Outside the State Police Barracks, Robert Arruda, Chairman of OCG, on November 10, is questioned by reporters after having filed a complaint with the State Police against Guy Dufault for allegedly forging the signature of Edward O'Brien on campaign finance reports filed in November 2004 for "Citizens for Representative Government." This complaint was based on information in a commentary “Hiding behind Mr. O’Brien” on January 25, 2005, by Edward Achorn, deputy editorial-pages editor of the Providence Journal.

Within days of Guy Dufault’s historic sleazy TV comments on Gov. Don Carcieri’s personal life, (after which Dufault was abandoned by most of his political clients) OCG visited the State Police headquarters in Scituate to place before them documents which had recently been examined by a handwriting expert in Texas. The expert’s opinion was that Dufault had forged the signature of Edward O’Brien to forms related to a Dufault-created front group called “Citizens For Representative Government.” (Front groups are like beach castles . . .they disappear with the morning tide.) This was the group that led opposition to the OCG-supported Question 2 on the 2004 ballot – advocating a Constitutional Convention.

So, we now can wait, watch and wonder: does anybody in state government care if citizens are defrauded of their democratic rights? As Bob Arruda said in his news release: "The RI Board of Elections cannot just pick and choose the complaints that they will pursue based on political motivation. This is a serious matter and citizens in Rhode Island must be assured that elections are not compromised, and if so, that the RI Board of Elections will conduct the due diligence and move swiftly to rectify the impropriety. Ten months is not moving swiftly and OCG warns that these complaints will not just go away by ignoring them." [return]

These two photos illustrate what the expert was asked to study. Is the handwriting shown above signed by Guy Dufault in 1996 the same as the handwriting at right that says: Ed O’brien? [return]

Well there it is! OCG’s web site home page: ocgri.org. Check it out. Not only does it look great, it is highly functional and will simplify research into issues, or on many other local and national web sites. [return]

Her name is Megan Rohrer, 23, a native of Sioux Falls, SD, and a graduate of Augustana College in Sioux Falls. She received a master of divinity at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California. Megan is Director of The Welcome Ministry for the homeless and hungry in the Polk Gultch District of San Francisco, CA. Megan is currently working on publishing her first book: How I Learned to Breathe. In addition to writing, Megan is a musician, artist, orator and promoter and creator of internet activism for non-profit organizations. [return]

The Voter Initiative campaign has crossed the half-way mark in its drive to achieve 20,000 signatures by January. That’s a great sign that people want the right to create laws and are supporting the program. With that good news, the committee wants everyone to know that they are still looking for more people to seek signatures, and that anyone can receiving this e-alert can also go to the OCG web site and sign up on line at ocgri.org! [return]

Marie Sorman, elected to be first Vice Chair, has worked as an advocate for small business growth in Illinois and Rhode Island since 1985. She is currently a consultant to the Central RI Development Corp. Previously, Marie was a projects Coordinator and Interim District Director to Congressman Weygand. She has experience -- paid and unpaid -- in building non-profit organizations, grant writing and special events. She has received citations for her work in economic development from the State of Illinois, City of Elmhurst, State of Rhode Island, Town of Westerly and the Town of West Warwick. Marie has served as 1st Vice Chair of OCG since May of this year.

Charlie Nelson, a Cranston native, graduated from URI in 1962. He enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve in 1963 and retired as Lt. Col. after serving 36 years. He has been a sales representative for more than 40 years for various companies, including Xerox. He has been a member of OCG since its inception in 1993, having previously been a member of Operation Clean Sweep. Charlie and his wife Joan live in Johnston.

Rob Senville is a graduate of Brown University and Cornell Law School. He was a legal services attorney in Pennsylvania for six years. He moved to Rhode Island In 1987 and worked as a protection and advocacy attorney for individuals with disabilities. In that capacity he represented a client with severe disabilities who had been financially exploited by his attorney and by Superior Court Justice Antonio Almeida. As a result of this case of judicial corruption Rob joined OCG in 1994 to work to reform RI government. Rob served on the OCG Board until 2000, and during that time he represented OCG in the Separation of Powers case, the Constitutional Conventional case, the Traffic Court Judge disciplinary records case, and the Ethics Commission sanctions case. Rob is an attorney in private practice in Providence, Rhode Island.

Bob Ziegler graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1953. He was commissioned Ensign in the Navy and served on active duty with Submarine Squadron 10 in New London Ct. After discharge from the Navy, he held a series of engineering, marketing and executive positions with Electric Boat, Raytheon, IHC Holland and Crowley Maritime Corp. In 1987 Bob was named president of Crowley Environmental Services and in 1989 was named Chief Operating Officer of Geraghty & Miller, a publicly traded environmental engineering firm with 1200 employees and offices throughout the US. He initiated a merger between G&M and the Dutch Engineering firm Arcadis and then worked on expanding the presence of the Arcadis Group. Bob was instrumental in acquiring engineering firms in France, Poland, Chile and the US. He retired in 2001. [return]