JOINT STATEMENT: Legislators Challenged to Take Position on 38 Studios Investigations

JOINT STATEMENT; FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 6, 2015

Good Government Groups Demand 38 Studios Accountability; Ask Lawmakers to Take a Position
Over Two Dozen Lawmakers Already on Record

Providence, RI – The five good government groups who banded together to push for complete and thorough investigations of the 38 Studios debacle (the Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity, WatchdogRI, RI Taxpayers, Operation Clean Government and Occupy Providence) today released the following joint statement regarding the document release from the State’s civil lawsuit:

It is now beyond apparent that the documents released by the courts will not provide Rhode Islanders with a complete accounting of the 38 Studios debacle. Because both sides in this lawsuit were not interested in fully accounting for the disaster, but, rather, were interested in simply winning their case, many leads were not adequately pursued.

What Rhode Island voters need and demand is accountability and the full story of how the scam went down. We want to know how this bad deal managed to sail through every existing check and balance in our government, so that we can implement reforms to prevent future failures.

To get the answers to these questions, two investigatory paths must be pursued. First, the Governor must initiate a truly independent investigation into potential criminal activity and how Rhode Island government’s process failed to protect the taxpayer. Second, legislative Oversight Committee hearings must reconvene with the support of leadership, and with subpoena powers as necessary, in order to determine if any political manipulation or ethical wrongdoing occurred.

The good government groups behind www.Investigate38StudiosNow.org now ask every sitting Rhode Island legislator to take a stand and go on the record in support, or not, of each of these paths.

The two questions being posed to legislators are:

• Do you SUPPORT or NOT SUPPORT publicly open and unfettered legislative Oversight Committee hearings – now – including the granting of all subpoena powers requested by said committees, that will look into potential manipulation of the political and governmental process that led to the 38 Studios affair?
• Do you SUPPORT or NOT SUPPORT a call to the Governor to appoint an outside, independent investigator – now – with subpoena powers to produce to a report on any potential criminal or ethical wrongdoing with regard to the 38 Studios affair?

Lawmakers are requested to send an email from their official state email address to info@Investigate38StudiosNow.org stating whether they “Support” or “Not Support” each of these two questions. About 2 dozen lawmakers have already responded with their positions.

We are not accepting as a positive answer to the Governor’s investigation a state police probe, since the state police would be looking for criminal activity only.

Rhode Islanders will not tolerate any further delay in obtaining a full explanation of this scandal. We will vigorously pursue getting answers from every legislator to our questions, and will post those results on our website. Responses from Representatives can be found here: www.Investigate38StudiosNow.org/Representatives.php and responses from Senators here: www.investigate38studiosnow.org/senators.php.

Media Contacts:
Mike Stenhouse, CEO, RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity
401.429.6115 | info@rifreedom.org

About the Center
The nonpartisan RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity is Rhode Island’s premiere free-enterprise research and advocacy organization. The mission of the 501-C-3 nonprofit organization is to return government to the people by opposing special-interest politics and advancing proven free-market solutions that can transform lives by restoring economic competitiveness, increasing educational opportunities, and protecting individual freedoms.