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![handle is hein.sag/sagri0019 and id is 1 raw text is: OFFICIAL ADVISORY OPINION 99-01
February 23, 1999
William G. Brody, Esq.
Solicitor, City of Cranston
c/o 35 Terminal Road
Cranston, RI 02905
Facsimile: 941-1730
RE: Advisory Opinion - Open Meetings Act - OM Advisory 99-01
Dear Mr. Brody:
I acknowledge receipt of your letter sent by facsimile on February 23, 1999, in which you
request an advisory opinion on the Open Meetings Act.
In your letter you relate that Cranston Mayor John O'Leary has planned to hold a reception
in City Hall tomorrow afternoon for members of the General Assembly. Mayor O'Leary
wishes to familiarize legislators and others with the history and status of the City of
Cranston. The Mayor felt that a social, nonbusiness event would be desirable setting in
which to educate senators and representative's about the State's third largest municipality.
You represent that [a]s a courtesy, the Mayor has also invited to the reception officials of
the City of Cranston, including department heads and elected members of the City Council
and School Committee. You further represent that [n]o meetings of any public body are to
be convened during the reception and there is no business to be transacted and [tihere is
no intent on the part of the Mayor in hosting this reception to circumvent any provision of
the Rhode Island Open Meetings Law.
This Department has rendered several findings on the issue of whether a meeting is
convened for purposes of the Open Meetings Act when members of a public body attend a
social gathering or seminar. In Neubert v. Governor's Office and Exeter Town Council, OM
98-09, the Exeter Town Council attended a presentation by Dr. Robert Carl and a member of
the Governor's Office on the development possibilities for the Ladd Center. The members of
the Exeter Town Council represented to this Department that the Ladd property, or to vote
or to take any other actions. As noted in the finding, the Open Meetings Act defines a
meeting as the convening of a public body to discuss and/or act upon a matter over which
the public body has supervision, control, jurisdiction, or advisory power. R.I. Gen. Laws
Section 42-46-2(a). Based on the representations by the Exeter Town Council that its
members made no attempts to discuss Council business or exchange facts concerning the
Ladd property, vote or take any other actions, this Department determined that their
attendance at the presentation was not a meeting governed by the Open Meetings Act.
Similarly, in Fogarty v. North Cumberland Fire District & Valley Falls Fire District, OM
95-18, members of the Boards of Trustees of the North Cumberland Fire District and Valley
Falls Fire District where invited by the two fire chiefs to an informational presentation on
the pros and cons regarding the possibility and potential merger of the two fire districts. The
board members represented to this Department that they did not participate in the
presentation nor did they engage in any discussions or take any action of any kind with
respect to the merger or any other issue. Based on these specific facts, it was the
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