Former Cranston City Councilor Aniece Germain: IRS reinstates Haiti nonprofit status, retroactively

Aniece Germain, the former Cranston City Councilor, who resigned this year, has informed RINewsToday that the nonprofit organization she founded, Hope and Change for Haiti, has had its IRS nonprofit status restored – and done so retroactively.

Germain, who said she was asked to resign by fellow Democrat Council member, Council President Marino, and party leadership, Maria Bucci, was also waiting for the results of an investigation request made by the Council to the Rhode Island State Police.

RINewsToday reached out to the State Police and learned that the investigation request was closed, and there are no charges. We informed Germain of this, which she said she had not been told.

When asked what happened that led, specifically to her resignation, at the time it happened, Germain wrote in her own words:

“The president of the [Cranston City] Council and the Chairwoman of the [Cranston Democratic] Party met with me and assumed that I did something wrong. They gave me an ultimatum whether I resign or she will hold public hearings on the matter to humiliate me and my children. This is an inside job to get me out and put their cronies. Cranston Democrats’ leadership plotted to primary me and because they know they can’t beat me in a primary they use the[se] issues to get me out of the way. I could resist and fight and wait for public hearings but my children are too small to go through this. I did not want to put them [to go] through it so I resigned against my will.”

Councilwoman Germain did resign and did not choose to run again for office. Councilwoman Haroian was appointed to fill her spot and ran for the position in the general election, winning it. Haroian won with about 1,000 vote margin. The Cranston City Council maintains its Democratic control with 5 Democrats and 4 Republicans.

This is a developing story: Germain is deciding on what her next role in politics will be, and said she would have a full statement for RINewsToday.

Past stories regarding the Germain issue can be accessed here: