Man in the middle (continued)

DUFFY SAYS his sensitivity to potential conflicts was honed during his PR career. "An accountant, for example, might be able to handle several banks, [but] we could only have one in that field," he says. "So, obviously, we’ve been very aware of conflicts . . . Actually, if you’re straight with yourself, you know what a conflict is."

Many observers point to the extent of Duffy’s community service as an indication of his core values. Although "you can’t be that high-profile with the governor and not have people come to suspect [something]," says one public relations professional, "I would like to give him the credit for that [service] and think that that is someone who keeps his nose clean."

Asked about the instance in which Duffy & Shanley was representing both the Narragansetts, principally on civil rights issues, and the state Economic Development Corporation, Duffy says, "That was an easy [one] . . . As the tribe got more and more into the gambling thing, it was pointed out to us by the EDC and actually Governor Almond that we may be treading on some potential conflict grounds here. I agreed, and in a decision that made the tribe very unhappy, I resigned the tribe."

Over the years, Duffy & Shanley has worked for several branches of state government. Duffy & Shanley has worked for the EDC, and its predecessor agency, since 1984, although "the amount of work has diminished considerably over the last several years," says Steven Maurano, senior vice president and a partner at D&S. (The firm also does some work for the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority that dates to the Almond administration — "significantly less than in the first year or two of the contract," Maurano says, and it has done some work as a subcontractor for the Narragansett Bay Commission.) He notes that D&S, which previously represented the Convention Center Authority, resigned from that account when Duffy was named chairman "so there would be no perception of conflict."

D&S worked briefly for Lincoln Park in 2003, although it resigned following indictments involving the park because, "We were becoming part of the story, compromising our ability to work effectively," Maurano says. Resigning, he says, removed the potential for conflict with the agency’s work for the EDC.

The Convention Center Authority is located on a third-floor office in an annex at the Westin, the same place as the Providence Warwick Convention and Visitors Bureau. It’s a natural pairing, Duffy says, since the Convention and Visitors Bureau exists to sell conventions. The EDC, as it happens, is housed in the fifth floor of the same annex — a situation, Duffy says, that caused him concern when he was appointed to the Convention Center Authority because of Duffy & Shanley’s work for the agency. The state Ethics Commission told him, he says, that it was not a problem. (Duffy says he uses his office at Duffy & Shanley in part since it would be inappropriate to do his civic and board work at the Convention Center Authority.)

Brian C. Whiting, chief executive officer of the Providence Warwick Convention and Visitors Bureau, says the bureau has received $540,000 in annual marketing funding from the Convention Center Authority since 1997. In the time since Duffy joined the Convention Center Authority, the PWCVB issued a request for proposals for advertising and marketing services — a one-year contract with a value of about $60,000, with an option to renew it for three years — that was subsequently awarded to Duffy & Shanley, Whiting says. Duffy was "not at all" involved in the process to award the competitive contract, Whiting says. Duffy says he stayed so distanced from the process that he did not know the composition of the search committee that considered potential bidders. "I’m not there any more," he says of Duffy & Shanley. "I’m out five years, and they have a right to eat."

Mike Doyle, a founding partner in the RDW Group, seems typical of how many in the local advertising and PR field view Duffy.

"I don’t know of anyone in the ad industry who has helped more people to get started, including me and my wife, than Dave Duffy," Doyle says. "On almost every level, he’s a role model for people who want to work in the advertising-PR industry, or in the PR sector." Asked about the potential for conflicts considering Duffy’s ties to the governor, Doyle says, "Rhode Island is such a small place that it can happen. Duffy & Shanley has always tried to take the high road in those instances, which, I think, has been exemplary from the industry’s perspective." He cites the Narragansett matter as "a bump in the road . . . I don’t think there was anything unethical."