BURRILLVILLE – A resident petitioned members of the Town Council for a change to how documents related to meeting agendas are provided to the public last week, asking officials to consider publishing the entire packet online.
Town officials ultimately rejected the idea, noting the town does not have enough time or staffing to change the process, and that Town Clerk Vicki Martin responds quickly to any document requests.
Matthew White asked to have the discussion at the council’s meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 8.
“It would have to be a system that’s easy to use for everyone involved- especially the Town Clerk or records officer,” said White. “If there’s a packet of materials that’s being already being provided to councilors before a meeting, anything that’s able to be discussed in open session, my proposal’s basically to put that up on the town website when the agenda is initially posted. The reason for it is so people have an easier time following along.”
The resident noted that having the documents readily available would make it easier for residents to follow town business.
“I’ve dropped the ball several times trying to keep tabs on what’s going on and maybe not asking for something that was on an agenda,” White said.
White pointed to the effort to install a synthetic turf field at Burrillville High School – which faced heavy opposition only after contracts for the project were already signed – despite some 40 public meetings that were held in advance.
“It would improve two-way communication,” White said, noting having the documents online may have given those with concerns about the field the context to know they should attend meetings and weigh in. “Sometimes the material itself really provides kind of crucial context to an agenda item.”
But Town Manager Michael Wood noted that Martin quickly provides meeting materials to anyone who asks.
“We’re happy to provide anything we can,” said Wood. “I don’t know of any complaints.”
“If people are interested in these things, it’s not like they’re secret,” Wood added. “All they’ve got to do is ask and we will provide what they need in a timely way.”
Wood said that publishing everything online is not practical.
“It’s available for those who want it,” he said. “For us to open up carte blanche – it’s just too much work right now to do. We don’t have the resources or staff to do it.”
Documents related to all council agendas – except items in executive session – are considered public record in Rhode Island, but the process to obtain materials vary from town to town. In neighboring North Smithfield, documents related to Town Council meetings are published on a system called ClerkBase on the day of the meeting.
White noted that legislation under consideration by the Rhode Island General Assembly would require all cities and towns to upload meeting documents to the Secretary of State”s website.
“I actually disagree with this because I think it’s too much,” he said. “This is something we may end up having to do anyway.”
Town Solicitor William Dimitri noted the bill in various forms has been under consideration for the past two years.
“Neither version has gotten out of committee,” said Dimitri. “I don’t expect them to get out of committee at this point. The way they’re trying to broaden it is overreaching. That’s my opinion.”
Town Council President Don Fox noted that in Burrillville, the instructions for obtaining the board’s materials are noted at the bottom of every agenda. The agendas note “All supporting documents (except for executive session items) are on file in the Town Clerk’s Office, and are available to the public upon request.”
“It really comes down to: Is there really a need for this?” Fox said. “The need right now is not there. We are extremely transparent with what we’re willing to provide to the public when it comes to items on the agenda”
“It’s not as low effort as you think,” Fox added to White, noting when he first heard the suggestion, he wanted to learn more about logistics. “In order to provide this information it has to go up with the agenda item it’s attached to. It’s not one big upload. You wouldn’t be able just to willy nilly slap them up on a site.”
“We’re going to take your commentary under advisory Mr. White,” Fox added, thanking him for the effort. “Anytime we can talk about open government, I think that’s a good discussion to have.”
Sometimes notices of meetings are not posted on the Town website. I have only seen meetings posted here, but not until after the meeting had already happened. There is minimal transparency in this Town Government.
Just to clarify, we publish a listing of meetings in Burrillville with links to the agendas every Monday before they take place. If you are visiting NRI NOW via your weekly newsletter, you may be seeing them later. If town meetings are something you are interested in, I would recommend visiting the website directly at nrinow.news every Monday afternoon.
Additionally, I do not believe the state law requires a listing on the town website – but it does require posting on the Secretary of State’s website 48 hours in advance.
I say that having these documents readily available online to every resident with computer access would be less work for the town clerk than the time involved to talk with each individual requester and then copy the documents.
Seems like it would be easier to post them once online, then provide them individually to anybody that requests them
Neighboring community Smithfield posts all thier Town Council agendas and agenda item information available on thier website, via .pdf link. Not all that difficult, as mostly all documents are primarily electronically produced, vey few are still manually scanned and all .pdf documents can be merged, in order electronically prior to posting. This isn’t a tall lift.
https://www.smithfieldri.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/4324/638962241129054651 see for yourselves.
It’s exactly as low effort as it seems. If the town clerk has the documents on their computer and can provide them at request, literally the only thing they need to do is upload them to the website or a Google Drive.
They just want to make it as difficult as legally possible to see what’s being discussed.