Dear Philly: Apologies from RI. Trust me, we're better than that, writes Journal columnist

Dear Philadelphia:

I hear that a highly-paid Rhode Island state official named David Patten behaved badly in your city recently — making obnoxious comments and demanding gifts while there to vet a contractor for a big development job here.

And his highly-paid boss, who was at his side, did nothing to stop him.

At one point, referring to a pair of sneakers in a shop he was touring, Patten reportedly said, “Are these made in China? I hope not, because I really hate China,” then turned to a nearby Asian American staffer and said, “No offense, hon.”

And a lot more I’ll get to in a sec.

As you know, this case has caused a big kerfuffle in Philly, with people there wondering what the heck’s going on in Rhode Island.

Our state leaders won’t comment, because the affair is now part of a “human resources investigation,” blah, blah, you know that deal.

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So, speaking from our perch here at the state’s biggest newspaper, we want to say, “Yikes,” and that folks here are appalled, too.

As you know, two state execs were sent your way to visit a Philly urban development company called Scout Ltd. that’s planning to rehab Providence’s cool Cranston Street Armory. It looks like a yellow castle and has been mostly vacant for decades. The state has so far paid Scout $650,000 to plan a $55-million remodel, including an indoor soccer field, offices and a business incubator.

But here’s the thing — that $55 mil has yet to be finalized, so one of our two Rhode Island guys, who had a key say in the decision, apparently figured he could lord it over the folks in Philly. And the other one let it happen.

Patten, the one accused of behaving badly, is head of the state’s property management division. He went with James Thorsen, at the time our director of administration.

In our defense, we thought they’d behave well because, aside from that being professionally expected, they both look like really boring insurance actuaries from the 1950s. You know — middle-aged, short gray hair, the kind of ties you’d find on discount at Macy’s and eyeglasses that aren’t exactly from Giorgio Armani.

Plus, we pay them a boatload of ‘scarole, as Providence’s former Mayor Buddy Cianci used to call it. Patten makes $174,490 a year. Thorsen at the time made $175,367. I say “at the time,” because he has since moved on to the U.S. Treasury Department.

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Patten, meanwhile, is on leave. His lawyer says he feels bad about his Philly behavior, adding it happened on account of Patten being stressed.

This all took place last March when Patten and Thorsen journeyed to Philly to talk to Scout’s people about the armory job. Unfortunately, Patten apparently arrived on a smart-aleck, “we have the power, so you’d better kiss the ring” trip.

The Scout folks weren’t used to their reported behavior. Scout lives in a humanistic world, repurposing classic buildings into things like artist colonies. That’s partly why they seem a good fit for our armory.

In fact, Patten and Thorsen visited one of Scout’s prime properties called Bok, a onetime vocational school in South Philly now filled with artists and entrepreneurs. The two were escorted by Lindsey Scannapieco, a Scout managing partner.

Her presence did not lead to good behavior by Patten, our head of property management.

“If I knew your husband wasn’t going to be here,” Patten reportedly said to her, “I would have come last night.”

Good lord.

People sometimes joke about celebrities demanding bowls of M&Ms in their trailers with all the brown ones taken out, but Patten was actually behaving like that.

The night before the Philly meeting, at midnight – midnight – Patten texted Scannapieco the following:

“Please have fresh coffee (with milk and sugar) and the best croissant in Philadelphia ready for me upon arrival. Director Thorsen likes Diet Coke. Have a cold six pack waiting on the table in your conference room.”

Then this: “You have three hours to convince us to give you $55M.”

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We know these details because afterward, Scannapieco, along with her Scout colleague Everett Abitbol, were so undone by their treatment they wrote an email that found its way to our governor.

You may ask why we’re writing about this now if it happened in March. Well, sorry to say, but instead of being instantly outraged, our gov sat on the email until my newspaper and WPRI-TV here fought to make it public.

The email is full of other cringey stuff, like the way Patten demanded gifts as they toured the Scout buildings, including handblown glass, vegan cheese and those sneakers.

State officials are not supposed to lean on contractors for gifts, so Patten tried to downplay his demands.

“I don’t have to declare this, right?” Patten reportedly said to Thorsen in the old wink-wink, nod-nod when he put his hand out. In truth, state officials asking — more like demanding — such gifts is always bogus.

That may be one reason why Rhode Island’s state police are also now looking into the behavior on the trip.

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Patten said a lot of other things so inappropriate that despite the $55 million at stake, Scout director Scannapieco and her colleague Abitbol felt they had to send an email saying they couldn’t picture going forward with the two.

“We are embarrassed, shocked and quite frankly at an impasse for how to work with people who are so blatantly sexist, racist and unprofessional,” Abitbol wrote in his email.

Thorsen just released a statement Wednesday denying he behaved badly, and claiming he was concerned about Patten's behavior.

Well, OK, but since Thorsen outranked Patten, if he was so concerned, one wonders why he didn't tell his colleague to knock it off.

In fact, here's what Scannapieco and Abitbol said in their email: "Thorsen allowed this behavior to continue to happen, even after we pulled him aside to make note that this needed to stop. We are not sure if this was intended to try to force our hand to walk away from the project — but we are disgusted and shocked by these actions."

Just so you in Philly know, this has caused a mess here in Rhode Island, with our governor accused of covering up your email until the attorney general made him release it. Worse, folks around our cool armory building are worried the Patten controversy could delay or even derail the project.

Those are the real-world results when high officials vetting a major contract behave badly.

“We are shocked,” Abitbol said in his email, “at how this reflects on the state of Rhode Island and the lack of competence there.”

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All I can say, Philly, is we like to think we’re way better than that.

Hopefully, once our governor wakes up and at last has something to say about this mess, we’ll show you that we are.

mpatinki@providencejournal.com

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Two RI officials visited Philly. What happened next was 'cringe'