Readers may recall from numerous news articles that in April 2019, the Union County Prosecutor's Office (UCPO) concluded that former City of Elizabeth Police Director James Cosgrove used "racist and misogynistic" language in the workplace. The Attorney General issued a press release confirming the internal affairs investigation's findings, calling on Cosgrove to resign, and making leadership changes at UCPO.
After UCPO denied an OPRA request for Cosgrove's internal affairs reports, CJ Griffin filed a lawsuit on behalf of Plaintiff Richard Rivera seeking access to the reports ...
Last week, Bergen County Assignment Judge Bonnie J. Mizdol issued an opinion finding that the Borough of North Arlington unlawfully imposed a special service charge upon a records requestor who sought records from the Borough's Facebook pages.
The OPRA request at issue in Wronko v. North Arlington sought the list of individuals who had been banned from the Borough's Facebook page, as well as a list of any words that had been censored and the list of page administrators. In response, the Borough insisted it needed to use an outside IT consultant to capture the screenshots necessary to ...
OPRA permits agencies to withhold most criminal investigatory records, but requires them to disclose certain enumerated information to the public:
if an arrest has been made, information as to the name, address and age of any victims unless there has not been sufficient opportunity for notification of next of kin of any victims of injury and/or death to any such victim or where the release of the names of any victim would be contrary to existing law or court rule. In deciding on the release of information as to the identity of a victim, the safety of the victim and the victim's family, and the ...
The third exception to OPRA’s personnel records exemption provides that:
data contained in information which disclose conformity with specific experiential, educational or medical qualifications required for government employment or for receipt of a public pension, but not including any detailed medical or psychological information, shall be a government record.
[N.J.S.A. 47:1A-10.]
In Kovalcik v. Somerset Cty. Prosecutor's Office, 206 N.J. 581, 593 (2011), the Supreme Court has made it clear that this exception does not authorize disclosure of all records that ...
OPRA provides that a public agency must grant access to a record “as soon as possible, but not later than 7 business days after receiving a request.” Public agencies also are required to make other records available “immediately,” which should mean that you can walk into town hall and obtain a copy or at least receive a copy within 24 hours. Those records include “budgets, bills, vouchers, contracts, including collective negotiations agreements and individual employment contracts, and public employee salary and overtime information.”
Most people who have filed OPRA ...
Several of Pashman Stein’s OPRA cases have been covered extensively by the press lately. Here is a rundown of the coverage.
McClimate v. Cumberland County
The Daily Journal has covered McClimate v. Cumberland County, a case where Pashman Stein has filed a suit on behalf of a retired county employee who seeks records pertaining to her insurance coverage. Despite repeated requests that the county provide the actual cost sheet that Horizon Blue Cross gave the county, the county instead insisted on providing only a summary chart that it created. Ms. McClimate seeks the actual cost ...
Continuing with our Sunshine Week theme, today’s blog focuses on Harry Scheeler. Recently, CJ Griffin of Pashman Stein secured a victory on Mr. Scheeler’s behalf against the Office of the Governor, which had denied access to RSVP lists for those attending Governor Christie’s Town Halls.
Interview with Harry Scheeler:
- When and how did you initially become interested in the open government movement?
I first became interested in open government as a teenager. In the early 1990s the police department in my hometown was given cell phones for the purpose of calling judges for ...
It is common that a requestor will seek a record that is required by law to be made. Thinking that she is being helpful to the Records Custodian and making her request clearer, the requestor will often cite the particular law when making her request. Requestors who do this should be careful, as Records Custodians will often deny the request on the basis that it requires them to perform "research."
A good example of this issue occurred in the case Bart v. Passaic County Public Housing Agency, 406 N.J. Super. 445 (App. Div. 2009). There, the requestor (Bart) sought "signs currently posted in ...
Some public agencies routinely deny access to invoices for attorney services, claiming that such bills contain information protected by the attorney-client privilege. OPRA, however, specifically mandates that these bills must be made available in response to an OPRA request. The public bills may, however, “be redacted to remove any information protected by the attorney-client privilege.”
Recently, a public agency attempted to charge a requestor an hourly rate for its attorney’s time to review the legal bills and redact them for privileged information. The public ...
