By Steve Klamkin WPRO News
Leading candidates for governor responded Friday to a televised report about a former top legislative aide’s ties to a purported mob figure.
A report by Channel 12 WPRI-TV said that a startup marijuana cultivation firm, Organic Bees lost its license earlier this year due to the failure of its principals to disclose ties to organized crime.
According to the report, aired on Thursday, John Conti, a former senior deputy chief of staff to the Speaker of the House, Joseph Shekarchi, had a close relationship including business ties to Raymond “Scarface” Jenkins, described as a known associate of the New England Crime Family.
Conti resigned from his state position hours before the TV station aired its report. The State Police shut down the marijuana business in early 2022. Jenkins and two others were charged in connection with the business.
Incumbent Democratic Governor Dan McKee and Republican challenger Ashley Kalus differed in their approach to the report, and the outcome.
“It doesn’t reflect well … in terms of the fact something like that happened but it reflects well in terms of when the discovery happened that the DBR (Rhode Island state Department of Business Regulation) responded in a way that … protected the integrity of the license structure,” McKee said.
“The ‘know a guy’ system needs to stop,” Kalus said. “Everything needs to be based on what you know, not who you know. And, this is just another example of this insider-y, sort of corrupt version of Rhode Island politics that will stop with me,” she said.
In response to the televised report, Common Cause of Rhode Island issued a call for McKee to reject a list of names submitted by Speaker Shekarchi to a newly created Cannabis Control Commission, the aim of which is to oversee the newly enacted law governing recreational marijuana use and sales in the state. The good government group said “the appointment scheme interferes with the Separation of Powers” spelled out in the state constitution.
McKee would not embrace the Common Cause recommendation.
“We’re planning on following the statue that was passed, and we’ll be putting a commission together that makes sense. Those decisions have not been made yet and we’re going to continue work on it when we get past the election to put this in place before the end of the year,” McKee said.
Kalus said the appointments should be withheld and a new system devised to oversee cannabis operations and sales.
“What we really need is an inspector general,” Kalus said. “An inspector general makes sure there is not fraud, waste and abuse and that there is policy conformity across departments.”
