rhode Island. As mayor, Cicilline was a strong advocate for outlawing it. Cicilline personally testified in Superior Court to stop the opening of "spas" in Providence, and discussed his position in the 2009 documentary Happy Endings?. He lobbied for a prostitution law not only to arrest the women and the "johns", but also to fine landlords that permitted this activity on their premises. On September 2, 2009, Cicilline submitted an ordinance to the City Council to ban indoor prostitution in the city, imposing a $500 fine and a potential 30-day prison sentence on violators. On November 3, 2009, Rhode Island Governor Donald Carcieri signed into law a bill making the buying and selling of sexual services a crime. (See also: Prostitution in Rhode Island)

During the 2008 Democratic primaries, Cicilline supported Hillary Clinton. In August 2008, he attended the Democratic National Convention in Denver. While there, he told an interviewer that he now supported Barack Obama, saying "[t]here is a real sense of hope and optimism about what we're about to do and about a chance in leadership in this country."

ICE controversy with Governor Carcieri

On June 8, 2008, Marco Riz, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala who had been arrested twice the previous year while under a deportation order, was charged in the robbery and rape of a 30-year-old woman. A federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent criticized the Providence Police Department for not checking Riz's immigration status when they arrested him previously. Governor of Rhode Island, Donald Carcieri blamed Cicilline for the Department's failure. Previously, Carcieri had signed an executive order requiring all state officials to work with ICE on arrests or hirings of illegal immigrants. When Carcieri asked the same of local agents, Providence Police Chief Dean Esserman refused. Cicilline responded that it has been the policy of the Police Department to work with ICE and its database for all arrests, that the policy was followed when Riz was arrested, and that ICE failed to act.

On July 8, 2008, Rhode Island Governor Donald Carcieri claimed that Cicilline was not upholding his oath of office by failing to report illegal immigrants, suggesting the U.S. Attorney investigate the mayor. Mayor Cicilline responded by accusing Carcieri of "playing politics", eight days later writing an op-ed in the Providence Journal stating that the city always has and will continue to report all arrests to immigration authorities, and that the focus is therefore inappropriate. Carcieri is term-limited and was prevented from running for a third term in 2010.

Firefighters' union contract arbitration

Since 2003, Cicilline has been engaged in a dispute with the Providence Firefighters labor union (Local 799). In a July 2002 email Cicilline sent to the members of Local 799, he indicated that he hoped to resolve their pending contract dispute with the city within 30 days of taking office. In August, Cicilline said in an interview that promising the resolution of contract negotiations was impossible because of the unpredictability of the other negotiating partner. The city and the union have been in arbitration in every contract year since 2002, with Cicilline appealing one arbitration decision to the Rhode Island Supreme Court. The appeal was rejected.

In 2004, Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards canceled a fundraising appearance in Providence in support of the Local 799. In 2007, Hillary Clinton asked Cicilline, a Clinton supporter, not to attend a Clinton rally because of threats by the union to picket the appearance.

Both the Rhode Island AFL-CIO and the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) have censured Cicilline for his role in the issue.

In 2009, due to the union's picket, the Obama administration canceled Joe Biden's appearance at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Providence in the interests of remaining neutral in the conflict.

Tax office controversy

In June 2008, John M. Cicilline, brother of Mayor Cicilline, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, obstruction of justice and making false statements for his role in the courthouse corruption scheme. Federal prosecutors indicted John Cicilline, disbarred attorney Joseph Bevilacqua Jr. and two assistants in January 2007. According to court documents, the two attorneys spun a complicated scheme to win leniency in a drug trafficking case.

Before reporting to prison, John M. Cicilline gave the city of Providence a $75,000 check for taxes owed by a client, but asked that the check not be cashed and only held as collateral. Two of the mayor’s top aides told the city tax collector Robert Ceprano, not to cash a check sent by the mayor’s brother, a lawyer, on behalf of a delinquent taxpayer because it would bounce. In four instances, the tax collector says, aides pressured him to perform tax favors for the mayor’s friends and/or campaign contributors. The mayor says the taxpayers got relief because they or the city made a tax mistake — not because they are friends or contributors. Amid the controversy the tax collector Robert Ceprano was fired

On May 10, 2009 Robert Ceprano filed a lawsuit against the City of Providence alleging conspiracy, corruption, libel and wrongful termination. The suit accuses John M. Cicilline, the mayor’s imprisoned brother, of attempting to defraud the City of Providence by writing a bad check for $75,000 on behalf of a delinquent taxpayer. Furthermore, it alleges, the mayor and his aides “willfully conspired … to conceal John Cicilline’s illegal activities.” Ceprano also charges that he was fired not for poor job performance, but because he resisted the mayor’s efforts to perform tax favors for political friends and supporters. Lawyers for Ceprano are asking for ten million dollars. The single count complaint against John Cicilline was dismissed by Judge Kristin Rodgers on November 17, 2009.

U.S. House of Representatives

2010 election

On February 13, Cicilline announced his candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives to represent Rhode Island's 1st congressional district which is being vacated by fellow Democrat Patrick J. Kennedy. In the Democratic primary held on September 14, Cicilline defeated three opponents and won the party's nomination. He faced Republican John Loughlin.

Cicilline won the race with 81,098 votes to Loughlin's 71,443 and will represent Rhode Island in the 112th Congress.

Committee assignments

References

External links

Mayor





Retrieved from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Cicilline
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)