R.I. bill seeks to hike fees for public records requests
'What's happening is people go to town hall or the police department and request records,' he said Friday. 'A lot of time is spent digging out records and retrieving them before releasing them, and the person doesn't pick them up. But the biggest reason is these people might come back in two weeks and say 'get me public records,' and they haven't paid the town for the first one.'
Get Rhode Map
A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State.
Enter Email
Sign Up
Azzinaro's proposal is at odds with a multi-year campaign to
Advertisement
'These are the public's records,' said Steven Brown, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island. 'Individuals should no more have to pay to see public records than they should have to pay for admission to attend a town council meeting.'
Azzinaro's bill is receiving attention just before
'This bill puts some clouds over the sunshine this week,' Brown said. 'There has been a clear need for open records reform in this state for many years, and a bill like this goes in precisely the wrong direction. There are too many barriers right now for the public to gain access to records, and this increased cost is another one that should not see the light of day.'
Advertisement
John M. Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island, said, 'If this bill passes, it will cost more for Rhode Islanders to find out what their government is doing with their tax dollars. We should be making it less expensive, not more expensive, for the public to access records.'
He said it's unclear whether people could be turned away if they have outstanding records fees in other parts of the state or what would happen if a requester did not have the ability to pay.
'This is a bill that should be held for further study,' Marion said.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Louis P. DiPalma, a Middletown Democrat, has been pushing to
One of those proposed changes would lower the costs of public records searches by eliminating fees for the first two hours of a search or retrieval, and then charging $15 per hour.
When asked about Azzinaro's bill, DiPalma said, 'We need to make the access to information easier, not harder. I believe increasing the cost drives us in the opposite direction.'
DiPalma said people should pay for records they request, but he said the issue of unpaid fees never came up in all the conversations he's had about his legislation with the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns.
He said he expects to introduce his bill by the end of March, and he expects to again lead the effort along with House Oversight Committee Chairwoman Patricia A. Serpa, a West Warwick Democrat.
Advertisement
That
But the legislation has been
DiPalma has noted that the opposition is coming from government agencies, not members of the public. 'What are they afraid of?' he said in March 2024. 'This is information to help the public be better informed about our government.'
Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
19 minutes ago
Election conspiracy theorist sticks by false 2020 claims in defamation trial
DENVER -- One of the nation's most prominent election conspiracy theorists, MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, stuck by his false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen while testifying Monday during a defamation trial over statements he made about a former official for a leading voting equipment company. Taking the stand for the first time during the trial, Lindell denied making any statements he knew to be false about Eric Coomer, the former product strategy and security director for Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems. Among other things, Lindell accused Coomer of being 'a part of the biggest crime this world has ever seen." Lindell also distanced himself from a story told by a conservative podcaster who accused Coomer of helping to rig the 2020 election. It was discussed during a 2021 symposium Lindell hosted to discuss election fraud. Lindell said he did not know about the story before it was discussed onstage at the event and only learned about it during the trial. Coomer said his career and life have been destroyed by statements Lindell made about him and allowed to be promoted through his online media platform, Frankspeech. During sometimes rambling testimony in federal court in Denver, Lindell painted himself as the victim of 'lawfare' — when people are sued to scare them into silence. Several conservative news organizations, including Fox News, Newsmax and One America News, have settled defamation lawsuits from voting machine companies over allegations that they promoted falsehoods about the 2020 presidential election. In 2021, Newsmax also apologized to Coomer for airing false allegations against him. Nevertheless, Lindell said he hoped his trial would lead people to look at what happened in the election and get rid of electronic voting machines, which have been targeted in a web of conspiracy theories. Reviews, recounts and audits in the battleground states where Trump contested his 2020 loss all affirmed Democrat Joe Biden's victory. Trump's own attorney general at the time said there was no evidence of widespread fraud, and Trump and his allies lost dozens of court cases seeking to overturn the result. Lindell said he never accused Coomer of rigging the election, but he testified that Coomer's claims led Newsmax to block him from being able to go on air to talk about voting machines. 'You're part of the biggest coverup of the biggest crime the world has ever seen,' he said to the Coomer lawyer questioning him, Charles Cain. Lindell said he used to be worth about $60 million before he started speaking out about the 2020 election, and now he has nothing and is $10 million in debt. 'I believe what you did to me and MyPillow was criminal,' he said to Cain during questioning. Both Cain and U.S. District Judge Nina Wang had to remind Lindell several times to listen to the questions and only provide the answers to them, rather than head off on tangents. During the trial, Coomer's attorneys have tried to show how their client's life was devastated by the series of conspiracy theories about him. Lindell was comparatively late to seize on Coomer, not mentioning him until February 2021, well after his name had been circulated by other Trump partisans. Coomer said the conspiracy theories cost him his job, his mental health and the life he'd built and said Lindell's statements were the most distressing of all. He specifically pointed to a statement on May 9, 2021, when Lindell described what he believed Coomer had done as 'treason.' Asked by his attorney what he wants out of the trial, Coomer said he would like an apology, compensation and 'a chance of rehabilitating my public image.' Lindell's attorneys argued that Coomer's reputation was already in tatters by the time Lindell mentioned him — partly because of Coomer's own Facebook posts disparaging Trump, which the former Dominion employee acknowledged were 'hyperbolic' and had been a mistake. 'Your reputation was shattered long before Mr. Lindell said a word about you,' Chris Katchouroff said to Coomer. Katchouroff noted that Lindell also is known for making hyperbolic statements and that what he said about Coomer was simply the result of his sincere concern over vote-rigging in the 2020 presidential election — a claim for which there is no evidence.
