Rep. Roberts Says Governor is Engaging in Plagiarism

STATE HOUSE — Representative Sherry Roberts (R-District 29 West Greenwich/Coventry)
has expressed her frustration with Governor Gina Raimondo’s State of the State
address held last Tuesday January 16th. Governor Raimondo touted Coventry High
School’s Jobs Guarantee Program with Electric Boat as her own economic development
initiative. However, it was Representative Roberts who envisioned this program, and
then took the necessary steps to convene the stakeholders- seeing the project to
fruition -months before Governor Raimondo endorsed it during an event at the
Coventry High School.

Roberts said, «While I am happy to see progress being made, credit should not be
taken by those not responsible for the program. I first approached Electric Boat to
provide Coventry students with the job skills necessary to fill their upcoming
vacant positions, and Electric Boat loved the idea. From there, I worked with the
Coventry superintendent and high school staff who applied to the Rhode Island
Department of Education to create a pathway.»

«Coventry was then awarded a Prepare RI Grant and received $198,000 to implement a
welding/manufacturing SAMI program, which began in the 2016-2017 school year. Our
hard work was unfairly overlooked by the Governor, simply because it was she that
ultimately approved funding – one of the last steps in the long road traveled to get
this done,» Rep. Roberts stated.

«After this plan was launched, it caught the attention of the Governor who
eventually folded it into her own economic development plan, and she is now unfairly
using it for her own political advancement. While our community knows the members of
our team that put this successful program together, I don’t want other citizens of
this state to be misled about what happened. This isn’t about recognizing me, this
is about unethical behavior. If the governor wants to seek re-election she needs to
begin with being honest and transparent to the citizens of our great state» stated
Rep. Roberts.

Rep. Roberts is calling on Gov. Raimondo to either offer her and her district credit
for creating the economic development initiatives mentioned in Tuesday’s State of
the State address or to provide evidence to the contrary.