Providence Council president questions ‘strange arrangement’ with website GoLocalProv
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Providence City Council President David Salvatore is calling on news website GoLocalProv.com to return $67,500 that it received from the city over nearly two years as part of a no-bid contract to publish meeting notices.
Salvatore looked into the city’s “strange arrangement” with GoLocalProv through an audit of past city contracts, according to a statement sent by City Council Chief of Staff Emily Martineau.
The month-to-month contract entered into by then-Council President Luis Aponte in February 2016 states that the city will pay GoLocalProv $3,000 monthly to publish 100 notices and meeting agendas per month on its website. It also contains language suggesting a level of cooperation between Aponte and the website, Salvatore said.
Aponte said the contract was part of an effort to increase the City Council’s outreach and denied there was any cooperation between him and the website beyond the sharing of public meeting information and audience metrics. And GoLocalProv published a story Tuesday accusing Salvatore of seeking retaliation for recent unflattering coverage of him.
Paying GoLocalProv to publish the city’s meeting notices was unnecessary given the fact that in 2013, Providence launched an open meeting portal to provide easy online access to public meeting information, Salvatore said.
“I find this contract not to be useful in terms of providing more transparency and information to the public,” he said.
But Aponte said it was part of the City Council’s effort to reach a wider audience.
“It was part of a broader strategy to publicize the City Council’s affairs, meetings, ordinances, resolutions and what individual council people were proposing as projects,” he said.
The contract also includes a provision that suggests information sharing between Aponte and GoLocalProv, which was founded in 2010 by former City Councilman Josh Fenton.
“In order to effectively advocate the (Clerk’s Office of the City of Providence’s) interests, you have an affirmative obligation to cooperate with GoLocalProv during the course of this engagement,” the contract says. “In return, GoLocalProv agrees to keep (Clerk’s Office of the City of Providence) informed of relevant information and to consult with (Clerk’s Office of the City of Providence) regularly. Copies of significant correspondence, media coverage and relevant documents will be sent to (Clerk’s Office of the City of Providence).”
Salvatore asked whether this section of the contract could mean that Aponte was getting tipped off to stories related to City Hall or if there was an understanding that he would receive positive coverage from GoLocalProv, according to the City Council’s statement.
“I’m looking for a full accounting of what was exchanged between the two parties,” Salvatore said.
