Fraud charges against Raymond E. Gallison Jr., the third Rhode Island state lawmaker to face criminal charges in as many weeks, brought new questions Monday about whether the state is making progress on cleaning up its notorious political culture.

“When you’ve stood here for seven and a half years and you’re back here for the same thing over and over again, it’s a little frustrating," said U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha at a news conference announcing a plea deal with Gallison on fraud charges. "This says something about our political culture here which I think should get our attention.”

Two weeks ago, former Rep. John Carnevale, once vice chairman of the House Finance Committee, was charged with perjury. Last week, ex-Rep. Peter Palumbo was charged with embezzlement. Yesterday, former Rep. Gallison, once chairman of the House Finance Committee, admitted that he stole from a friend, a program to help poor college students and a disabled client.

The voters spoke in November, reinstating the Ethics Commission's oversight over the General Assembly. The issue passed with nearly 80 percent of the vote. Later, House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello adopted a new vetting process for House leadership roles.

But many in the state, like Common Cause Rhode Island executive director John Marion, want more to be done.

Minutes after the Gallison plea was announced, Marion called for the state Ethics Commission and Board of Elections to take "immediate action" and begin auditing all state lawmakers' financial disclosure statements and campaign finance reports respectively.

"It has happened again," Marion wrote in an email.

Aside from the accused, public scrutiny from recent scandals has shined brightest on Mattiello, who named both Gallison and Carnevale to positions on the influential House Finance Committee. In Gallison's case, the appointment came despite a $6,000 settlement with the Ethics Commission over repeatedly failing to disclose his employment with a nonprofit funded through community service grants.

"Elected officials must be held to the highest standard. When they cross the line, they should be investigated and prosecuted," Mattiello said in an email statement about the Gallison plea.

Mattiello's new vetting process for leadership and committee chair appointments involves having staff "do research on any past ethical violations, conduct a Google search to learn of anything that may have been reported that he was not aware of, and [search online criminal court records] for any past criminal activity," wrote Mattiello spokesman Larry Berman.

Berman said that vetting did not turn up any disqualifying information on the most recent appointees. That includes newly appointed House Majority Leader Joseph Shekarchi, D-Warwick; House Labor Chairman Robert Craven, D-North Kingstown; House Municipal Government Chairwoman Kathleen Fogarty, D-South Kingstown; and House Corporations Chairman Robert Jacquard, D-Cranston.

What are the speaker's standards?

"Information learned that would question a person's character to serve in a leadership role," Berman said.

Marion suggested that the speaker should consider writing standards into House rules ensuring that anyone in a leadership position is free from any conflicts of interest. Leadership posts are determined by caucus votes or appointments made by the speaker and don't involve a public process.

"The speaker can’t peer into your law practice and see what you’re doing," Marion said, noting that at minimum Mattiello should rely on records from the Ethics Commission and Board of Elections.

“In hindsight, should Gallison’s prior settlement with the Ethics Commission have disqualified him from being the finance chair? Should [former House Speaker Gordon] Fox’s settlement with the Ethics Commission have disqualified him from becoming speaker?” Marion asked. “Those are the sorts of questions the Democratic caucus and the House and Senate leadership need to think about.”

In a speech at Monday's news conference announcing the Gallison plea, Attorney General Peter Kilmartin, who spent 20 years in the House of Representatives, defended the "vast, vast majority of those working in public service" as "good people that have chosen to serve for all of the right reasons — to improve their communities and the lives of their constituents."

But he lamented how arrests like those over the last three weeks are often seen by a "cynical public" as proof that public service should no longer be viewed as "an honorable calling."

panderson@providencejournal.com / 277-7384 / On Twitter: @PatrickAnderso_

jbogdan@providencejournal.com/ 277-7493/ On Twitter: @JenniferBogdan