AG Neronha hits Governor McKee on his changes to the rental registry

"There is just no reason to change this registry," said the Attorney General. "And there's no reason to wait until 2025 either."

On Friday Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha and the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) hosted the annual Summit to End Childhood Lead Poisoning, bringing together public health and policy experts to evaluate government responses to lead poisoning and explore its impact in our communities. This event follows a successful year in expanding Rhode Island's lead poisoning prevention policy, as the Attorney General, in collaboration with government and community leaders, helped pass lead safety enforcement bills into law in June 2023. You can watch all the videos here.

During his keynote address Attorney General Neronha had some tough words for Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee. Among the lead-safety bills passed last year was 2023-S 0804aa/2023-H 6239A, which established a statewide rental registry where landlords must register identifying information with RIDOH, to support the state’s public health, housing policy, and consumer protection goals. Landlords who own non-exempt buildings that were built before 1978 would be required to file lead conformance certificates which are already required by law.

In guidance issued on January 11, the Attorney General’s office wrote: “The ‘rental registry’ law, R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-18-58, establishes a statewide rental registry to be established and managed by the Rhode Island Department of Health and mandates that all landlords register their rental units by October 1, 2024. Additionally, landlords who rent properties built before 1978 are required to file lead conformance certificates – which are already required by law – through the registry.”

But in his FY2025 Budget, released after the Attorney General issued his guidance, Governor McKee, according to State Senator Samuel Bell (Democrat, District 5, Providence), “gutted” the landlord registry. “He’s excluding most landlords from it, and he’s removing the requirement of listing an active phone number and an active email address,” wrote Senator Bell on X. “It’s not unreasonable to be able to contact your landlord. It’s just not.” Excluded from the registry under McKee’s interpretation are “[l]andlords who follow the lead law or have their homes built after 1978,” added Senator Bell in a subsequent X.

“We have come so far and we are so close to potentially eliminating this problem,” said Attorney General Neronha at the Summit to End Childhood Lead Poisoning. “We need to take that last step. We need to go from being assured of a lead-free apartment to the knowledge that it's lead-free.”

The Attorney General continued:

“We've got this registry. How many people in this room worked on, cared about, and know that the registry is critically important to not only keep our kids safe but to give parents the confidence that they are safe? How many people know that to be true as a fact? Everybody in this room knows that. We are at an inflection point where the registry, as it is now newly envisioned in the governor's budget, doesn't go as far as we all hoped and thought it would. So what do I mean?

“What it means, among other things, is that if it's a building that was built after 1978 it doesn't need to be in the registry. I understand some of the thinking behind that, perhaps - that's not a lead-painted property - but shouldn't the parents of every child, no matter when the building was built, have confidence that that apartment is safe and that the landlord has registered with the Department of Health because they know there's a standard they need to live by?

“What about the change in the registry that doesn't require people who have the certificate to be identified in the registry? What are we doing? We're on the five-yard line. Maybe we're on the two-yard line. Maybe we're on the goddamn goal line. Maybe we're on the one-yard line. What I care about, and what you care about, and what I always care about, is keeping those lead-poisoned kids safe and making sure no other kids are unsafe.

“How many times do we have the opportunity to take a problem from a hundred percent to near zero? It rarely exists in government, and I've been doing it for a long time. You can only catch so many corrupt politicians. You don't get 'em all right? You can only get so many gun traffickers. You don't get 'em all. But lead paint is a problem that we can solve in its entirety. If we get the ball over the last foot and into the end zone, what does that mean?

“For you, it's to make sure that every legislator from the Speaker of the House and the Senate President, from Woonsocket to Westerly, Barrington, to Burrillville, from Newport to whatever town starts with an N. Every legislator has to know how important this is to children and their safety.

“There is just no reason to change this registry. And there's no reason to wait until 2025 either.

“Every day that we wait is another child who will either be lead-poisoned or a parent who doesn't know where they are or not. Parents deserve better than that and certainly children do.

“So we've got a charge, right? You're hearing a ton of great information today. You're learning from people that I learned from.

“Change doesn't come from people like me. It comes from people like you putting pressure on people like me to get off our asses and do the right thing. And that's what we need to do here. I'm grateful for the work that you've done. Everybody in this room in some way or somehow has saved a child already and there's no greater legacy than that.

“Let's complete the work. Let's get that registry done the way we designed and worked so hard to make happen. Let's get it done before 2025. I asked my people if we could do it - if for whatever reason the funding wasn't there - and we could. I don't know how much it costs, but it won't take very long.

“We build databases at BCI all the time. We keep track of concealed carry permits, for example. We keep track of criminal records. It's not that hard. This could be done. It could be done quickly and easily, and it will save the lives of children.”