Most local city and town councils and school committees livestream their meetings, but further improvements are needed to bolster public transparency, the Rhode Island ACLU said in a report released Wednesday.
The report — an update to a previous one in 2023 — found that 33 of 39 city and town councils offer livestreaming to the public, as do 30 of 34 school committees. Most of these public bodies also offer archived videos of meetings for future viewing. And most councils include links to agenda packets or documents discussed during meetings.
On the downside, the ACLU reported that few of these local government entities allow the public to participate remotely in meetings — a practice that was common during the pandemic. And only a little more than half of school committees offer remote access to materials discussed during meetings.
The report scrutinized four aspects of how remote meetings offer more access for the public:
- Are live streams available?
- Are archived meetings available?
- Are agenda packets available remotely?
- Can residents participate remotely?
The communities offering all four of those things are Charlestown, Coventry, Cranston, Cumberland, East Greenwich, Lincoln, Middletown, Pawtucket, Portsmouth, Richmond, Scituate, and West Warwick.
School committees offering all four aspects are Barrington, East Greenwich, Little Compton, North Smithfield, and Scituate.
The town councils offering no remote public access are Exeter, Foster and West Greenwich, while the school committees without the access are Johnston and New Shoreham.
The ACLU said it encourages public bodies to move into post-COVID era while providing greater government transparency.
“Every step towards a more transparent process is a good thing — for each person that can be more involved and informed about what’s happening in the community, and for overall government transparency in our state,” Zoe Chakoian, a spokesperson for the group said in a statement. “We hope that making information available about how many other councils and committees are providing basic access to meetings and meeting packets will encourage public bodies that don’t already do so to take those next steps.”
This story was reported by The Public’s Radio.
