Rhode Island 2023 Regular Session

Rhode Island House Bill H5442 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

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5	5	2023 -- H 5442
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7	7	LC000210
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9	9	S TATE OF RHODE IS LAND
10	10	IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY
11	11	JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2023
12	12	____________
13	13
14	14	A N A C T
15	15	RELATING TO PUBLIC RECORDS -- ACCESS TO PUBLIC RECORDS
16	16	Introduced By: Representatives Ajello, Knight, Batista, J. Lombardi, Kislak, Shallcross
17	17	Smith, Morales, Cruz, Handy, and Felix
18	18	Date Introduced: February 08, 2023
19	19	Referred To: House Judiciary
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22	22	It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:
23	23	SECTION 1. Section 38-2-2 of the General Laws in Chapter 38-2 entitled "Access to Public 1
24	24	Records" is hereby amended to read as follows: 2
25	25	38-2-2. Definitions. 3
26	26	As used in this chapter: 4
27	27	(1) “Agency” or “public body” means any executive, legislative, judicial, regulatory, or 5
28	28	administrative body of the state, or any political subdivision thereof; including, but not limited to: 6
29	29	any department, division, agency, commission, board, office, bureau, authority; any school, fire, or 7
30	30	water district, or other agency of Rhode Island state or local government that exercises 8
31	31	governmental functions; any authority as defined in § 42-35-1(b); or any other public or private 9
32	32	agency, person, partnership, corporation, or business entity acting on behalf of and/or in place of 10
33	33	any public agency. 11
34	34	(2) “Chief administrative officer” means the highest authority of the public body. 12
35	35	(3) “Public business” means any matter over which the public body has supervision, 13
36	36	control, jurisdiction, or advisory power. 14
37	37	(4) “Public record” or “public records” shall mean all documents, papers, letters, maps, 15
38	38	books, tapes, photographs, films, sound recordings, magnetic or other tapes, electronic data 16
39	39	processing records, computer stored data (including electronic mail messages, except specifically 17
40	40	for any electronic mail messages of or to elected officials with or relating to those they represent 18
41	41	and correspondence of or to elected officials in their official capacities), or other material regardless 19
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45	45	of physical form or characteristics made or received pursuant to law or ordinance or in connection 1
46	46	with the transaction of official business by any agency. For the purposes of this chapter, the 2
47	47	following records shall not be deemed public: 3
48	48	(A)(I)(a) All records relating to a client/attorney relationship and to a doctor/patient 4
49	49	relationship, including all medical information relating to an individual in any files. 5
50	50	(b) Personnel and other personal individually identifiable records otherwise deemed 6
51	51	confidential by federal or state law or regulation, or the disclosure of which would constitute a 7
52	52	clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 552 et seq.; provided, 8
53	53	however, with respect to employees, and employees of contractors and subcontractors working on 9
54	54	public works projects that are required to be listed as certified payrolls, the name, gross salary, 10
55	55	salary range, total cost of paid fringe benefits, gross amount received in overtime, and any other 11
56	56	remuneration in addition to salary, job title, job description, dates of employment and positions 12
57	57	held with the state, municipality, or public works contractor or subcontractor on public works 13
58	58	projects, employment contract, work location, and/or project, business telephone number, the city 14
59	59	or town of residence, and date of termination shall be public. For the purposes of this section 15
60	60	“remuneration” shall include any payments received by an employee as a result of termination, or 16
61	61	otherwise leaving employment, including, but not limited to, payments for accrued sick and/or 17
62	62	vacation time, severance pay, or compensation paid pursuant to a contract buy-out provision. For 18
63	63	purposes of this section, the city or town residence shall not be deemed public for peace officers, 19
64	64	as defined in § 12-7-21, and shall not be released. 20
65	65	(II) Notwithstanding the provisions of this section, or any other provision of the general 21
66	66	laws to the contrary, the pension records of all persons who are either current or retired members 22
67	67	of any public retirement systems, as well as all persons who become members of those retirement 23
68	68	systems after June 17, 1991, shall be open for public inspection. “Pension records” as used in this 24
69	69	section, shall include all records containing information concerning pension and retirement benefits 25
70	70	of current and retired members of the retirement systems and future members of said systems, 26
71	71	including all records concerning retirement credits purchased and the ability of any member of the 27
72	72	retirement system to purchase retirement credits, but excluding all information regarding the 28
73	73	medical condition of any person and all information identifying the member’s designated 29
74	74	beneficiary or beneficiaries unless and until the member’s designated beneficiary or beneficiaries 30
75	75	have received or are receiving pension and/or retirement benefits through the retirement system. 31
76	76	(B) Trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person, firm, 32
77	77	or corporation that is of a privileged or confidential nature. 33
78	78	(C) Child custody and adoption records, records of illegitimate births, and records of 34
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82	82	juvenile proceedings before the family court. 1
83	83	(D) All records maintained by law enforcement agencies for criminal law enforcement and 2
84	84	all records relating to the detection and investigation of crime, including those maintained on any 3
85	85	individual or compiled in the course of a criminal investigation by any law enforcement agency. 4
86	86	Provided, however, such records shall not be deemed public only to the extent that the disclosure 5
87	87	of the records or information (a) Could reasonably be expected to interfere with investigations of 6
88	88	criminal activity or with enforcement proceedings; (b) Would deprive a person of a right to a fair 7
89	89	trial or an impartial adjudication; (c) Could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted 8
90	90	invasion of personal privacy; (d) Could reasonably be expected to disclose the identity of a 9
91	91	confidential source, including a state, local, or foreign agency or authority, or any private institution 10
92	92	that furnished information on a confidential basis, or the information furnished by a confidential 11
93	93	source; (e) Would disclose techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations or 12
