To the editor:
To anyone in Portsmouth that thinks the Aquidneck Island Planning Commission’s (AIPC) West Side Forum is anything but an end run around the Open Meetings Act for the …
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To the editor:
To anyone in Portsmouth that thinks the Aquidneck Island Planning Commission’s (AIPC) West Side Forum is anything but an end run around the Open Meetings Act for the Portsmouth West Side Development Advisory Committee (WSDAC), you are just not paying attention.
Of the present seven members of WSDAC and its council liaison, five are either present or past members of the AIPC board of directors. WSDAC chair Robert Andrews is a present AIPC board member.
Mr. Andrews announced at the April 25 meeting of WSDAC that AIPC was holding a West Side Forum, it would be by invitation only (no public allowed), the seven members of WSDAC are invited, and he was “chosen” to be the moderator.
This forum is discussing the business that WSDAC was set up by our town council to do in public meetings. I submit that WSDAC, a Portsmouth town advisory committee, is avoiding conducting their business at a public meeting by this ruse.
When the council voted to require an increase in their membership, WSDAC did not get their way to keep their committee at only the seven original insiders. They are now having a private forum before any new members can be seated and the public is not allowed to attend. They did not think that any interested residents would figure this out?
I believe the West Side Development Advisory Committee and its chair are still not acting with honesty, integrity and transparency in carrying out their mission.
Nancy Grieb
110 Thayer Drive
Portsmouth