---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT RELATING TO TOWNS AND CITIES - GENERAL POWERS (Requires that cities and towns comply with certain procedures when prosecuting defendants such as the right to counsel, and would amend the penalties imposed for ordinance violations.)"
description: "AN ACT RELATING TO TOWNS AND CITIES - GENERAL POWERS (Requires that cities and towns comply with certain procedures when prosecuting defendants such as the right to counsel, and would amend the penalties imposed for ordinance violations.)"
jurisdiction: "us/states/ri"
legislature: "Rhode Island General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "SB 71"
citation: "Rhode Island SB 71 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Cities & Towns", "Public Officers", "Courts"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Archambault", "Conley", "Jabour", "Lombardi", "McCaffrey"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 11
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2017-01-18"
last_action: "2017-06-29"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/b9a61dad-3aaf-4e22-8851-5a600cf8b483"
source_url: "http://status.rilin.state.ri.us/"
source_hash: "1f1f1f5c3b85f943e8ed071bb5e98eede57e91d28e15a28d9a6ff515116d8865"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ri"]
---

# Rhode Island SB 71 (2017) — AN ACT RELATING TO TOWNS AND CITIES - GENERAL POWERS (Requires that cities and towns comply with certain procedures when prosecuting defendants such as the right to counsel, and would amend the penalties imposed for ordinance violations.)

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **71 SUB A** (committee substitute) — [source](http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/BillText/BillText17/SenateText17/S0071A.pdf)

## Votes

- Passage — **34–0** (pass) · legislature
- IN CONCURRENCE — **70–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Archambault — primary (person)
- Conley — primary (person)
- Jabour — primary (person)
- Lombardi — primary (person)
- McCaffrey — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-01-18** 01/18/2017 Introduced, referred to Senate Judiciary `referral-committee, introduction`
- **2017-02-03** 02/03/2017 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration (02/07/2017)
- **2017-02-07** 02/07/2017 Committee recommended measure be held for further study
- **2017-06-16** 06/16/2017 Scheduled for consideration (06/20/2017)
- **2017-06-20** 06/20/2017 Committee recommends passage of Sub A `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-06-20** 06/20/2017 Placed on Senate Calendar (06/22/2017)
- **2017-06-22** 06/22/2017 Senate passed Sub A `passage`
- **2017-06-24** 06/24/2017 Placed on the House Consent Calendar (06/27/2017)
- **2017-06-27** 06/27/2017 House passed Sub A in concurrence `passage`
- **2017-06-28** 06/28/2017 Transmitted to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2017-06-29** 06/29/2017 Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/b9a61dad-3aaf-4e22-8851-5a600cf8b483`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Rhode Island legislature records).