Author
A Providence Journal profile dubbed Phil West “the godfather of political reform in Rhode Island.”
- Doug Riggs, 5 Nov. 1995: A-01
The Boston Globe headlined its profile: “In Rhode Island, West is fighting the good fight.”
- Don Aucoin, 29 May 2002: D-1
Governing Magazine profiled him as a “Cleansing Agent.”
“Some say the words ‘reform’ and ‘Rhode Island’ don’t belong in the same sentence.
Phil West is proving them wrong.”
- Alan Greenblatt, July 2004: 20
- Photo by Frank Mullin, Providence Phoenix
Phil West served for eighteen years, 1988-2006, as executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island, the state affiliate of the national, nonpartisan, nonprofit citizens’ lobby that works toward open, honest, accountable government. His first assignment was to prepare an ethics complaint against Rhode Island’s sitting Governor, Edward D. DiPrete. In January 1989, Common Cause Rhode Island filed that complaint, which resulted in Ethics Commission findings of violation and a record fine. Seven years later, DiPrete pled guilty to related criminal charges and served eleven months in prison.
During a statewide credit union scandal that broke in 1991, West helped to organize one of the broadest reform coalitions in Rhode Island history, RIght NOW! He served as vice chairperson and primary lobbyist in a successful RIght NOW! drive that won landmark reforms in ethics and the financing of campaigns, as well as a constitutional amendment that established four-year terms for statewide General Officers. Most of the RIght NOW! coalition’s proposals were researched and drafted by Common Cause.
In 1994, RIght NOW! pushed successfully a pair of constitutional amendments that created a public process for merit selection of all Rhode Island state judges and that modernized Rhode Island’s General Assembly: ending a controversial legislative pension system, providing the first legislative pay raise since 1905, and downsizing the legislature by one quarter. Both constitutional amendments were approved by the General Assembly and by Rhode Island voters, merit selection by a margin of 70% to 30%.
Also in 1994, the General Assembly enacted legislation drafted by Common Cause that required the electronic posting of all bills, committee schedules, floor calendars, journals, and public laws. In addition, the new law made the Rhode Island Constitution and General Laws electronically available to the public for the first time.
In 1996, West helped organize ACCESS/RI, a coalition that advocates for open government. ACCESS is an acronym for All Citizens Committed to Ending Secrecy in our State. ACCESS and its member organizations have tested the availability of public records and have won significant reforms in Rhode Island’s Open Meetings Law and Access to Public Records Law.
In 1994, Common Cause Rhode Island declared that its highest priority was to establish separation of powers in keeping with the model in the United States Constitution and the practice of other states. The central goals were to establish checks and balances by ending legislative control of boards and commissions that carry out laws.
After tenacious resistance, the General Assembly agreed in 2003 to let voters decide the question, and 78.3% of Rhode Island voters approved the 2004 Separation of Powers Amendment. Common Cause Rhode Island then turned its attention to reconstructing more than 70 boards and commissions for compliance with the amendment. At the end of the 2006 legislative session, 65 boards were in compliance.
West hosted dozens of international delegations sent to Rhode Island by the State Department's International Visitor Leadership Program. He was one of three Americans invited to speak at a Russian Conference on creating effective government ethics laws. After retiring from Common Cause, he taught Ethics in Public Administration to graduate students at the University of Rhode Island.
He has been involved in relief efforts in Africa, serving on a team that delivered medicines to victims of civil war in Mozambique and working over many years to end apartheid in South Africa. He has worked to assist Liberians in Rhode Island and traveled in Ghana and Liberia to assist refugees and other victims of Liberia’s civil war.
Prior to his work for Common Cause, West served as pastor of United Methodist Churches and ran a settlement house on the Bowery in New York City. He has been involved in developing affordable housing, day care centers, and other services in urban communities.
During the 1990s, he served as president of Greater Elmwood Neighborhood Services, a non-profit community agency that conducted a $3.2 million national demonstration project with the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control to reduce the damage done by lead paint to children whose families live in old houses.
Since 1965 he has been married to Anne Grant, a writer who won two Emmy Awards in the 1970s. Ordained in 1981, she served as pastor of several United Methodist Churches and executive director of nonprofit agencies serving. They have two grown sons.
West graduated, Phi Beta Kappa, from Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., received his masters degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York City, and has completed graduate research at Cambridge University in England.
Upon his retirement in November 2006, Common Cause established the “Phil West Spirit of Common Cause Rhode Island Fund” at the Rhode Island Foundation, which was subscribed for a quarter of a million dollars, to continue his name and work.
In 2007, he gave the graduate degrees commencement address at Rhode Island College and was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree. In 2015, he was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame. In 2016, GoLocalProv.com named him one of the 50 Greatest Living Rhode Islanders.
