Ex-Cranston councilwoman claims she was blackmailed. Now state police may be investigating

CRANSTON – City solicitor Christopher Millea has asked Rhode Island State Police to conduct an independent investigation into the “serious allegations” surrounding the recent resignation of councilwoman Aniece Germain.

“As both the legal counsel to both the City and the Council, I feel that I am duty-bound to request an independent body to review all the allegations that were made, to ensure that no laws were violated,” Millea wrote in a letter to Col. Darnell Weaver on April 22.

Millea cited media reports that have brought attention to allegations by Germain that she was forced to resign by the City Council’s president, fellow Democrat Jessica Marino.

“These reports have placed the Cranston City Council and the City of Cranston under a cloud that warrants an independent investigation by a respected and professional organization like the Rhode Island State Police, so that there will be no conflict of interest,” Millea wrote.

Millea’s call was prompted by an email to the City Council members and other officials from Melissa Jenkins, a registered Democrat and representative of Collective Action Network RI, an activist group. The letter raised questions over the legality of the events Germain said led to her resignation.

Power dynamics, political sabotage and blackmailing

On April 12, Germain, a Democratic councilwoman for Cranston’s second ward, abruptly resigned from the City Council.

“It has become clear that the ongoing power dynamics at play in Cranston politics and recent challenges for our organization Hope and Change for Haiti prevent me from continuing in my role on the Council,” Germain wrote in a statement.

Hope and Change for Haiti is a Cranston-based organization Germain co-founded in 2016 that provides humanitarian aid in Haiti and advocates for immigrants and women in Rhode Island. The organization, Germain explained, “has been dealing with some challenges due to a consequential filing error.”

In subsequent statements to the press, however, Germain painted a darker picture. She accused the Marino, and the chair of Cranston’s Democratic Party, Maria Bucci, of blackmail. Germain told RINewsToday that Marino and Bucci gave her an ultimatum: resign or be subject to public hearings on the status of her organization. The purpose of the hearings, she said, would be to “humiliate me and my children.”

“I lost to power dynamics, political sabotage, and blackmailing, and the ongoing political maneuvering,” Germain said.

She said, she said

Marino disagrees with Germain’s characterization of the events.

“This whole notion of the fact that I wanted to be in this position or wanted to have her removed is absolutely false,” she told the Providence Journal.

In a statement published on Facebook on April 19, Marino characterized Germain’s allegations as “sensational, false, and malicious accusations.”

“I did not and would not ever blackmail someone and those charges are simply slanderous,” Marino wrote.

Marino told the Providence Journal she consulted a legal adviser before speaking with Germain. The details of their meeting – which according to Germain included Bucci – are unclear, but according to Marino’s own Facebook post and comments to the Providence Journal, it was communicated to Germain that she would have to face an investigation if she stayed as a councilwoman.

“Mrs. Germain could have remained on council and presented her case as part of an investigatory hearing pursuant to our city charter on the advice of legal counsel,” Marino wrote her in the Facebook post.

In an interview with the Providence Journal, Marino said, “If [Germain] remained on council – if she remains an elected official – it was my public duty to proceed with counsel, investigatory hearings, relative to the allegations, evidence and admissions of unlawful conduct relative to soliciting and receiving funds under the pretense of being a 501(c)3, when it has in fact been revoked.”

‘A consequential accounting error’

According to the IRS, Hope and Change for Haiti’s tax-exempt status was revoked on May 15, 2022. The organization still describes itself as a 501(c)3 – the IRS’s designation for a nonprofit – on its website.

Germain initially called it a “consequential filing error.” She later told RINewsToday, “It’s the filer who failed to figure out what went wrong with [the] IRS.”

Germain said the nonprofit suspended fundraising activities last year, though in an interview with WPRI she acknowledged the organization has received donations since it lost its tax-exempt status.

Photos of 990 forms provided to RINewsToday, which nonprofits file to the IRS, indicate Hope and Change for Haiti raised less than $50,000 a year between 2016 and 2021. According to the IRS, organizations that raise less than that amount can file an e-postcard to maintain their status.

It is unclear what was the exact filing error committed by Hope and Change for Haiti or whether the organization has taken any steps to recover its tax-exempt status. It is also unclear whether Germain continued to raise funds without disclosing her organization lost its tax-exempt status. Germain did not respond to a query asking her to elaborate on her organization’s tax issues.

What power does the council have to investigate its own?

According to Section 3.17 of Cranston’s municipal code, the City Council has the “power to investigate the official conduct of any department, board, commission, office or agency, or officer or employee of the city.”

“Official conduct,” however, is the key qualifier in that section, said Nicole Renzulli, the council’s minority Republican leader.

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“Our charter has a power to investigate, but it’s limited to matters of our official conduct, and Councilwoman Germaine’s nonprofit – whatever’s going on there, which I don’t know and I’m not going to prop up, I don’t know what’s happening there – [is] not related to her official conduct as a councilwoman,” Renzulli said.

When pressed for details about the legal reasons for proposing an investigation into Germain’s nonprofit activities, Marino said, “I’m not going to get into the details of legal advice from counsel … I’m just not going to get into a back and forth on that.”

Seat filled amid arguments and applause

In 2020 Germain made history as the first Black and Haitian-American woman elected to Cranston’s City Council. Less than two weeks after her resignation, her seat was filled Monday night by Kristen Haroian, chair of the school committee for Cranston’s Ward 2.

Haroian had an enthusiastic posse of supporters, including a former Cranston mayor, who cheered her appointment – though her evening was slightly damped by a testy exchange between Renzulli, who abstained from voting during Haroian’s confirmation, and Marino over Germain’s resignation.

Marino said she is disappointed Germain has made her allegations public but wishes the best for her.

"As a council person she was valued. It's a loss," Marino said.

Germain, for her part, said she is focusing on healing and is not interested in talking about her resignation unless there is an official investigation into it.

“What has occurred hurts me to the core of my being,” she said.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Cranston City Councilor Germain resignation leads to investigation request