A 2017 bill over farm weddings sparks ethics complaint against Shekarchi. What it's about.
Rhode Island Republican Party Chairman Joe Powers Tuesday lodged an ethics complaint against House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi over unsuccessful legislation to allow weddings and other events on farms way back in 2017.
In a complaint to the state Ethics Commission, Powers argues that proposed changes to Rhode Island's "Right to Farm" law – which died in the Senate after passing the House – would have benefited developer Gerald Zarrella, a client of Shekarchi's law practice.
Shekarchi was House majority leader under then-speaker Nicholas Mattiello in 2017 and voted for the change in farm law along with the majority of House Democrats.
The complaint does not argue that Shekarchi played any specific role in advancing the farm wedding bill, or even that Zarrella was behind the legislation, but that Shekarchi's vote for it represented a conflict under the state Code of Ethics.
The complaint is the latest state GOP accusation of a conflict of interest between Shekarchi's day job as a land-use lawyer and his votes as a lawmaker on changes to state zoning law.
More: House Speaker Shekarchi is a land-use lawyer. Is his housing push a conflict?
Background on the complaint
The 2017 farm wedding bill prompted a long House floor debate in the last days of the 2017 legislative session and complaints from Republicans that it would erode local land-use control.
Republican lawmakers have made similar arguments against Shekarchi's 14-bill legislative package to streamline housing development in Rhode Island.
"This legislation was designed to financially benefit a very small group of large farms which were located in municipalities that prohibited farm owners from hosting weddings for a fee," the complaint said. "Furthermore, the legislation would have benefited Shekarchi’s client to a greater extent than others since it could have ended a pending appeal before the R.I. Supreme Court appeal in favor of his client."
Shekarchi in an email called the complaint "totally without merit" and designed to slow or stop reforms to state land-use laws that could result in the construction of more housing.
"It is yet another baseless political attack from the Republicans, who have been opposed to my efforts to provide much-needed housing relief," Shekarchi wrote. "The Republican Party continues to be out of step with Rhode Islanders who are suffering during a severe housing crisis. This is clearly a misguided attempt to distract from the important work being addressed in the final weeks of the legislative session."
Zarrella has been a political donor to both major parties over the years and was Donald Trump's Rhode Island campaign co-chairman in 2016.
He has also sparred with the Town of Exeter over the permissible activities on his 32-acre farm there. He sued neighbors over a pile of chicken excrement left near his property and later over a flock of turkeys that appeared just before guests arrived for a wedding.
In 2017, he had appealed to the state Supreme Court a lower court ruling in favor of Exeter barring him from holding weddings on the farm when the House passed a bill from Rep. Gregory Costantino to expand the state's Right to Farm law to include a wide array of commercial events.
In addition to Zarrella's farm, the bill would have also legalized large events at Carolyn's Sakonnet Vineyards, the Little Compton winery owned by former Alex and Ani CEO Carolyn Rafaelian.
More: From shamans and billions to bankruptcy - Alex and Ani’s wild ride
Shekarchi did not represent Zarrella in the Exeter case, but in 2017 he did represent Zarrella Development before the Warwick Zoning Board, according to the GOP complaint.
"Because Shekarchi and Zarrella are business associates, Shekarchi is prohibited from using his public office to financially benefit Zarrella," a memo in support of the complaint says.
As for why Rhode Island Republicans are filings an ethics complaint against Shekarchi now over a 2017 bill, the GOP memorandum notes that the state Code of Ethics has a six-year statute of limitations that would lapse this summer.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI farm weddings bill from 2017 at the root of ethics complaint against Shekarchi
