This is the homestretch to Charlestown’s December 2 Town Council special election

On Tuesday, please support Democrat Jill Fonneman for Charlestown Town Council

By Will Collette

Well, another day and another huge postcard from former Council member and Charlestown Citizens Alliance spokes-troll Bonnita Van Slyke. Maybe before Election Day on Tuesday, she’ll send us a real poster-sized card featuring her and her dog Sam.

I know that Sam is a very good boy. I also know Bonnie was crap as a former town council member. She bailed from the Council in 2022 just before the CCA got ousted by Charlestown voters for messing up the town’s money but now she wants back onto the Council.

Bonnie was a central figure in creating and then covering up the CCA’s “$3 million oopsie,” padded surplus fund accounts and shady land deals by her boss, CCA founder and de facto leader Ruth Platner.

Charlestown’s money problems during the decade of CCA rule, which included Van Slyke’s entire term on the Town Council, were documented by 2022 reports by the Rhode Island Auditor General and the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council. These reports were never acknowledged by the CCA. Click HERE and HERE for more details.

I have been calling for Van Slyke to own up to her mistakes and then apologize. Instead, she produces these expensive postcards filled with platitudes and vague promises about environmental issues where there is no fundamental difference between her and her opponents.

Vote for Jill Fonnemann (D). She also has a dog
plus far better ideas than her competitors 

I don’t expect her to dump ashes on her head and prostrate herself in front of Town Hall. But I do expect her to stop telling fairy tales about the way the CCA mismanaged Charlestown’s tax dollars and then tried to cover it up.

My choice for Council is Democrat Jill Fonneman who has been forthright about taking on Charlestown’s issues and pledges to work hard for fair taxation and trying to revitalize our blighted small business landscape. I blame the CCA’s business-hostile approach for our Boulevard of Broken Dreams (thank you, Green Day), better known as Route One where there are more shuttered businesses than growing concerns.

Boarded up derelict businesses are not compatible with Route One’s status as a Scenic Highway. Jill wants to see Charlestown make a concerted effort to turn this around.

Jill brings youth and solid business experience in boosting the Rathskeller’s success as well as fund-raising events to boost local charities and to assist the workers after the devastating fire at the Matunuck Oyster Bar. See video below.

Van Slyke brings nothing to the table but her awful past performance on the Council where she was the puppet of Charlestown Planning Commissar Ruth Platner. Van Slyke simply recites the tired old Platner-tudes about open space Über alles. If you think about it, a vote for Van Slyke is really a vote for her master Ruth Platner.

There’s no point in talking about mail-in or early voting since Monday and Tuesday are the last days to cast ballots. Now is the time to make your decision about whether you want to move forward with Jill Fonneman or take a big step backwards with Van Slyke.

Voting on December 2 (Tuesday) will take place ONLY at Town Hall from 7 AM to 8 PM.

Rhode Island state agencies helped kill open records reform

State Agencies like DEM Claim Public Records Reform a Burden

By Colleen Cronin / ecoRI News staff

When the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA)
ran the town, loopholes in the state open
records law were used to cover up shady deals

For several years, a Rhode Island public records reform bill has been introduced to the General Assembly, and each time it gets a hearing, several public bodies write to oppose the bill or express their concerns.

The Department of Environmental Management is regularly one of those bodies, writing in a May letter that the reforms would create additional burdens for the agency.

“DEM is one of the top recipients of [Access to Public Records Act] requests among state agencies,” director Terry Gray wrote in the letter outlining his concerns. “While we welcome the opportunity to provide more transparency in our work, it is an extremely resource-intensive process to comply even under existing law.”

DEM and nine other state agencies cited increased workload in their letters of concern or opposition to the bill, which would have expanded the definition of public records and tried to tamp down on some of the fees agencies charge, among other reforms.

ecoRI News requested and reviewed information from those departments on their public records requests from the last calendar year and found the volume of requests they receive varies greatly, with DEM coming out on or near the top for requests.

In 2024, DEM received 1,508 requests, most of which involved septic system and site remediation records, according to a list kept by the agency. Those types of documents are frequently requested during property transactions and transfers.

Of the agencies that responded to ecoRI News, either through an APRA or informal request, the Department of Health had the next highest number at 476 requests.

The Department of Public Safety, which wrote to the General Assembly with concerns about the proposed reforms, didn’t respond to ecoRI News requests by press time, but did estimate in its letter that it receives about 2,000 requests annually.

Five losses from Rhode Island’s 2025 legislative session

RIPTA, climate change, open records reform, school lunch and McKee's agenda lose out

By Nancy Lavin, Christopher Shea and Alexander Castro, Rhode Island Current

More than 2,500 bills and resolutions were introduced across both sides of the State House rotunda this year. But far fewer — about 300 when discounting resolutions extending congratulations and condolences, and granting officiants’ wedding rights — survived the six-month session.

Some were killed outright, while others were left to languish in political purgatory known as legislative committee, or without the necessary budget funding to survive. 

Earlier, we brought you five wins from the legislative session. Now, here are five losses.

