December 6, 2010

On Rhode Island's watchdog group Operation Clean Government (OCG) has named a new President and five new board members. Beverly Clay of West Greenwich, OCG spokesperson, announced that the new President is Margaret Kane. She replaces Marie Sorman who remains on the board. A realtor in Bristol, Kane is best known for her 34 years with the American Lung Association of Rhode Island, the last 16 as Executive Director. Kane led the successful legislative effort to ban smoking in all public places, worksites, restaurants and bars.

Commenting on her new appointment, Kane said, "OCG has a great legislative agenda for 2011 and I can hardly wait to get started on the challenge."

Named to OCG's board for the first time were: Francis L. Lennon of Providence; Matt Leonard of North Kingstown; Peter Fogarty of Smithfield; and Sandy Riojas of Providence. Also named was Robert Benson of Saunderstown, previously a board member who resigned a year ago to deal with family issues. Lennon and Leonard also serve on OCG's Executive Committee with Kane, Jeff Techentin of North Kingstown, Robert Haiken of Warwick and Beverly Clay of West Greenwich.

Frank Lennon is a West Point graduate who served two combat missions in Vietnam, one as a Green Beret. He later was a Reuters correspondent in the Middle East and an analyst for terrorism on MSNBC. He organized the Rhode Island Aviation Hall of Fame and is currently promoting a $12 million project to bring the retired aircraft carrier USS Kennedy to Rhode Island as an historical exhibit.

Matt Leonard is a Business Assessment Engineer, with expertise in Risk Management and Disaster Recovery, who was sent to New York by his employer, Iron Mountain, after 9/11 to help major corporations recover data after the terror attack. He was named Employee of the Year by the 11,000 member organization for his work recovering data from hurricanes, earthquakes and tornadoes. He now provides risk management consulting services to local companies and serves on the North Kingstown Audit Committee. Matt currently works for a Rhode Island 4th generation food distribution company.

Peter Fogarty is a forensic accounting and fraud examiner for the national forensic accounting firm HSNO where he serves as a managing partner. He specializes in evaluation of damage claims and frauds and court testimony. He currently is active on Smithfield zoning and planning committees.

Sandy Riojas is Mexican-American, born and raised in Texas. After earning degrees in education and language arts, she taught in Texas, California and Oklahoma. Since arriving in Rhode Island she has become active in local issues affecting women and urban populations. She currently teaches in Providence and serves on a half dozen local boards and political action committees including the State Police Citizens Advisory Board.

Robert 'Al' Benson returns to the OCG board after a year's absence. A retired electrical engineer, he now chairs OCG's legislative committee. He has testified on a variety of ethics issues and supported initiatives to prevent town officials who are also union members from negotiating contracts with their own unions.

Operation Clean Government is a non-partisan group of citizens dedicated to providing responsible and responsive state government at the highest ethical levels. Board meetings are open to the public, and are held on the first Thursday of each month. Full information on time and location of meetings as well as on-going programs and issues are available at its web site OCGRI.org.

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