CRMC reform didn't happen this year, but it will eventually
Deborah Ruggiero, president, DR Communications Group
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| Photo by Will Collette |
The council has long
been criticized for both its decisions and its composition as a panel of
political appointees without any marine, coastal, or environmental expertise.
The members continue to serve long after their terms expire and have often
delayed important decisions for lack of a quorum at meetings.
Our commission worked long and hard seriously framing short-term and long-term solutions to make the process and governance of the CRMC work better for our citizens. Today I commend House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi and the legislature for finally advancing a bill that I sponsored and the CRMC Study Commission recommended three years ago. It was a good policy then and it is good policy today.
We recommend that members of the CRMC — a group of
politically appointed individuals — have professional expertise in
environmental and coastal management and that their service be term-limited.
The new law reduces the 10-member council to seven members,
minimizing the quorum issues of the past. The law also requires the council to
consist of a coastal biologist, an engineer, and a member with environmental
expertise. It makes sense since the CRMC has jurisdiction three miles offshore
and 200 feet inland, so decisions concern proposals ranging from offshore wind
to local aquaculture and will impact Rhode Island’s coastline for generations.
CRMC has oversight of 420 miles of Rhode Island coastline.
Its role is twofold and, in some ways, conflicting; among other
responsibilities, CRMC protects private property from coastal erosion, and must
also protect public rights of access from erosion.
I thank the legislators who supported this reform of the
CRMC. I now urge Governor McKee to appoint the seven members prior to the March
26, 2026, deadline set in the bill; otherwise, the current members, as the law
reads, “shall continue to serve until all members are appointed and confirmed.”
One thing I learned from my 14 years in the Rhode Island legislature is that you need patience because policy takes time at the State House. As a policy maker, you are planting seeds so one day someone you may never meet can enjoy the flowers!
Deborah Ruggiero, spent 14 years as a State Representative for District 74 in Jamestown and Middletown and was Chairwoman of the CRMC Study Commission. She is president of DR Communications Group.
