Neronha: Westerly 'Recklessly' Violated Public Records Act

WESTERLY, RI — Attorney General Peter Neronha says the Town of Westerly "knowingly and willfully, or recklessly" violated the state's Access to Public Records Act, and stated that his office plans to file a civil lawsuit against the town.

In a March 23 ruling, the Office of the Attorney General wrapped up an investigation into a complaint filed by Westerly resident James Angelo. Angelo on July 16 and July 17 had filed requests under APRA for various public records, and said he received responses that were late, missing, incomplete and out of compliance with the law. Angelo on Aug. 5 filed an administrative appeal with the town, and told Neronha's office that he never received a response.

Neronha's office announced the finding of violation in a May 5 news release.

Angelo was initially seeking financial and bidding records relevant to the Planning Board's relationship with Cherenzia & Associates, an engineering firm hired in connection with a proposed project at a Bradford Road mill property. Angelo eventually received all of the responsive documents he sought, but not without a battle.

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Neronha's office, in an eight-page report penned by Special Assistant Attorney General Kayla E. O'Rourke, accused town officials of botching their response to Angelo's ARPA requests and of later misrepresenting the facts.

Over the course of the investigation, officials told the AGO that they had no record on file of Angelo's appeal — despite the fact that an email trail showed that an appeal had in fact been received on Aug. 5 by Town Clerk Donna Giordano, who circulated it to Town Manager Mark Rooney and to Town Solicitor William Conley.

"...We are troubled by the town's inaccurate representations regarding the complainant's administrative appeal, which are directly refuted by the Town's own exhibits," O'Rourke wrote.

The town had claimed that Angelo's appeal was not valid because he had mistakenly asked Giordano to forward it to Town Council President Christopher Duhamel. The APRA requires that appeals be directed to a town's"chief administrative officer." In Westerly, that would be Rooney. Giordano attested that she forwarded Angelo's appeal to Duhamel alone. However, Exhibit 3 of the town's supplemental response to Neronha contains emails showing that Giordano did, in fact, forward Angelo's appeal to Rooney and to Conley, the AGO asserts.

O'Rourke wrote that the town, including Rooney, did in fact receive Angelo's administrative appeal, knew that it was an appeal submitted under the APRA, and ignored it anyway.

She added that the AGO is "very troubled" about the town's actions, considering a "prior, recent, similar violation" by the town in the case of Armstrong v. Town of Westerly. She added that the town's justification for ignoring Angelo's appeal amounts to a "a non-starter."

The town failed to respond to Angelo in a timely manner, failed to completely respond, failed to properly inform Angelo of his right to appeal, and then ignored his valid appeal while claiming that it didn't exist, the AGO's office concluded.

The AGO's ruling also takes up Giordano's claim that she didn't even see Angelo's July 17 email until September 10. Under APRA, a town has ten business days to respond to a request for public records. Angelo didn't receive an initial response to that request until September 15.

"This Office finds the Town's conduct in this matter to evidence a deliberate disregard for the requirements of the APRA," the AGO's ruling states.

The Attorney General has the right to file a civil lawsuit in Superior Court if it finds that a municipality acted "knowingly and willfully" or "recklessly" in its dealings with the state's public records law. Civil fines up to $2,000 may be ordered by a judge.

"This Office therefore intends to file a civil lawsuit against the Town," the ruling states. (As of Wednesday morning, no such lawsuit had been filed, a spokeswoman for Neronha's office confirmed.)

Giordano, Rooney, and Conley did not respond to Patch Wednesday to an emailed request for comment. Angelo, reached by email, said he is not in a position to comment on the matter.