ACLU calling for revisions to Open Meetings Act

PROVIDENCE – The American Civil Liberties Union is calling for “extensive amendments” to the Open Meetings Act, saying that it should be strengthened to protect the public’s right to know.
The ACLU, which released its report, “Hidden Agendas,” on Monday, said it reviewed agendas for every public meeting held during the week of Oct. 5, and found that many of them failed to clearly specify in the agendas items to be discussed, contrary to Open Meetings Act requirements. The ACLU also said that the statute’s 48-hour notice requirement was “undermined by public bodies’ use of weekends to comply with that time frame, and served to discourage individuals, and particularly individuals in need of accommodations, from attending meetings.”
“The importance of providing adequate advance notice to the public about a meeting, and the topics that will be covered, is too obvious to need to explain. In many instances, however, public bodies did what they could to minimize the impact of advance notice,” the report stated.

The ACLU said agendas often listed “old business” or “reports” on agendas with no additional explanation. It used the example of an agenda for a Burrillville Planning Board meeting, which included an item called “Planning Board discussion,” but no detail. Meeting minutes revealed that the discussion featured questions about the controversial proposed power plant in town, the ACLU said. In another example, the Hopkins Hill Fire District Executive Board posted an agenda that said there was no new business, but minutes showed several votes were taken, including one to authorize spending of $25,000.
The ACLU said the Open Meetings Act has not been “comprehensively reviewed” in nearly two decades. It is recommending that the public be given more than 48 hours public notice about meetings, and that weekends and holidays should be excluded from the calculation. It also said that meeting minutes and recordings should be posted on the Secretary of State’s website, and that the inclusion of “old business,” “new business” and “reports” without any explanation should be prohibited. In addition, the ACLU said every public body should be required to designate a person who is responsible for complying with the agenda notice provisions of the Open Meetings Act.

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