Remote meetings pose challenge for municipalities

How do officials carry out the functions of government, with full transparency, when they can’t meet in-person? 

That’s the question cities and towns across Rhode Island are confronting, with the coronavirus crisis making it impossible to hold in-person meetings as budget season approaches. 

Gov. Gina Raimondo signed an executive order March 16 that made changes to the Open Meetings Act and Access to Public Records Act, aiming to make it easier for municipal government to operate remotely. 

According to the executive order as long as city officials provide a live audio or video feed and a way for the public to comment in real-time, essential meetings can be held remotely. There’s also an extension on APRA, or Access to Public Records Act, requests. Usually requests for public records must be answered in 10 days, but Raimondo’s order allows for an additional 20 days, if the delay is related to the COVID-19 crisis. 

“The executive order recognizes that there needs to be some leeway to allow remote meetings to take place, but it’s also critical to ensure that public monitoring and participation is not harmed significantly in coming up with these alternative approaches,” said Steve Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island ACLU.

The ACLU and Common Cause RI, a government transparency organization, sent a letter to the governor last week asking for additional guidance from the executive branch to ensure municipal meetings are transparent. John Marion, executive director for Common Cause RI, said that making documents available online for the public to view and that meetings are stopped if the online connection breaks are key steps to ensure accountability.

“I think RI has less experience with this than other states, many of which already allow for some form of virtual participation in public meetings,” said Marion, who mentioned Rhode Island’s smaller size hasn’t necessitated remote meetings, unlike larger states. “It’s going to be a bigger challenge for Rhode Island than other states, and I anticipate we’ll see growing pains.” 

At her daily coronavirus press conference last Sunday Raimondo agreed that remote public meetings were not ideal.

“I fully recognize we need full transparency and public engagement, and this is a temporary emergency measure,” said Raimondo. “As soon as we’re able to lift it we’ll go back to normal.”

Brett Smiley, director of the Rhode Island department of administration, said at the press conference that they were working with the ACLU and Common Cause RI to incorporate changes into the executive order to allow for fuller transparency.

“How do we ensure that the general public won’t be cut out of the discussion?” said Rob Cote, a Warwick resident and open-government advocate. “Electronically, anybody can be cut off by the click of a mouse… How do you police that? I’d love to see the IT plan to ensure the general public will have time for feedback.”

Cote worried about the implementation of remote meetings and about how APRA requests were taking longer to complete. He said that without the city laying anyone off, there shouldn’t be a time extension on APRA’s.  

Of particular concern for city and town officials are upcoming budget submission and approval deadlines. Most cities and towns hold council or financial town meetings to finalize the budget. Hundreds of residents can show up. Warwick’s budget approval deadline is June 8 and decided by a meeting of the City Council. In Cranston the budget must be approved by May 1 by the City Council, and in Johnston by May 1 by a meeting of the Town Council. All of these deadlines are set by city or town charters, making it legally difficult to change the dates. 

“I think the biggest challenge will be for those cities and towns which by charter call for a financial town meeting or a large budget meeting,” said Marion. “If you have several hundreds of people show up for an event, that can be chaotic if you do it online.”

Johnston Mayor Joseph Polisena said Tuesday morning that his town’s unique situation should prevent any disruptions. Polisena said his administration’s procedure has always been to wait until the state passes its budget, so that he can plan around any cuts made to the town.

“We will see what the state does,” Polisena said. “We do it in a draft and we’ll start working on it soon, but we don’t pass the budget until the General Assembly passes theirs…We’re starting to look at the budgets, it’s really premature. We’ll have a draft ready by the end of May, beginning of June but with all that’s going on we’re going to see what the state is going to do.”

Polisena said that, should his executive order postponing town meetings until further notice extend into the summer, he would talk with Town Solicitor William Conley to determine the best approach for public hearings.

“I would check with my legal counsel to make sure we do it following all of the open meetings laws,” Polisena said. “We would do it in a manner where the public would be able to view it in that particular time. The public would be able to make comments. I’ve got my fingers, legs and eyes crossed that we’ll be free of all this by then and hold our meetings. That’s what I’m hoping for.”

In Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont signed an executive order last week that allowed city and town councils to approve budgets independent of a larger town financial meeting process. Marion said that an executive order in Rhode Island similar to Connecticut’s would be a “drastic step,” and limit public accountability.