NEW: General Assembly ‘Violates’ Open Meetings Law
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
A new report says that the General Assembly breaks the state law on open meetings the most in the final weeks of its session.
Passed three decades ago, the state Open Meetings Act sets rules on how government bodies issue notices of public meetings. Violations can occur when there is insufficient notice for a meeting or agendas are too vague. The General Assembly is actually not bound to follow the law, but it’s been under pressure to do so over the past decade, after the Secretary of State started issuing an annual report grading its voluntary compliance.
Overall, the Rhode Island House and Senate have done a better job of complying with the Open Meetings Act but in the final crucial weeks of the session, violations remain high, according to the report, which was issued by Common Cause Rhode Island this morning.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTImpact on major bills
“When the most important decisions of the session are being made, the legislative process is its least accessible,” said John Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island. “A decade after the groundbreaking report ‘Access Denied’ shed light on the closed nature of the General Assembly, some progress has been made, but the job is not yet done and this report shows that the end of the legislative session is when sunshine matters most.”
In the last four years, 83 percent of the Open Meeting violations came in the last two weeks of the legislative session, according to Common Cause. In 2010, 28 of the 31 violations were in the last eight days of the session. Two violations involved the new law on state-appointed receivers for financially distressed cities and towns and legislation on fireworks—passed just before the July 4 holiday.
Click here to read the full report.
If you valued this article, please LIKE GoLocalProv.com on Facebook by clicking HERE.
Related Articles
- 2010 General Assembly session shows RI is open for business
- General Assembly Takes on Chafee’s Budget
- Taxpayer Group Pushes General Assembly to Put Votes Online
- Back from the Break: What’s Ahead for General Assembly
- The Hottest General Assembly Races
- ELECTION RESULTS: GOP Makes Modest Gains in General Assembly
- General Assembly’s Compliance with Open Meetings Law Improves
- The Hottest General Assembly Races
- Game On: Record GOP Run for General Assembly
- General Assembly: Big Issues Loom in Last Week
- The Scoop on RI Politics - State GOP Plan for Changing General Assembly
- General Assembly Convenes Today
- Incumbents Fall in General Assembly
- The Scoop on RI Politics: Avedisian Says GOP Will Gain Seats in General Assembly
- General Assembly Horse Trading: ‘Woodmansee’ Bill for Gay Marriage
- NEW: General Assembly to Honor PawSox Legend Mondor
- The Scoop on RI Politics: Unions Have a ‘Stranglehold’ on General Assembly
- General Assembly Tackles Hot Button Issues
- Providence Budget: Will the General Assembly Come Through?
- UPDATED: Chafee, General Assembly Leaders Weigh in on Central Falls
- General Assembly Tackles Teacher Firings
- RI General Assembly: Who Are the New Power Brokers?
- Unions Contribute $600,000 to General Assembly Races
