N.S. officials are keeping finance report under wraps

Resident Michael Clifford appeals to R.I. AG to access financial report being discussed at public meetings

NORTH SMITHFIELD – A former member of the town’s budget committee, Mike Clifford, is seeking the help of Attorney General Peter Kilmartin’s office in gaining access to a town financial report he maintains is a public record.

Clifford, a resident of Black Plain Road who has challenged the town on open meetings issues successfully in the past, said on Wednesday that he filed an Access to Public Records Act appeal with the Attorney General’s Office over a March 6, 2017, financial report from the town’s financial advisers to Town Administrator Gary Ezovski. The town has maintained that report was a communication to the Town Administrator and is exempt from open records require- ments, according to Clifford.

The report has been mentioned during public meetings and in communications by the Town Administrator but has never been released for public review, Clifford noted.

Although filing a formal Access to Public Records Act (APRA) request with the town on Jan. 3, seeking to set up a time to review the report by the town’s bond counsel, Clifford said he was denied that opportunity. Town Clerk Debra Todd sent him a letter on Jan. 10 stating that “The following document is exempt records pursuant to RIGL 38-3-34(4)(M).”

Clifford’s options for appealing the rule through the Chief Administrative Officer of the Town, the Department of the Attorney General, or the Superior Court, were also listed in the letter from Todd.

In his appeal to the Attorney General filed on Jan. 18, Clifford contends that Ezovski has referenced the report from the town’s bond counsel in public posts and comments while using it “to support his positions on the town budget, the status of the Town’s financial health and as justification to include a $435,000 contingency account in the Town’s FY2018 budget which was responsible for more than half of this year’s residential tax increase.”

The town administrator also referenced the report at a June 19, 2017, town council meeting “and stated he had provided the report to Council members,” Clifford said. The fact that the report was mentioned at the session, “would indicate to me that Council members probably had the document in front of them while he was referring to it,” Clifford stated in his appeal.

“Even though information was contained in the “report” was referenced in order to convince the Town Council that a tax increase was necessary and also attempt to convince the public the tax increase was justified, my request to review the report was denied,” Clifford wrote. “I believe this is akin to a doctor recommending a serious life threatening medical procedure but refusing to provide the patient with the test results that prove the treatment is necessary,” he said. “Since the APRA doesn’t restrict a municipality from voluntarily providing any document they wish to, it puzzles me why anyone would refuse to make public a “report” that allegedly supports their position,” Clifford said.

Clifford said on Wednesday that the Attorney General’s office has notified the town of his complaint and it will now have 10 days in which to respond to the filing. He in turn will have five days to submit a response to the town’s filing before the office continues its review of the matter.

Although the town withheld the report submitted to Ezovski, Clifford said he has requested access to similar reports from former Town Administrator Paulette Hamilton in the past and received it, he said.

“That is why I appealed, because this is not covered by the exemption,” Clifford said.

When contacted about the APRA appeal on Wednesday, Ezovski confirmed that the town had received notification of the filing from the Attorney General’s Office and the matter was in the hands of the Town Solicitor.

“And we will absolutely file a response,” Ezovski said. Ezovski said he would not comment further on the open records appeal while it was under review.