AG Sues Fire District over Open Meetings Violation
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Attorney General Patrick Lynch announced today that his office is suing the Albion Fire District for violating Rhode Island's Open Meetings Act (OMA). It is the seventh lawsuit Lynch has brought against a public body as Attorney General in accordance with Rhode Island's open government laws.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Ronald J. Beagan, charges that the Fire District did not post a sufficient agenda for its May 11, 2010 meeting. Under the OMA, all public bodies must include in their agendas "a statement specifying the nature of the business to be discussed." (R.I. Gen. Laws Sec. 42-46-6(b)). However, the May 11, 2010 agenda merely indicated that the Fire District would discuss "Old Business" and "Committee Reports," while the minutes reveal that, under the heading "Old Business," multiple items were discussed, including updates on public record requests, rulings of the Department of Attorney General, the status of a legislative package and the posting of meeting minutes online.
"Without public notice of the nature of the business that will be transacted, citizens do not have the information required to make the decision whether or not to attend a meeting," Lynch said.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe Albion Fire District has received prior warnings from the Department of the Attorney General, once in 2008 and again in 2009 on similar complaints. In light of these warnings, in which the Department called the Fire District's agendas "grossly inadequate," the AG has determined that the May 11, 2010 agenda was "a willful and knowing" violation of the OMA, an infringement that carries a maximum $5,000 civil penalty.
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