I’m trying to keep my promise to keep everything open and available for review.”

Bristol Town Clerk Melissa Medeiros

New Town Clerk Melissa Cordeiro has enacted one of her campaign promises by making available for download on the town website enormous packets of public information that were previously available upon request.

Bristol Town Council meeting agendas typically have dozens of items open for public discussion, as well as scores of reports, letters and correspondence that the councilors receive but do not discuss. All of the backup materials behind those agenda items, including requests from the public, recommendations from the town’s attorneys, reports from town departments and more, is part of the town council meeting, though not necessarily seen by the public. It has always been made available if someone requested it from the clerk’s office.

On Tuesday, the day before the Dec. 30 council meeting, Ms. Cordeiro posted the packet of documents (some 400 pages) on the town website. It’s not exactly the way she would like it to be, as the documents are not searchable, itemized or linked directly to the council agenda items. She said many other Rhode Island cities and towns use a web-based software that stores these documents and makes them searchable — “You can search Warren Town Council minutes back to 1920,” she said — and she’d like to get Bristol onto the same or a similar platform. For now, she posted the Dec. 30 materials as large .pdfs available for download.

“I’m trying to keep my promise to keep everything open and available for review,” Ms. Cordeiro said. “There’s really no reason not to post this. We have a great local government, there’s nothing to hide, and we can be as open as possible with the public.”

Ms. Cordeiro said her goal is to post town council agendas the Friday before a meeting and provide councilors with the backup materials at the same time. She will then make all the backup documents available to the public 48 hours in advance of the meetings, typically on a Monday. That gives the councilors time to review everything before the public gets access and might hunt them down with questions or concerns.

“I strongly believe that transparency is the fundamental component to strengthen our democracy. The residents of Bristol should have greater access to the information shaping the policies where we live, work , and raise our families.  The information will be available online, in some way, shape, or form, until I can integrate more effective and efficient solutions,” Ms. Cordeiro said.

To find the council documents, go to the Town Council section of the Bristol website (bristolri.gov), then scroll down to “Meeting Packets.”