By JESSICA MASULLI REYES
SPARTA -- A four-year battle between a Sparta resident and
the township over public records will continue into next year regarding who
will pay $12,000 in disputed attorney fees.
In 2008, resident Jesse Wolosky filed two complaints with the
state's Government Records Council disputing redactions in executive session
minutes and the cost of audio recordings.
Sparta is appealing the decision that was in Wolosky's
favor, and the matter will move to an Appellate Court hearing in the next few months.
"Sparta appealed because we felt that the decision of
the administrative law judge was incorrect in both cases," said attorney
Richard Stein, of Laddey Clark & Ryan.
The initial Open Public Records Act requests were made by
Wolosky in April and August of 2008. In the first one, he requested audio
recordings of meeting on CDs in WAV format. He was told that the format would
have to be FTR Gold or he would have to pay $67 per CD for WAV format.
The 11 CDs and other fees would have cost a total of $673.85,
but the township later lowered the fee to $191.
Wolosky argued that he had received copies in WAV format for
$1 on previous OPRA requests and that FTR Gold would require him to have to
download a program to listen to the recordings.
However, Stein said this was not the case, since Sparta did
not have WAV format readily available.
"We feel that in that situation it should be the person
asking for the conversion, and not the taxpayers, who bear the cost," Stein said.
Wolosky filed a complaint in December 2008 with the
Government Records Council, the group that responds to complaints about public
records. The council initially ruled in favor of Sparta, but the council later
reconsidered the matter with further evidence and ruled in favor of Wolosky in
August 2010.
Wolosky then received the CDs in WAV format for a total of
$2.45.
Wolosky's attorney, Walter Luers, said he took on the case
because the audio recordings were too expensive.
"With respect to the recordings, I was always pretty
confident that the amounts that the township clerk quoted were very, very
high," Luers said.
The second complaint was filed in October 2008 after Wolosky
requested executive session minutes and Friday memo, which is a brief document
provided to the Township Council every week. The minutes and memo were redacted
in several places.
"We had redactions to the Friday memorandums and they
seemed pretty broad at the time so we asked the Government Records Council to
review them and usually with those reviews you will get something
un-redacted," Luers said.
The Government Records Council voted in favor of Wolosky and
some of the redactions had to be removed. Stein said that even though the
council voted in favor of Wolosky, only 68 of the 71 redactions had to be
released, meaning that the majority of the redactions were upheld.
"That left three redactions ... that had to be released
to Mr. Wolosky," Stein said.
Both of the cases then went to the Office of Administrative
Law, where it was decided that Luers would receive nearly $12,000 in attorney
fees from Sparta. But, Sparta has filed an appeal with the Appellate Court
regarding both cases.
Although Wolosky has already received the reduced-price CDs
and un-redacted documents, both sides are now fighting over the fees. OPRA law
states that the prevailing party's attorney should receive reasonable fees from
the losing party, especially since these cases are taken on by attorneys
without pay from their client.
"The only thing Sparta would get would be that we
wouldn't have to pay the attorney fee to Mr. Wolosky's attorney," Stein
said about Sparta winning.
Stein added that the administrative law judge slightly cut
Luers' fees, and Luers is now appealing that decision.
"If Sparta didn't appeal it, my lawyer would have settled
for what the Government Records Council ruled," Wolosky said.
If Wolosky wins, then Sparta may have to pay a higher
attorney fee, since Luers is continuing to fight the case. Luers said his
appeals usually range anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 on top of any prior
reasonable attorney fees, but he didn't know the exact bill on this case.
Wolosky said these appeals are not actually beneficial to
Sparta.
"What is the benefit to the taxpayers to push this to
the Appellate Court?" Wolosky asked. "Do they want to prove me wrong
after I won in two courts?"
He said this continues to incur more attorney fees on both
sides.
"They are creating a bigger pay day for (my attorney),
and now they are creating a pay day for themselves," Wolosky said.
"The township attorneys are milking the town."
The two cases will go to trial in the coming months, but a
date has not yet been set.
