---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT RELATING TO TOWNS AND CITIES -- GENERAL POWERS (Authorizes the Middletown municipal court to impose fines not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000.00) for the violation of the town's short-term residential leases ordinance. Such violation shall be considered a civil violation.)"
description: "AN ACT RELATING TO TOWNS AND CITIES -- GENERAL POWERS (Authorizes the Middletown municipal court to impose fines not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000.00) for the violation of the town's short-term residential leases ordinance. Such violation shall be considered a civil violation.)"
jurisdiction: "us/states/ri"
legislature: "Rhode Island General Assembly"
session: "2018"
identifier: "SB 2686"
citation: "Rhode Island SB 2686 (2018)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Cities & Towns", "Courts", "Fees", "Middletown"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["DiPalma"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 19
vote_count: 3
first_action: "2018-03-20"
last_action: "2018-07-04"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/3fd35c3f-b6f4-4f9a-9296-b7c289c98733"
source_url: "http://status.rilin.state.ri.us/"
source_hash: "c0d36c4cf624b3300a324cc4a52c3b033444a44c1cb5cc87798c3bacb3fd777b"
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 2686 (2018) — AN ACT RELATING TO TOWNS AND CITIES -- GENERAL POWERS (Authorizes the Middletown municipal court to impose fines not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000.00) for the violation of the town's short-term residential leases ordinance. Such violation shall be considered a civil violation.)

## Version chain

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

1. **2686 SUB B** (committee substitute) — [source](http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/BillText/BillText18/SenateText18/S2686B.pdf)

## Votes

- Passage — **34–0** (pass) · upper
- In Concurrence — **33–0** (pass) · upper
- PASSAGE — **67–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- DiPalma — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2018-03-20** 03/20/2018 Introduced, referred to Senate Judiciary `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2018-04-06** 04/06/2018 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration (04/12/2018)
- **2018-04-12** 04/12/2018 Committee recommended measure be held for further study
- **2018-05-04** 05/04/2018 Scheduled for consideration (05/08/2018)
- **2018-05-08** 05/08/2018 Committee recommended measure be held for further study
- **2018-05-25** 05/25/2018 Scheduled for consideration (05/29/2018)
- **2018-05-29** 05/29/2018 Committee recommends passage of Sub A `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2018-05-30** 05/30/2018 Placed on Senate Calendar (06/05/2018)
- **2018-06-05** 06/05/2018 Senate passed Sub A `passage`
- **2018-06-06** 06/06/2018 Referred to House Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2018-06-21** 06/21/2018 Committee transferred to House Municipal Government
- **2018-06-21** 06/21/2018 Scheduled for consideration (06/21/2018)
- **2018-06-21** 06/21/2018 Committee recommends passage of Sub B `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2018-06-22** 06/22/2018 Placed on House Calendar (06/22/2018)
- **2018-06-22** 06/22/2018 House passed Sub B `passage`
- **2018-06-23** 06/23/2018 Placed on Senate Calendar (06/23/2018)
- **2018-06-23** 06/23/2018 Senate passed Sub B in concurrence `passage`
- **2018-06-26** 06/26/2018 Transmitted to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2018-07-04** 07/04/2018 Effective without Governor's signature `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/3fd35c3f-b6f4-4f9a-9296-b7c289c98733`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Rhode Island legislature records).