March 4, 2009
By TOM HOWELL JR.
Prompted by a citizen's complaint, a Superior Court judge Tuesday instructed Vernon Township to comply with state law by preparing minutes of executive sessions in time for approval and public release at its following meeting.
The ruling by Judge Theodore Bozonelis was in response to a lawsuit filed by Sparta resident Jesse Wolosky, who said his open records request for council minutes from August through November was not fulfilled, even after officials belatedly released a redacted set of minutes spanning January 2003 through August 2008.
"We were seeing the same pattern of behavior happening all over again," said Wolosky's attorney, Walter Luers.
In his lawsuit, Wolosky asked for the recent minutes and unredacted copies of his fulfilled, five-year request.
Township attorney Michael Witt produced an ordinance in court that would require the township clerk to produce draft minutes for approval at the next scheduled meeting.
"We did realize there was a backlog of these minutes," Witt said.
Bozonelis said the council had not been in compliance with open meeting and records laws in response to Wolosky's request for August through November 2008 minutes, and must pass the proposed ordinance, drafted almost verbatim from a similar dispute and resolution in Mountain Lakes, within 60 days.
According to the state Open Public Meetings Act, a public body must keep minutes of its meetings "showing the time and place, the members present, the subjects considered, the actions taken, the vote of each member, and any other information required to be shown in the minutes by law ..." and promptly make them available to the public.
The Vernon ordinance is scheduled for its first reading March 12 and likely would be subject to public comment and a second reading March 26, Witt said.
The judge said Wolosky was not entitled to fees or damages for the five-year request because the redacted portions can be mediated at a sit-down between the parties and the minutes had been released "voluntarily" Dec. 11, before Wolosky's request in January.
Outside the courtroom, parties noted the release of those records were prompted by a request from a Vernon resident, Jessi Paladini.
The judge did, however, order executive session minutes to be less vague and include a more detailed privilege log to explain redactions.
Witt said he would send the requested minutes to Wolosky immediately.
Bozonelis said Wolosky's litigation may have pushed the township into complying with the open meetings law, although the township was headed in that direction. He credited new blood in the township -- there have been three municipal clerks since Witt began in January 2008 -- with seeking to rectify a years-old problem.
Witt said it is unclear how far back the unreleased minutes go, but the township is preparing all of them for release.
"I've got them sitting on my desk," he said.
