Wouldn’t it be nice if leaders took some responsibility for their actions? Instead, they constantly feed us a diet of lame excuses. Here are just a few recent examples.

• Former North Providence Fire Chief Steven Catanzaro—In a stunning WPRI investigative story Tim White interviewed the former police chief.  Mr. Catanzaro had signed a letter sent to state retirement officials, listing years of on-call service as a North Providence firefighter for his friend, Paul Labbadia. Labbadia has since been indicted for falsely claiming his work history in order to secure a pension. In order to deflect his negligence Catanzaro explained his failure to verify the dates listed in the letter as follows:

“I sign many letters every day.”

“I think the problem lies with the state retirement board.”

"I never verified the dates. That wasn’t my job to do that.”

The letter signed by the unrepentant Catanzaro on Labbadia’s behalf stated that he was a member of the Call System in 1979 (Labbadia would have been age 13).

Mr. Catanzaro then went on to blame the town’s  Mayor Charles Lombardi for a political vendetta against him. "What’s he going to blame me for next, cracking the Liberty Bell?” Don’t worry, Mr. Catanzaro. If he did you’d probably blame the plastic surgeon who did Phyllis Diller’s face.

• Lincoln Chafee—During the Democrats' presidential debate, Mr. Chafee explained his vote to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act (its original terms required banks to separate its commercial and investment arms) as his first vote after his father’s death. Then he explained he voted to repeal the act because the overwhelming number of Senators voted to do so. Rather than point-blank explain he didn’t read it, he got testy with the questioner.

He also exhibited the same pique during his deposition for 38 Studios. As a candidate he railed against the $75 million state-backed loan. The record shows he did virtually no monitoring of the loan after his election which, de jure, made him head of the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) until the project  was on the verge of collapse. He explained his non-action to Katherine Gregg of the Providence Journal in a series of excuses: He expected Keith Stokes (who had been an architect of the loan in the prior administration as the EDC executive director) to tell him if there were any problems; he was concerned about not looking like he was a “micro-manager”; and, finally, he didn’t want to be part of the 38 story. He went on to blame Miss Wall Street (Gina Raimondo) and never once owned any shortcomings of his in monitoring his central campaign issue.

• Juan Pichardo, Chairman, Providence Board of Licenses—After being told at a Board meeting by a business owner that she paid $29,000 in bribes, Mr. Pichardo did not report the allegation to law enforcement. When asked to explain his inaction by WJAR’s Parker Gavigan, the Chairman said her testimony was emotional. “You need to seek an attorney. You need to seek advice because there has (sic) also been some questions of mismanagement”. It’s too bad he didn’t follow his own advice.

So, the above is the usual script of excuses embraced by the so-called leaders in this state.

Arlene Violet is an attorney and former RI attorney general.