Prov Board of Canvassers Forced to Cancel Hearing for Violating Open Meetings Law
Tuesday, November 08, 2016
The battle over the effort to recall Councilman Kevin Jackson took yet another bizarre twist when the City of Providence failed to properly notice the meeting scheduled for 11 a.m today.
By state law, meetings must be scheduled with a minimum of 48 hours public notice, but the Board of Canvassers did not schedule Monday’s 11 a.m. meeting until Saturday after 12 noon.
A blistering letter was sent from Jackson’s attorneys to the Board’s contracted lawyer Bill Dolan — who is a major Elorza campaign donor.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe letter to Dolan read in part:
As you are likely aware, your client, the City of Providence Board of Canvassers, filed an electronic notice of a proposed meeting scheduled for today at 11:00 am. The agenda for said meeting was electronically filed with the Secretary of State on Saturday, November 5, 2016 at 11:28 am. Also, the written notice that your client posted is time stamped November 5, 2016, at 12:02 pm. Furthermore, your client only posted the meeting on the bulletin board outside of their office and not in the clerk’s office as well.
By now, we are sure that you are aware that RIGL §42-46-6 regulates State and Government open meetings. Specifically, this section delineates and controls the required notice for all said meetings. RIGL §42-46-6(b) states in part that:
(b) Public bodies shall give supplemental written public notice of any meeting within a minimum of forty-eight (48) hours before the date.; (emphasis added)
As is stated above, your client failed to provide the requisite written notice for today’s meeting. This is not the first time that we have brought these deficiencies to your clients’ attention yet they continue to persist. We ask that you kindly advise them of the requisite statute and cancel the meeting that was illegally scheduled for today.
As such, your client is yet again in clear violation of the Rhode Island Open Meetings Act. Please confirm with us that your client has canceled said meeting for today, November 7, 2016.
The canceled hearing is just another in the endless legal wrangling between Jackson’s attorneys - Artin Coloian and Daniel Calabro, Dolan, the law office of the city, the attorney for the organizers of the recall effort, and the RI Chapter of the ACLU.
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