$91,000 a Year State Employee Doing Speaker Shekarchi’s PR Campaign Work
Friday, February 02, 2024
On Thursday morning at 7:30 AM, news organizations across Rhode Island received an email from Emily Martineau, who by day is the Deputy Director of Communications for Speaker of the House Joe Shekarchi.
Martineau was doing political work for Shekarchi, sending out a political press package announcing the Speaker’s run for reelection.
The press package was complete with a “feel good” photo of Shekarchi walking his dog — in a baby-blue polo shirt.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTGoLocal asked Martineau, who is paid $91,000 for her state job, if it is appropriate for her to do political work for Shekarchi; she said, “I sent the email on my own personal time from home on my personal computer.”
Martineau’s “off-hours” political work for her boss raises questions. The press release touting Shekarchi's run states in part:
“Most importantly, the taxpayers of District 23 and the city of Warwick are my primary concern. I remain committed to always protecting and representing their best interests,” said Joe.
Questions about State House workers doing political work have come up in the past. A GoLocal video in 2012 on election day found many State House workers campaigning for then-Speaker of the House Gordon Fox.
Employees’s Financial Interest
“It's against the law for a public employee to use public resources, including their time, to engage in activity that might financially benefit themselves. In this case, because all legislative employees are employed at will, helping reelect the speaker is clearly in the employee's financial interest,” said John Marion, the executive director of Common Cause of RI. “Proving that the employee used state time is difficult, however.”
Shekarchi Sitting on Millions
According to the most recent quarterly campaign finance report file on Wednesday, Shekarchi is sitting on $2,260,985.50 — more money than all the state general officers combined have in their accounts and more than ten times the amount Governor Dan McKee has on hand.
“As of the most recent reports, Speaker Shekarchi has more than two million dollars in his campaign account. That is more than enough money to hire a professional staff to do campaign work instead of relying on state employees, even if they are just volunteering their time,” added Marion.
Shekarchi did not respond to questions.
