PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Moderate Party founder Ken Block filed another Open Meetings Act complaint Thursday against the state Board of Elections, saying the board failed to list the bill numbers of legislation discussed at its March 11 meeting.
In response to an earlier complaint by Block, Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin's office issued a June 3 opinion saying the Board of Elections had violated the Open Meetings Act with its Feb. 27 meeting agenda, which said the board planned to discuss "election legislation" but gave no further detail about the 10 bills it planned to address.
Now, Block, who is running for governor, is charging that the board also violated the Open Meetings Act with its March 11 meeting agenda, which offered brief descriptions of the bills but not the bill numbers that would allow the public to quickly identify the legislation.
"The result of this omission was to obfuscate the specific bills to be discussed from the public's eyes," Block's complaint says. "The board failed to use common sense when it filed its agenda. I find the method employed to be misguided to the point where this may constitute a willful and knowing violation," which could lead to fines.
Block claimed that the board committed a second violation by missing a 35-day deadline for filing minutes of the March 11 meeting.
Read the complaint: Election Board Complaint.pdf