It was the Roman philosopher and orator Marcus Tullius Cicero who said, “There are more men ennobled by study than by nature.”

If that’s true, then the General Assembly must be very noble indeed. The Rhode Island legislature lists a total of 77 study commissions on its Web site. There’s a commission on “access to oral health,” and one on the taxicab industry. There’s one on “motor-vehicle noise pollution” and one on animal euthanasia. There’s the Governor’s Commission on Lyme Disease and the Special Senate Commission to Study the Health Effects of Toxic Mold.

Some of the names are inscrutable — for instance, the commission on “sustainability as applied to state government.” Legislative staff could not produce a list of that commission’s members, let alone describe its duties.

Like the General Assembly itself, the study commissions are exempt from the state’s Open Meetings Law and are not required to keep minutes, although some do so voluntarily, House Majority Leader Gordon D. Fox said last week.

Lawmakers formed at least 16 study commissions this year. Topics they will study include child care in Rhode Island, children with autism, the fiscal impact of education mandates, youth financial education and cyberbullying.

On April 25 alone, the House passed resolutions creating eight study commissions.

There’s a commission charged with studying the consolidation of school districts in Rhode Island, and a separate commission formed specifically to study consolidating the Newport, Portsmouth and Middletown school systems.

The lengthy list of commissions begs the question: Could some of the commissions themselves use consolidating?

Majority Leader Fox had this to say: “We have never turned down any member who wants to study an issue. … If members believe they have issues worth studying, then we will create a commission.”

A small minority of the commissions met actively this year and produced legislation. The House Oversight Commission to Monitor the Ramifications of the Fire Safety Code, headed by Rep. Peter T. Ginaitt, D-Warwick, and Rep. Joseph A. Trillo, R-Warwick, produced a bill aimed at relaxing some sections of the fire code — which the Assembly made much stricter in the wake of the 2003 Station nightclub fire — on the notion that some of the new requirements were unreasonably expensive for small businesses while providing only a marginal increase in safety.

Under the direction of Rep. Raymond W. Sullivan, D-Coventry, the Special Legislative Commission to Study All Aspects of the Kent County Water Authority issued a report whose recommendations included installing an additional pipeline to the Scituate Reservoir system, and revisiting the idea of building a reservoir in the Big River Management Area.

The decision to create a study commission is not always well-intended, says Peter Hufstader, research director for the watchdog group Common Cause of Rhode Island.

“Sometimes when a bill is doomed, it is converted into a study commission on the subject to help the sponsor save face and make the thing go away,” Hufstader said.

As an example, he mentioned a commission headed by Rep. Donna M. Walsh, D-Charlestown, to study the issue of using the merit selection process for choosing magistrates.

Walsh, who previously served in the Senate, sponsored legislation in 2002 to require screening of magistrates by the Judicial Nominating Commission and have them appointed by the governor and subject to Senate advice and consent, the same procedure used for judgeships. After a similar bill by Walsh died a year earlier, she was put in charge of the study commission. The 2002 bill passed the Senate, but died in the House.

Walsh said study commissions can be where ideas go to die, but in her case she was not able to keep pushing the issue the following year because she lost the 2002 election. She said the rhythm of life at the State House also makes it more difficult for study commissions to accomplish things. Lawmakers are hesitant to come in for meetings when the legislature isn’t in session, but they’re often too busy to meet during session, she said. “If study commissions would all work from September to December, I think things would be more productive,” she said.

As to the sheer number of commissions listed on the Assembly Web site, House spokesman Larry Berman said there is no established process for dissolving commissions that have not met recently.

In fact, there is no way to find out the last time any of the commissions met, other than asking a commission member, and the House speaker’s office was unable to provide membership information for more than half of the commissions listed.

In response to The Providence Journal’s inquiry, Fox promised that legislative staff would update the Web site to delete inactive commissions and “explore the possibility” of putting commission members’ names on the Web.

By Elizabeth Gudrais and Katherine Gregg

Journal State House Bureau