Hasbro's Verrecchia defends R.I. EDC's board
2:05 PM Wed, Apr 29, 2009 | Permalink
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Hasbro chairman Alfred J. Verrecchia, who led a review panel that was highly critical of the R.I. Economic Development Corporation, is defending the board that leads the agency. The review panel that studied the state's economic development efforts was not flattering in its appraisal of the EDC, citing a range of shortcomings including the failure to attract out-of-state businesses. The panel's final report recommended that Governor Carcieri ask his appointees on the board to resign "immediately." Rhode Island's unemployment rate is 10.5 percent, the highest in New England. But in an interview Wednesday, the chairman of the R.I.-based toymaking company defended the EDC's eight board members. "I have a great deal of respect for all members of the board. That was not meant at all to disrespect their skills or service," Verrechia said of the report's recommendation. The resignation recommendation, Verrecchia said, was designed to speed the transition to a expanded board, a move that requires legislative approval. In the report, the review panel noted that the new board may include current board members and members of the Economic Policy Council, condemned to dissolution by the 17-page report. "We asked for their resignation," he said, "as a way for being able to reconstitute the board in a timely fashion." EDC board members have criticized the call for their immediate resignation, calling it impractical and a distraction from the panel's other advice. "It's not logical to start from scratch," board member Kimball Hall, a vice president at drug maker Amgen, told The Journal on Monday. 
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If this was a serious effort to improve the Board and reconfigure it for the future, then all the current Board members should have automatically retained their positions for the terms they were appointed to. Otherwise, it just another political move to allow the Governor to pack the Board with his cronies and punish others who were appointed without his blessings.
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