OPINION

Remembering a rare public official

Posted 10/28/20

To the Editor: Cranston lost a rare public official recently when former Council President John Lanni died. We need more like him. John didn't just talk about honest and efficient city government, he acted upon it. In the middle of the Ticketgate

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OPINION

Remembering a rare public official

Posted

To the Editor:

Cranston lost a rare public official recently when former Council President John Lanni died. We need more like him.

John didn’t just talk about honest and efficient city government, he acted upon it.

In the middle of the Ticketgate scandal, John learned that a police captain, who was disliked by Chief Marco Palumbo, had been on paid administrative leave for two years, costing taxpayers more than $100,000. He immediately put the matter on the upcoming Council agenda. The next day the captain was back at work.

John could be tough and blunt when he felt strongly about an issue, like when he strongly criticized the fire department for failing to hire any women or people or color. And nothing annoyed him more than Mayor Fung hiring outside lawyers costing tens of thousands of dollars. I confess to raising the issue once just to hear him condemn wasteful spending of tax money.

Another time, a well-connected Cranston municipal judge was arrested for domestic violence. John ignored people who said he was a good guy who just made a mistake and demanded he step down for conduct unbecoming a judge.

But he would also change his mind when presented with facts or a solid argument, like he did when he supported a proposal to ban people with concealed weapons permits from carrying guns in schools.

John was a lifetime Democrat, but more importantly he was a fair.

When John was Council President, Councilman Don Botts, a Republican, proposed a resolution to eliminate the master lever, a mechanism that allowed voters to cast ballots for all candidates of one party by flicking one lever. In deep blue Rhode Island, the master lever was a big advantage for Democrats. Nevertheless, John didn’t send Botts’s resolution to die in committee or use the president’s power to defeat it. He put it on the next Council meeting agenda. The resolution was debated and defeated. Several months later, however, Botts proposed the exact same resolution. Again, John didn’t pull parliamentary maneuvers or say the matter had already been discussed, he quickly put it on the agenda, and this time it passed.

Finally, John did not take politics too seriously. While many of us would be upset on election night by Democratic losses, John would shrug and say sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Of course that was easy for him to say. The only time Cranston voters rejected him was in 1976.

Steven Stycos

Cranston

The author is a citywide member of the Cranston City Council.

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