WOONSOCKET, R.I. (WPRI) — The city of Woonsocket, Rhode Island’s human services director is stepping down, as the mayor takes new measures to screen documents before they are uploaded online after dozens of residents’ sensitive personal information was posted on the city’s website.
As NewsNation affiliate WPRI first reported, Woonsocket City Council scrapped a meeting Monday after a daily log of human services director Michael Houle was uploaded. The document contained the names, numbers, home addresses and even health conditions of dozens of residents he interacted with last year. In at least one instance, a resident’s social security number was included.
Houle said the document was uploaded in error and it wasn’t his fault. He’s stepping down from his position next Friday, although he said it’s because he’s reached a limit for how long a retired part-time worker can serve the city and his exit is unrelated to the current controversy.
“Unfortunately, the error occurred at the city clerks office,” Houle told WPRI on Tuesday. “I did what I was supposed to do as a director.”
News about the sensitive information being posted shocked many residents. Andrea Meyers, whose name, phone number and personal conversations with Houle were posted as part of the report, called the misstep “degrading.”
“I am bringing lawsuits forward because that’s not OK,” she told WPRI outside her Woonsocket home on Tuesday. “It can’t be corrected.”
Sheila Swahan echoed the frustration, saying she was “blown away” when she heard her personal information was made publicly available on the city’s website. The daily log was uploaded Friday and taken down over the weekend after city officials realized what had happened.
“They are supposed to protect us,” Swahan said about city officials. “They are not protecting us. Now we are getting all sorts of phone calls of harassment.”
Woonsocket Mayor Christopher Beauchamp and Houle both said the upload was a mistake.
At the request of a city councilor, Houle said he dropped off his daily log with the city clerk’s office last week. Houle said the document was only intended to be reviewed by the councilor, but instead it was attached to the City Council meeting agenda and posted publicly.
The city solicitor scrambled over the weekend to remove the document from both the city’s website and the state’s website. All Rhode Island public meetings are posted on the R.I. Secretary of State’s website in accordance with state law.
WPRI talked with four different people who said they were caught off guard when they learned from the news that their information was made public. Dozens of others are included in the document, which circulated widely among community members. It was posted in its entirety over the weekend on the website The Coalition Talk Radio Network.
Beauchamp said the city is in the process of reaching out to all residents whose names were made public and examining whether they can provide any types of services.
“I want them to pay for my identity protection,” Swahan said. “When our personal business is out there online for everyone to see it is out there in the world. It never goes away when it’s online. Never.”
Beauchamp said moving forward he’s directed the city solicitor to review all documents before they’re posted on the city website to ensure a similar issue doesn’t happen again.
“If it is not checked by the solicitor it will not be posted,” Beauchamp said.