94	94	prosecutions, or would disclose guidelines for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions; or 13
95	95	(f) Could reasonably be expected to endanger the life or physical safety of any individual. Records 14
96	96	relating to management and direction of a law enforcement agency and records or reports reflecting 15
97	97	the initial arrest of an adult and the charge or charges brought against an adult shall be public. 16
98	98	Notwithstanding any other provisions of law, any reports of investigations conducted by 17
99	99	internal affair units or their equivalent, regardless of how or by whom the investigation was 18
100	100	initiated, shall be public records; provided, however, names, addresses and other personal 19
101	101	identifiers may be redacted from the reports to the extent their disclosure would constitute a clearly 20
102	102	unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. 21
103	103	(E) Any records that would not be available by law or rule of court to an opposing party in 22
104	104	litigation. 23
105	105	(F) Scientific and technological secrets and the security plans of military and law 24
106	106	enforcement agencies, the disclosure of which would endanger the public welfare and security. 25
107	107	(G) Any records that disclose the identity of the contributor of a bona fide and lawful 26
108	108	charitable contribution to the public body whenever public anonymity has been requested of the 27
109	109	public body with respect to the contribution by the contributor. 28
110	110	(H) Reports and statements of strategy or negotiation involving labor negotiations or 29
111	111	collective bargaining. 30
112	112	(I) Reports and statements of strategy or negotiation with respect to the investment or 31
113	113	borrowing of public funds, until such time as those transactions are entered into. 32
114	114	(J) Any minutes of a meeting of a public body that are not required to be disclosed pursuant 33
115	115	to chapter 46 of title 42. 34
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119	119	(K) Preliminary drafts, notes, impressions, memoranda, working papers, and work 1
120	120	products, including those involving research at state institutions of higher education on commercial, 2
121	121	scientific, artistic, technical, or scholarly issues, whether in electronic or other format; provided, 3
122	122	however, any documents submitted at a public meeting of a public body shall be deemed public. 4
123	123	(L) Test questions, scoring keys, and other examination data used to administer a licensing 5
124	124	examination, examination for employment or promotion, or academic examinations; provided, 6
125	125	however, that a person shall have the right to review the results of his or her examination. 7
126	126	(M) Correspondence of or to elected officials with or relating to those they represent and 8
127	127	correspondence of or to elected officials in their official capacities. 9
128	128	(N) The contents of real estate appraisals, engineering, or feasibility estimates and 10
129	129	evaluations made for or by an agency relative to the acquisition of property or to prospective public 11
130	130	supply and construction contracts, until such time as all of the property has been acquired or all 12
131	131	proceedings or transactions have been terminated or abandoned; provided the law of eminent 13
132	132	domain shall not be affected by this provision. 14
133	133	(O) All tax returns. 15
134	134	(P) All investigatory records of public bodies, with the exception of law enforcement 16
135	135	agencies, pertaining to possible violations of statute, rule, or regulation other than records of final 17
136	136	actions taken, provided that all records prior to formal notification of violations or noncompliance 18
137	137	shall not be deemed to be public. 19
138	138	(Q) Records of individual test scores on professional certification and licensing 20
139	139	examinations; provided, however, that a person shall have the right to review the results of his or 21
140	140	her examination. 22
141	141	(R) Requests for advisory opinions until such time as the public body issues its opinion. 23
142	142	(S) Records, reports, opinions, information, and statements required to be kept confidential 24
143	143	by federal law or regulation or state law or rule of court. 25
144	144	(T) Judicial bodies are included in the definition only in respect to their administrative 26
145	145	function provided that records kept pursuant to the provisions of chapter 16 of title 8 are exempt 27
146	146	from the operation of this chapter. 28
147	147	(U) Library records that, by themselves or when examined with other public records, would 29
148	148	reveal the identity of the library user requesting, checking out, or using any library materials. 30
149	149	(V) Printouts from TELE — TEXT devices used by people who are deaf or hard of hearing 31
150	150	or speech impaired. 32
151	151	(W) All records received by the insurance division of the department of business regulation 33
152	152	from other states, either directly or through the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, 34
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156	156	if those records are accorded confidential treatment in that state. Nothing contained in this title or 1
157	157	any other provision of law shall prevent or be construed as prohibiting the commissioner of 2
158	158	insurance from disclosing otherwise confidential information to the insurance department of this 3
159	159	or any other state or country, at any time, so long as the agency or office receiving the records 4
160	160	agrees in writing to hold it confidential in a manner consistent with the laws of this state. 5
161	161	(X) Credit card account numbers in the possession of state or local government are 6
162	162	confidential and shall not be deemed public records. 7
163	163	(Y) Any documentary material, answers to written interrogatories, or oral testimony 8
164	164	provided under any subpoena issued under § 9-1.1-6. 9
165	165	(Z) Any individually identifiable evaluations of public school employees made pursuant to 10
166	166	state or federal law or regulation. 11
167	167	(AA) All documents prepared by school districts intended to be used by school districts in 12
168	168	protecting the safety of their students from potential and actual threats. 13
169	169	(BB) The list of teachers terminated for good and just cause maintained by the department 14
170	170	of education pursuant to § 16-13-9. 15
171	171	SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage. 16
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178	178	EXPLANATION
179	179	BY THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
180	180	OF
181	181	A N A C T
182	182	RELATING TO PUBLIC RECORDS -- ACCESS TO PUBLIC RECORDS
183	183	***
184	184	This act would provide that any reports of investigations conducted by internal affair units 1
185	185	or their equivalent are public records. The names, addresses and other personal identifiers may be 2
186	186	redacted from the reports to the extent their disclosure would constitute a clearly unwarranted 3
187	187	invasion of personal privacy. 4
188	188	This act would take effect upon passage. 5
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