Mollis: Assembly mostly followed meetings law

PROVIDENCE – The General Assembly complied with the state Open Meetings law 96 percent of the time last year, according to Secretary of State’s A. Ralph Mollis’ office.
The state’s Open Meetings law requires most governmental bodies to post meeting notices and agendas at least 48 hours in advance. While the General Assembly is exempt from the law, the House and the Senate do issue meeting notices in accordance with their own rules. The secretary of state’s office monitored that activity in order to produce the “Access 2012” report.
Overall, House compliance was 94 percent and Senate compliance was 97 percent in 2012. Among the some of the legislature’s most prominent committees, House Finance complied 94 percent of the time while Senate Judiciary had a 97 percent compliance rate.
According to Mollis, nearly all the violations came in the last days of the session. Fifteen of the 19 total violations occurred during the 48 hours before the General Assembly recessed in the early morning hours of June 13. •

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