- Doug Riggs, 5 Nov. 1995: A-01
The Boston Globe headlined its profile: “In Rhode Island, West is fighting the good fight.”
- Don Aucoin, 29 May 2002: D-1
Governing Magazine profiled him as a “Cleansing Agent.”
“Some say the words ‘reform’ and ‘Rhode Island’ don’t belong in the same sentence.
Phil West is proving them wrong.”
- Alan Greenblatt, July 2004: 20
- Photo by Frank Mullin, Providence Phoenix
Phil West served for eighteen years, 1988-2006, as executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island, the state affiliate of the national, nonpartisan, nonprofit citizens’ lobby that works toward open, honest, accountable government. His first assignment was to prepare an ethics complaint against Rhode Island’s sitting Governor, Edward D. DiPrete. In January 1989, Common Cause Rhode Island filed that complaint, which resulted in Ethics Commission findings of violation and a record fine. Seven years later, DiPrete pled guilty to related criminal charges and served eleven months in prison.
During a statewide credit union scandal that broke in 1991, West helped to organize one of the broadest reform coalitions in Rhode Island history, RIght NOW! He served as vice chairperson and primary lobbyist in a successful RIght NOW! drive that won landmark reforms in ethics and the financing of campaigns, as well as a constitutional amendment that established four-year terms for statewide General Officers. Most of the RIght NOW! coalition’s proposals were researched and drafted by Common Cause.
In 1994, RIght NOW! pushed successfully a pair of constitutional amendments that created a public process for merit selection of all Rhode Island state judges and that modernized Rhode Island’s General Assembly: ending a controversial legislative pension system, providing the first legislative pay raise since 1905, and downsizing the legislature by one quarter. Both constitutional amendments were approved by the General Assembly and by Rhode Island voters, merit selection by a margin of 70% to 30%.
Also in 1994, the General Assembly enacted legislation drafted by Common Cause that required the electronic posting of all bills, committee schedules, floor calendars, journals, and public laws. In addition, the new law made the Rhode Island Constitution and General Laws electronically available to the public for the first time.
In 1996, West helped organize ACCESS/RI, a coalition that advocates for open government. ACCESS is an acronym for All Citizens Committed to Ending Secrecy in our State. ACCESS and its member organizations have tested the availability of public records and have won significant reforms in Rhode Island’s Open Meetings Law and Access to Public Records Law.
In 1994, Common Cause Rhode Island declared that its highest priority was to establish separation of powers in keeping with the model in the United States Constitution and the practice of other states. The central goals were to establish checks and balances by ending legislative control of boards and commissions that carry out laws.
After tenacious resistance, the General Assembly agreed in 2003 to let voters decide the question, and 78.3% of Rhode Island voters approved the 2004 Separation of Powers Amendment. Common Cause Rhode Island then turned its attention to reconstructing more than 70 boards and commissions for compliance with the amendment. At the end of the 2006 legislative session, 65 boards were in compliance.
West hosted dozens of international delegations sent to Rhode Island by the State Department's International Visitor Leadership Program. He was one of three Americans invited to speak at a Russian Conference on creating effective government ethics laws. After retiring from Common Cause, he taught Ethics in Public Administration to graduate students at the University of Rhode Island.
He has been involved in relief efforts in Africa, serving on a team that delivered medicines to victims of civil war in Mozambique and working over many years to end apartheid in South Africa. He has worked to assist Liberians in Rhode Island and traveled in Ghana and Liberia to assist refugees and other victims of Liberia’s civil war.
Prior to his work for Common Cause, West served as pastor of United Methodist Churches and ran a settlement house on the Bowery in New York City. He has been involved in developing affordable housing, day care centers, and other services in urban communities.
During the 1990s, he served as president of Greater Elmwood Neighborhood Services, a non-profit community agency that conducted a $3.2 million national demonstration project with the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control to reduce the damage done by lead paint to children whose families live in old houses.
Since 1965 he has been married to Anne Grant, a writer who won two Emmy Awards in the 1970s. Ordained in 1981, she served as pastor of several United Methodist Churches and executive director of nonprofit agencies serving. They have two grown sons.
West graduated, Phi Beta Kappa, from Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., received his masters degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York City, and has completed graduate research at Cambridge University in England.
Upon his retirement in November 2006, Common Cause established the “Phil West Spirit of Common Cause Rhode Island Fund” at the Rhode Island Foundation, which was subscribed for a quarter of a million dollars, to continue his name and work.
In 2007, he gave the graduate degrees commencement address at Rhode Island College and was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree. In 2015, he was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame. In 2016, GoLocalProv.com named him one of the 50 Greatest Living Rhode Islanders.