Business of Fashion
20 minutes ago
- Business of Fashion
Attorney for Deported Makeup Artist: If ‘It Could Happen to Him … It Could Happen to You.'
In a defiant speech, Lindsay Toczylowski, president and co-founder of social justice legal firm Immigrant Defenders Law Center, called the deportation of undocumented immigrants without due process a direct attack on democracy. Her client, Andry José Hernández Romero, a 31-year-old Venezuelan makeup artist seeking asylum in the US, was in March deported to El Salvador, where he was taken to the country's notorious CECOT prison along with over 200 other Venezuelan and Salvadoran deportees. The American Civil Liberties Union, which is suing the Trump administration over its use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport undocumented immigrants without due process, said in court filings that the government relied solely on Romero's tattoos to incorrectly label him a violent gang member. Family and supporters say they fear for the safety of Romero, who is gay and was seeking asylum after being persecuted for his sexual orientation in Venezuela. He has not been seen or heard from since his arrival in El Salvador, including by his legal representation. 'The only fight that we lose is the one we give up on… It's about the future of our democracy and the country we want to live in,' she said, speaking at The Business of Beauty Global Forum in Napa Valley, California. 'His story is the embodiment of it could happen to him, it could happen to me, it could happen to you, it could happen to any one of us. It's why the rule of law is so important. It's why due process is so important.' Toczylowski also addressed escalating tensions in Los Angeles, where President Donald Trump has sent thousands of National Guard and Marines to quell protests against ICE deportation roundups in the city. Opponents of the move, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass, say the decision to send troops was disproportionate to the small number of violent incidents associated with the protests, and will only inflame the situation. On Monday, protests spread to other cities around the country. 'There are more than 200 residents of Los Angeles that have been picked up off the streets,' said Toczylowski. 'I have watched masked agents in plain clothes push people into service elevators in the middle of federal buildings in downtown LA in the last two weeks. This is an all-out assault on the values that we hold as Angelenos, as Californians, as Americans.' She said one of the most important methods of pushing back against the Trump administration's immigration actions, whether in LA or El Salvador, is to speak out against them as often, and as forcefully as possible. 'The moment that we stop talking about [Romero], about his story and others like him is the moment that the Trump administration is successful in completing the disappearance of Andry José Hernández Romero,' she said.
an hour ago
New York lawmakers approve bill that would allow medically assisted suicide for the terminally ill
ALBANY, N.Y. -- Terminally ill New Yorkers would have the legal ability to end their own lives with pharmaceutical drugs under a bill passed Monday in the state Legislature. The proposal, which now moves to the governor's office, would allow a person with an incurable illness to be prescribed life-ending drugs if he or she requests the medication and gets approval from two physicians. A spokesperson for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she would review the legislation. The New York Senate gave final approval to the bill Monday night after hours of debate during which supporters said it would let terminally ill people die on their own terms. 'It's not about hastening death, but ending suffering,' said state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a Democrat who sponsored the proposal. Opponents have argued the state should instead improve end-of-life medical care or have objected on religious grounds. 'We should not be in the business of state-authorized suicide,' said state Sen. George Borrello, a Republican. The state Assembly passed the measure in late April. The proposal requires that a terminally ill person who is expected to die within six month make a written request for the drugs. Two witnesses would have sign the request to ensure that the patient is not being coerced. The request would then have to be approved by the person's attending physician as well as a consulting physician. The legislation was first introduced in 2016, Hoylman-Sigal said, though it has stalled year after year in the New York statehouse. Dennis Poust, executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference, which has opposed the measure, said 'This is a dark day for New York State." Eleven other states and Washington, D.C., have laws allowing medically assisted suicide, according to Compassion & Choices, an advocacy organization that backs the policy. Corinne Carey, the group's local campaign director, said lawmakers had 'recognized how important it is to give terminally ill New Yorkers the autonomy they deserve over their own end-of-life experiences.' 'The option of medical aid in dying provides comfort, allowing those who are dying to live their time more fully and peacefully until the end,' said Carey.