1. Gas tax hike not enough to avoid layoffs and service reductions at RIPTA

Cuts are coming soon to the state’s public bus service. That’s even after the General Assembly propped up the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) with nearly $15 million in the fiscal year 2026 budget, including with revenue from a 2-cent increase in the state’s gas tax.

It wasn’t enough to fill what was a $32.6 million shortfall when Gov. Dan McKee released his version of the budget in January. After state lawmakers reduced the deficit to $18 million, RIPTA CEO Christopher Durand said 90 layoffs and a 20% reduction in service may be necessary.

Durand told reporters Thursday afternoon that the deficit was down to $10 million after the agency identified another $8 million in savings from a “favorable price lock” in diesel fuel, along with a positive market performance for the agency’s pension plan.

When cuts would take effect is still to be determined. The agency plans to hold a series of public hearings on potential service changes starting July 28. But RIPTA already has a guide available — an efficiency study of its operations and financial situation mandated in the state’s fiscal 2025 budget. The governor and legislative leaders wanted the agency to finish the study by March 1, but the board of directors was focused on finding a permanent CEO and didn’t commission Canadian engineering consulting firm WSP to conduct the study until March 27.

McKee still opposes desperately needed reforms to Rhode Island's public records law

When the Charlestown Citizens Alliance ran the town, we were a case study for abusive use of open records loopholes

By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current

When the CCA's guy Mark Stankiewicz
responded to open records, the town demanded
payment up front for the maximum charged
allowable by law. After you paid, you got
documents that looked like the above

Attempts to compromise haven’t appeared to reduce the state administration’s objections to reforming Rhode Island’s public records law.  

This year, advocates didn’t bother consulting with Gov. Dan McKee’s office for feedback prior to unveiling proposed changes to the Access to Public Records Act. 

Instead, they made the case directly to lawmakers, and the public, at a State House press conference Wednesday, one day before an initial Senate panel hearing on the legislation.

“Last year, we made a number of changes after dozens of meetings with the administration, and we still got opposition,” said John Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island. “We didn’t want to compromise against ourselves this year.”

Indeed, the companion bills introduced by Sen. Lou DiPalma, a Middletown Democrat, and Rep. Pat Serpa, a West Warwick Democrat, are nearly identical to the sweeping set of reforms pitched during the 2024 session. The bills failed to advance out of committee in either chamber last year, buried in a mountain of objections by state agencies.

Scott Pickering, publisher of East Bay Media Group and president of ACCESS/RI, called the administration’s past concerns “exaggerated” and “intended to create fear.”

“I don’t buy it,” Pickering said of arguments that the proposed reforms burdened state agencies and  jeopardized sensitive information. “Look at the groups supporting it. These are not radical groups hoping to undermine the government. These are groups devoted to the best interests of our democracy with noble intentions rooted in the public interest.”

Supporters also include the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island, the New England First Amendment Coalition, the League of Women Voters of Rhode Island and the Rhode Island Press Association, of which Rhode Island Current is a member.

McKee’s office did not respond to inquiries for comment Wednesday.

Sam's latest bad idea

Westerly Democrat sponsors bill that would increase cost of public records requests

By Christopher Shea, Rhode Island Current

When the CCA ran Charlestown, Town Administrator
Mark Stankiewicz demanded large sums to process open
records requests, citing many hours of work. Apparently,
many of those billable hours were spent blacking out
records before they were released. The result was
you got useless records like the one above with
a big price tag.  - Will Collette

The cost of public records requests in Rhode Island could rise under a bill being considered in the state’s House of Representatives.

Legislation introduced last month by Rep. Samuel Azzinaro, a Westerly Democrat, would increase the hourly fee from $15 to $25 for public bodies to search and retrieve public documents under the Access to Public Records Act (APRA), Rhode Island’s public records law. Documents would remain free for the first hour of a search.

Officials would also be allowed to refuse future requests if someone hasn’t paid for prior ones.

Azzinaro said he introduced the bill at the request of Westerly’s town clerk, who he said has spent a lot of time gathering records, only for the person who requested them not to show up.

“Now they won’t get a second one until they pay for the first one,” Azzinaro said Monday during Sunshine Week, which continues through Saturday, March 22. “That’s a lot of wasted time.”

The third week in March is a time when journalists and open records advocates call attention to the right of the public to access government records.

Similar legislation was filed by Azzinaro in 2024, but did not make it out of committee.

Azzinaro’s bill is at odds with many fellow Democrats who want to reduce costs for records requests made in the name of public interest, but their proposals have been shot down by Gov. Dan McKee and other state department leaders.

House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi has also expressed reservations over Azzinaro’s proposal.

“I have real concerns about charging additional money for public records’ requests,” Shekarchi said in a statement. “This bill will go through the normal legislative process and a public committee hearing will be scheduled.”

Azzinaro said he understands concerns over raising fees, but reiterated that public employees put in a lot of effort to collect documents that may go unused. Fees could still be waived at the discretion of a town clerk or state APRA team, he added.

Azzinaro’s bill was referred to the House Committee on State Government & Elections where it has yet to be scheduled for a hearing.

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