Gorbea’s $20K Printing Sparks, “When Will RI Elected Officials Stop Using Taxpayer Funds Foolishly?"

Gorbea’s $20K Printing Sparks, “When Will RI Elected Officials Stop Using Taxpayer Funds Foolishly?"

With great fanfare, Rhode Island Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea announced that the "Rhode Island Owner’s Manual" has been printed.

The 5,500 copies of the book that lists everything from who is the state senator for district 1 to who the director of the Department of Environmental Management cost more than $20,000 to print.

Gorbea’s name is printed prominently on the cover of the manual.

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”You can find out pretty much how government works at every level," Gorbea said.

One catch— all the information in the book is can be found in a Google search.

Fiscal watchdog Ken Block said that “1,000% we should not be printing this book. It should simply be an online resource. When will Rhode Island elected officials stop using taxpayer funds foolishly?”

Gorbea’s office defends the printing cost and says that it is required by law.

The law may be outdated, "The secretary of state shall prepare in each odd-numbered year a legislative manual for the use of the general assembly, containing the rolls of membership, the committees, the rules and orders, and any other matter that the secretary may think proper. The number of manuals to be printed and bound will be determined by the secretary of state. Ten (10) copies shall be distributed to each of the senators and representatives of the general assembly; forty (40) copies shall be placed at the disposal of the governor; and the remainder shall be placed in the hands of the secretary of state. There shall be appropriated in each odd numbered year, an amount sufficient to cover the cost of printing and binding of the manual.”

When Gorbea’s office was asked what the Secretary had to say to critics who say this is just "old school" political wasteful spending, her spokesman said, “They should contact the General Assembly and suggest that the law be changed."      

“No, she has not submitted any legislation to remove the printing requirement,” said Gorbea’s spokesman Nick Domings.

Speaker of the House Nick Mattiello’s office was concerned about the cost. The GoLocal inquiry sparked action.

“We met today with a representative from the Secretary of State’s office to discuss the future printing of the owner’s manual. Should the secretary’s office wish to submit legislation to amend the state requirement of publishing the manual, the House would certainly consider such an amendment,” said Larry Berman, spokesman to Mattiello.

Online Version Is Not Searchable on Secretary of State's Website

The ability to find information on Gorbea’s site is often difficult.

GoLocal conducted numerous tests on the search function on the homepage of the Secretary of State’s website and found it difficult to find basic information.

The government directory — the online version of the “Owner’s Manual” does appear to be integrated to the search function the website.

“The functionality of the search is not very good. That's true of most RI government websites. The Ethics Commission, thankfully, still has an actual site-specific search function that allows you to keyword search advisory opinions. Kilmartin did away with similar functionality for APRA and OMA opinions years ago and it makes it all but impossible to search for specific decisions,” said John Marion of Common Cause.

“[The] Government Directory does contain a lot of outdated information and doesn't seem to link to the up-to-date Open Meetings Portal,” added Marion.

"Should we provide copies to those residents that don’t have access to computer ... yes," said Rhode Island GOP chair Sue Cienki. "But that’s what public libraries are for, they provide unbelievable service to residents."