Report: City Board of Licenses needs to be overhauled, including who can serve on it

A REPORT COMMISSIONED BY Providence City Council found there is much to improve in the operations of the city's Licensing Board. Members pf the board during a winter meeting included, from left, Juan M. Pichardo, chairman, Luis Peralta, commissioner and Johanna Harris, commissioner. / PBN FILE PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
A REPORT COMMISSIONED BY Providence City Council found there is much to improve in the operations of the city's Licensing Board. Members pf the board during a winter meeting included, from left, Juan M. Pichardo, chairman, Luis Peralta, commissioner and Johanna Harris, commissioner. / PBN FILE PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

PROVIDENCE – The Providence Board of Licenses is not serving the people at an acceptable required standard and significant changes are necessary.
That’s according to former R.I. Attorney General Jeffrey Pine, who was commissioned by the Providence City Council in March to review the embattled city board that’s in charge of processing license applications along with regulating issuances, suspensions and revocations for businesses.
The full report was released Monday, citing a plethora of internal problems, including a general lack of procedural guidelines, poor record keeping, inconsistencies in punishment and a failure to comply with open meeting laws.
“It cannot be stressed enough how important it is that the board function and perform its duties at the highest professional level, following its own rules consistently, removing politics from the equation, creating a public-friendly environment and holding accountable those who violate any rules and regulations or laws,” Pine wrote in his report.
The business community long has complained about the inefficiencies and inconsistencies related to this board, which continues to wrestle with a public relations fallout from 2015, when former R.I. House Speaker Gordon D. Fox pleaded guilty to accepting $52,500 in bribes in exchange for pushing a controversial liquor-license application through the board’s vetting process while serving as vice chairman in 2008.

In his report, Pine provides 11 recommendations he believes – if implemented – would improve how the board operates. And his No. 1 recommendation is designed to curb possible conflicts of interest.
“The chair and other members of the board should not be currently elected officials, as that creates an appearance of interest (and potentially an actual conflict), which detracts from the impartiality and professionalism of the board,” according to the report.
This requirement might have prevented the Fox debacle, who also served as a state representative when he accepted the bribes, but it could also preclude current board chairman, R.I. Sen. Juan Pichardo, D-Providence, from serving on the board.
Pichardo, who took over as chairman earlier this year, released a year-end report for 2015 identifying a number of issues that are also flagged in Pine’s report, including the need for required training for members, new policies and guidelines, and holding some nighttime meetings to accommodate those who must come before the board, but work during the day (all meetings currently begin at 1 p.m.).
The Pine report provides other recommendations, including scheduling improvements, formalized processes and providing a suite of penalties that’s consistent. The latter is a point of much contention among liquor license carriers, who complain there’s little to no predictability in how the board punishes for license infractions.
“Develop and promulgate guidelines for the imposition of penalties, and these should be published; these guidelines should be updated and revised as necessary every two years if in the discretion of the board,” Pine recommends in the report. “There should be contained within these guidelines a clear and decisive path to the revocation of license with due process protections afforded to the licensee through this process.”
Pine suggests the board should also follow “rules of evidence,” which is legal guidelines that govern proof of facts in a legal proceeding. He says that by doing so, hearings would be more professional and efficient, and it would reduce the number cases that are eventually overturned after being appealed to the R.I. Department of Business Regulation.
The 13-page report is expected to be accepted by the full council at its next meeting. It will then be sent to Mayor Jorge O. Elorza for a response. Whether any changes come from the report, however, will be determined in the months to come. A similar effort failed to make much headway in 2012 when City Council conducted a six-month investigation into nightlife licensing.
Regardless, Council President Luis A. Aponte says the report – which cost the City Council $10,000 – helps confirm many concerns he’s been hearing from the business community.
“The Board of Licenses is the place in local government where quality of life and economic vibrancy intersect,” Aponte said. “This report reinforces our message that the Providence business community needs greater predictability and accessibility in the licensing process.”
Pine ended his report emphasizing how important this particular board is to the business community in Providence.
“It is clear that the Board of Licenses is an extremely important decision-making body within city government. The issues that the board addresses on a weekly basis are relevant to the business climate in the city of Providence, as well as the public safety climate,” he wrote. “In cannot be emphasized enough that the success of any city is dependent on the economic vitality of the business districts and the livability of its neighborhoods.”

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