Politics & Elections

Townies for Responsible Government supports open government initiatives

Townies for Responsible Government is a small group of concerned East Providence citizens working on making their local government as open and accessible as possible. Organized just under a year ago, the group has already helped bring about several major changes in the way its local government does business. Last month the Board and Commissions Reform and Transparency Ordinance was

Rhode Island News: Townies for Responsible Government supports open government initiatives

February 28, 2018, 9:09 am

By Adam Miner

Townies for Responsible Government is a small group of concerned East Providence citizens working on making their local government as open and accessible as possible. Organized just under a year ago, the group has already helped bring about several major changes in the way its local government does business.

Last month the Board and Commissions Reform and Transparency Ordinance was passed by all but one of the city council members.

From the group’s Facebook page:

“…reforms to boards and commissions to make them more transparent and responsive have been a long time interest to many members and former members of our organization and part of our platform … Today represents a brand new day in East Providence, a major part of our government is out of the shadows and into the light. We are hopeful for continued progress going forward.”

Moving forward, the group will also be voicing its opinions on State level matters pertaining to any rule changes that affect an Open Government environment.

Two pieces of legislation of particular interest to the group are being put forth this week:

H7185 -Allows school committees to add item(s) to their agendas for the purposes of discussion only without having to publish notice of the additional item(s).

H7589 -Requires the attorney general to file, within ninety (90) days of a complaint alleging a violation of the open meetings law, a report detailing the results of the investigation into that complaint.

Townies for Responsible Government is against H7185 and for H7589.