An NBC 10 I-Team investigation shows that the Board of Licenses in
Providence provides only handwritten copies of minutes to their
meetings, making public access to these minutes a nightmare.
Most
other cities and towns in Rhode Island, make minutes to their public
meetings accessible not only on their own websites, but they are also
filed on the Secretary of State's website.
John Marion, the
executive director of Common Cause of Rhode Island, told the I-Team that
the out-of-date method of recording minutes of meetings of the Board of
Licenses in Providence is embarrassing.
"It's terrible," Marion
said. "We receive more complaints about the Board of Licenses in
Providence than any other city department."
Marion said he recently tried to get a copy of an old Board of Licenses meeting and they could not be found.
Marion
chaired the Open Providence Commission for Transparency and
Accountability. Among the recommendations it one for the city to
modernize it's web reporting procedures, and post minutes of city
council meetings, as well as minutes from other boards and commissions,
like the Board of Licenses, on the Secretary of State's website.
Andrew
Annaldo, the chairman of the Board of Licenses in Providence, told the
I-Team that, "we haven't brought it into the new technology," referring
to the lack of posted meeting minutes online.
Annaldo said, "the IT guys are meeting with some company," in an effort to modernize the city's computer systems.
