| Warwick Tech Administrator Ray McKay |
This morning in Providence, Rhode Island Federal Court, Judge Lisi ruled against Warwick Tech Administrator Raymond McKay, who in his bid to keep his job and run for office, attempted to overturn a city ordinance which requires classified employees such as himself to resign their jobs in order to run.
Just a reminder – that ordinance affects 15% of city employees, not the unionized ones. How about that?
What has freedom of speech, assembly, and petition come to in Rhode Island?
Even Buddy Cianci gets to ride the radio waves with his best and worst for Rhode Island in spite of prior felony convictions. Yet a law-abiding city employee who is not a member of a union cannot run for office without giving up his job.
What is astonishing about this outcome, though, is that instead of using three meetings to overturn this ordinance, the Warwick city council chose to waste, er spend time and taxpayer dollars resisting McKay's interest in running for office.
After all this time and money, Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian wants to raise city residents' property taxes while draining down the city's rainy day funds, too?
Why, Scott, Why? Why, Warwick City Council, why?
As for US Senate candidate hopeful McKay, now he must no decide whether to go on leave, quit his job, or quit his quest for the US Senate seat.
If the city leaders in Rhode Island, specifically Warwick, were more interested in the best interests of their citizens, if they cared about the wealth and well-being of the city and the state, they would not have stalled on overturning that silly, capricious, and arbitrary statute, a legal fight which has ended up costing the city of Warwick more than it's worth.
So what if McKay may not have a chance of winning against three-term incumbent Jack Reed? He deserves a chance to run, as does any other citizen in Rhode Island, and he deserves that chance without having to give up his job to do it. The First President George Washington and his Executive Cabinet did not abandon their farms and livelihood when they served in office. In fact, the first Attorney General had to open his own law practice in New York just to make ends meet, since the federal salary was not enough (those were the days, when men did not seek higher office for higher pay).
With time running out, McKay is weighing his options on what to do next. The federal ruling against McKay is wrong and unfair, and will not be the first time or the last that a federal judge has ignored the spirit as well as the letter of the United States Constitution. Will it be the last ruling from a federal court? At this point, that may be the case, since time is running out for the US Senate hopeful to announce a run.