Desautel Browning Law files public records complaints on behalf of North Kingstown against Narragansett Bay Commission and Quonset Development Corporation
NEWPORT, RI, August 25, 2026 — Desautel Browning Law has filed two complaints with the Rhode Island Office of the Attorney General’s Open Government Unit, alleging that the Narragansett Bay Commission and the Quonset Development Corporation failed to comply with the state Access to Public Records Act. The firm filed the complaints Aug. 25 on behalf of its client, the Town of North Kingstown.
The complaints arise from public records requests the Town submitted May 18 seeking records concerning the proposed QSS Biosolids project and related biosolids, sludge-processing, pyrolysis and waste management operations. Both public bodies invoked a 20-business-day extension to May 28 on the ground that the requests were voluminous.
Along with its extension, the Narragansett Bay Commission demanded $2,287.50 in advance and took the position that its response period was tolled until the Town paid. In explaining that figure, the Commission said responding would require about 752.5 hours of search and retrieval time – more than 18 forty-hour workweeks for a single records request – and that the prepayment represented roughly 20% of a projected cost exceeding $11,000.
In an Aug. 13 response, the Commission disclosed that it had consulted its information security manager to develop a computerized search method and that well over 35 hours went into writing code and scripts. The Commission takes the position that those programming hours are compensable search-and-retrieval time under the act.
The firm’s complaint asks the Rhode Island Attorney General to determine whether time spent developing computer code, scripts and electronic search methodology is properly chargeable to a requester, and whether the Commission adequately established that the programming was necessary. The complaint notes that related records requests to other governmental entities produced responsive records without any claim that hundreds of hours of search time or custom code were required.
The complaint also states that the Town invoked the state Access to Public Records Act’s provision barring charges for the first hour of search and retrieval and asked the Commission to produce any responsive records that hour discovered, so the request could be narrowed. The Commission responded that the free hour did not produce records, despite having reported that 19 search terms applied to the files of 13 individuals identified about 19,742 emails. No responsive records have been produced.
The second complaint concerns the adequacy of a partial denial. The Quonset Development Corporation produced some records on June 25 but withheld others, stating generally that certain documents were not deemed public under the act. According to the complaint, that response did not identify the records withheld, state which exemption applied to which record, address whether any portion was reasonably segregable or identify the procedures for appealing the denial.
The complaint states that when the Town asked July 8 for a log identifying the withheld records and the exemption asserted for each, the Corporation replied July 23 that it was not aware of any provision of the act requiring such a log. After a second written demand Aug. 6, the Corporation said Aug. 14 that it withheld attorney communications, limited preliminary drafts of agreements and limited financial information, that it had determined none of those records contained reasonably segregable information, and it provided appeal procedures – about seven weeks after the original denial.
The complaint argues that the act requires a specific written denial at the time records are withheld, not an iterative process in which a requester must first receive a categorical withholding, then ask what was withheld, then receive more of an explanation.
Attorney Marisa Desautel says, about both of the complaints, “These requests were made by the Town on behalf of its citizens. The public should not have to fight its own public agencies for access to public records, and it certainly should not have to pay thousands of dollars or send repeated legal demands just to find out what information the government has.”
In both matters, the firm is asking the Attorney General to investigate and determine whether the act was violated. The complaints ask that the Commission be required to recalculate its estimate and resume processing the request, and that the Corporation be required to provide a legally sufficient written explanation for each withholding and release all reasonably segregable non-exempt information. Both complaints reserve the Town’s right to file suit in Superior Court and to seek recovery of attorneys’ fees and costs.
Marisa Desautel of Desautel Browning Law is counsel for the town of North Kingstown in both matters. Copies of both complaints are available from the firm on request.
About Desautel Browning Law
Desautel Browning Law is an environmental, energy and land use law firm based in Newport, Rhode Island, founded by attorneys Marisa Desautel and Kerin Browning. The firm represents municipalities, property owners, developers, businesses and community groups in permitting, regulatory compliance and litigation before state and federal agencies, municipal boards and the courts of Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut. More at desautelbrowning.com. Email: info@desautelbrowning.com, visit 38 Bellevue Avenue Unit B Newport, RI 02840, or call 401.477.0023.
