{"id":912,"date":"2014-08-02T01:30:36","date_gmt":"2014-08-02T05:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rhodeisland.concon.info\/?p=912"},"modified":"2014-08-07T13:07:35","modified_gmt":"2014-08-07T17:07:35","slug":"the-bi-partisan-preparatory-commissions-first-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rhodeisland.concon.info\/?p=912","title":{"rendered":"The Bi-Partisan Preparatory Commission\u2019s First Meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

On July 29, 2014, one day before its report was due, the General Assembly\u2019s legislative leaders appointed the final two members of the Bi-Partisan Preparatory Commission to Assemble Information on Constitutional Convention Questions.\u00a0 Two-thirds of the Commission members are legislators. (For the law creating the Commission, see S2537<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

The same day, legislative leaders announced<\/a> that the Commission\u2019s first meeting would be held on July 31.\u00a0 This provided the required minimum two day public notice for a public meeting.<\/p>\n

At the July 31 meeting<\/a>, the Commission met for five minutes and forty-five seconds.\u00a0 The meeting was perfunctory, as the key decisions were made prior to the meeting.\u00a0 Each member introduced himself and then the co-chairs were unanimously approved without any debate or competing candidates.<\/p>\n

The newly elected leaders announced that the Commission would hold four public hearings in different locations (down from 7 in 2004 and 14 in 1984), that it would try to complete its report by early September, and that its final report would be distributed to every Rhode Island citizen via the Voter Information Handbook. \u00a0No specific dates were announced for either the four public hearings or the final report. \u00a0No online signup was provided for public notice\u00a0about the four public hearing dates.<\/p>\n

The announcement that the report would be included at taxpayer expense in the Voter Information Handbook was unprecedented and a major enhancement of the Commission\u2019s powers.\u00a0 In 1984 and 2004, commissions had created reports, but they were neither publicized at taxpayer expense nor widely read.\u00a0 In 1994, no report was issued, as the commission was appointed only one day before the election.<\/p>\n

The 2004 report essentially argued that no state constitutional convention was necessary because the legislature was a better vehicle for all types of constitutional reform, including democratic reforms.\u00a0 Presumably, the 2014 report will also somehow manage to avoid explaining the democratic function of a state constitutional convention.<\/p>\n

Our\u00a0view is that the Commission\u2019s report should not be included in the Voter Information Handbook.\u00a0 \u00a0The notion that the Commission is or could reasonably be expected to be an objective broker for information on a state constitutional convention is ludicrous (see J.H. Snider and Beverly Clay, R.I.\u2019s poor preparation for convention<\/a>, Providence Journal, August 2).<\/p>\n

Amazingly, the commission failed to acknowledge its missed July 30 report deadline specified in the legislation<\/a> that created the commission.\u00a0 Imagine what would happen to you if you failed to submit your taxes by the IRS\u2019s April 15 deadline without even a request for extension.\u00a0 It was as though the law passed by the General Assembly had no more significance than a quarterback\u2019s feint to pass when the intent was to run the ball.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Providence Journal<\/em>\u00a0ran a\u00a0story<\/a>\u00a0on the meeting.<\/p>\n

The video of the meeting can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2013by J.H. Snider, Administrator, RhodeIslandConCon.info, and Beverly Clay, Advisory Committee Member, RhodeIslandConCon.info.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On July 29, 2014, one day before its report was due, the General Assembly\u2019s legislative leaders appointed the final two members of the Bi-Partisan Preparatory Commission to Assemble Information on Constitutional Convention Questions.\u00a0 Two-thirds of the Commission members are legislators. (For the law creating the Commission, see S2537.) The same day, legislative leaders announced that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhodeisland.concon.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhodeisland.concon.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhodeisland.concon.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhodeisland.concon.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhodeisland.concon.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=912"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/rhodeisland.concon.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":923,"href":"https:\/\/rhodeisland.concon.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912\/revisions\/923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhodeisland.concon.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhodeisland.concon.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhodeisland.concon.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}