GOP accuses RI redistricting commission of breaking Open Meetings Act
In an Open Meetings Act complaint filed Wednesday with the Rhode Island attorney general, state Republican Party Chairwoman Sue Cienki accuses the state's redistricting commission of failing to tell the public it would be voting on new political maps earlier this month.
"This commission committed at least 36 violations of the Open Meetings Act in five different categories over approximately four months," Cienki wrote in the complaint to Attorney General Peter Neronha. "The commission committed these violations despite warnings about its conduct. No public body has shown such a disregard for the Open Meetings Act in recent memory."
The General Assembly-appointed Special Commission on Reapportionment oversees the state's once-every-10-years redrawing of political boundaries to fit new census counts of the population.
On Jan. 5, the commission voted to have its map-making consultant draw a new set of maps placing some prison inmates at their former addresses instead of the Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston.
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The public meeting agenda did not mention a vote, which the GOP complaint argues it needed to under the Open Meetings Act.
Then, in its final ever meeting on Jan. 12, the commission voted to endorse a newly released set of General Assembly and congressional maps. Those are now before lawmakers for approval.
The agenda for that Jan. 12 meeting did warn of a vote on maps, but Cienki's complaint argues that the public was given no idea which maps would be voted on. The maps that were approved were released to the public minutes before the commission began meeting.
Four GOP state lawmakers on the commission voted against the maps on the grounds that they had been given no time to study them.
On the contentious topic of where prisoners should be counted, Cienki's complaint also accuses the commission of discussing the issue outside of public sessions.
During the Jan. 5 meeting where a vote on prisoners was taken, commissioners referred to a "compromise" and "consensus," although the specific plan they voted on had not been debated publicly before the vote.
"A majority of commission members appears to have discussed the reallocation of prison inmates, either directly or through a conduit, outside of an open meeting in order to arrive a compromise," Cienki wrote in the complaint.
General Assembly leaders dismissed the complaint as a political stunt.
“This complaint is politically motivated and meritless," Larry and Berman and Greg Pare, spokesmen for House Speaker K, Joseph Shekarchi and Senate President Dominick Ruggerio, wrote in a joint statement.
"The commission conducted 18 public hearings, all televised live, and even Rep. Brian Newberry, a Republican commission member, has praised the open and transparent nature of the meetings. The process is not completed — the recommendations of the commission have been forwarded to the House and Senate, which will continue to hold committee hearings where the public can once again provide testimony.”
The GOP complaint also accuses the commission of failing to post minutes for 15 meetings.
And Cienki argues that the commission should have filed meeting notices with the secretary of state.
Common Cause Rhode Island Executive Director John Marion Jr. on Wednesday tweeted a 1999 letter from then-Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse to General Assembly leaders saying he had no power to enforce the Open Meetings Act against the legislature.
But while the General Assembly itself may be exempt from the Open Meetings Act, Republicans say the law that authorized the redistricting commission made it subject to the Open Meetings and Access to Public Records Acts.
panderson@providencejournal.com
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On Twitter: @PatrickAnderso_
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: GOP accuses RI redistricting commission of Open Meetings Act violation
