Ruggerio bill seeks more transparency

PROVIDENCE — Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio urged fellow state senators on Wednesday to support his legislation that would make the I-195 Redevelopment District Commission’s work more accessible to the public.

Appearing before the Senate committee on rules, government ethics and oversight, Ruggerio, D-North Providence, read the changes he’s recommending in proposed legislation, which he says would help the public learn more quickly what decisions the commission makes.

Among Ruggerio’s proposed changes for the commission:

■ Conduct ethics training courses for new members within six months of appointment.

■ Follow the Open Meetings Act.

■ Replace the “real estate discussion” exemption of that act “with a narrower provision.” Only allow closed sessions under this exemption if negotiations would be “adversely impacted” by public input.

■ Record all executive sessions and makes those recordings available to the public once negotiations are complete.

The Open Meetings Act is a state law that asserts people’s rights to attend meetings of public bodies. It also details standards for notice and record-keeping during those sessions.

Ruggerio said he thinks the commission leans too heavily on the real estate exemption and holds closed meetings unnecessarily. Every meeting held in the last year has had a lengthy portion held out of the public view in “closed” or “executive session,” the Senate president said.

Long viewed by state leaders as one of the state’s best locations for attracting companies that will create jobs, the former highway land has been an important part of Gov. Gina Raimondo’s push to reinvent the state’s economy. Before Raimondo took office, Ruggerio and others worked to create the commission in 2011 with a state law that granted broad powers and authority to the seven-member commission so it could decide which development options for the land would bring the greatest rewards to Rhode Island.

“I’m unhappy as to the manner in which they are operating. I feel that it should be more transparent,” Ruggerio said at the session on Wednesday. “Some of these sessions should be open to the public and follow normal hearing processes that we follow up here.”

Since late 2015, the commission had been working to split a prime development parcel west of the planned city park along the Providence River, efforts The Providence Journal learned this year when the commission responded to a public records request from the paper. Commission leaders hoped to create a walkway that would run straight through that parcel — Parcel 42 — and ensure a pathway across Dyer Street to the Wexford Science & Technology campus to the city park and the Providence River.

Wexford has been at the center of Raimondo’s plan to help rebuild the state’s economy. Her administration has pledged at least $35.6 million in tax incentives to the company.

While the commission was mulling the walkway, Ruggerio was meeting privately with Jason Fane, a New York developer who shared renderings of three luxury apartment buildings he wanted to put on the land.

Ruggerio expressed reservations to commission leaders about changing the parcel, so they never moved forward on it publicly. Ruggerio supported the Fane proposal.

The committee approved the bill, and moved it to the Senate for a full vote.