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 www.OCGRI.org.
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