January 28, 2011
By MIKE CONDON, Staff Writer Observer-Tribune
HARDING TWP. – If there are, indeed, changes to the state’s Open Public Records Act (OPRA) legislation designed to stem abuses, municipal clerks around the state might just have Harding Township to thank.
When the Township Committee met on Wednesday, Jan. 19, Mayor Marshall Bartlett said a complaint forwarded to Assemblyman Jon Bramnick R-Morris, seems to be getting some traction.
“Mr. Bramnick has indicated that he will submit legislation which would give a municipality seven days to respond if we are told that we inadvertently failed to give information as part of an OPRA request,” Bartlett said.
That seven days would be required, should the OPRA legislation be amended, before a requestor could file a complaint, alleging that the municipality and, more specifically, the township clerk, failed to comply.
What occurred in Harding, Bartlett explained, was that a voluminous request from a Sparta resident was forwarded to Township Administrator Gail McKane. Most of the information was provided with the allotted seven day period, but the township hesitated on one item; McKane’s home address.
Bartlett said that the second the seven day period expired, the individual, Jesse Wolosky, filed a complaint with the Government Records Council.
“This legislation would require that he would have to come back to us first, and ask for the information again, before filing the complaint,” Bartlett said.
The end result of such a complaint being filed, he said, is that the township and McKane personally could be fined.
Township Attorney Laura Lande said the township- or any municipality- has seven days to comply once the request is filed.
Lande said seven days is “reasonable,” and said the state legislature should be amenable to that. “If we asked for 30 days, they wouldn’t go along with that,” she said.
Committeeman Ned Ward said, however, that this potential legislation amendment does not go far enough.
“These people (like Wolosky) are gaming the system,” he said.
“This will give us more time, but they are still gaming the system. They should have to show that what they are doing (via the request for information) is in the public good,” he said.
Lande said, however, that that flies in the face of why the OPRA law was enacted initially.
“I doubt we would get very far with that argument. Most of the OPRA requests are legit and reasonable. Most people who request something are not playing games. And this law is designed to protect those people,” she said.
The first seven days, Lande said, is to acknowledge the request, and begin to fill it.
“We have proposed to the Legislature that if a substantial demand is made, and something is left out, we have a little time to correct that. We left one thing out, and by the seventh day, he (Wolosky) filed a complaint at the close of business on the seventh day,” she said.
“We are asking that before a request can be deemed as denied, you have to come back to the custodian of those records and they will have another seven days to comply before you can file a complaint,” she said.
Bartlett agreed.
“Jesse Wolosky was just trying to trap us,” he said.
He also said he will ask Bramnick if items such as a township administrator’s home address can be exempted from the OPRA law.
McKane said that more than 40 hours in manpower went into filling the requests, and most of the information was provided within five days; not the seven days permitted.
“This (her home address) was the one thing he got me on. We looked at it, and did not think it was public information. Obviously, I was wrong,” she said.
“And as a result, we may have to pay his attorney fees, and I can be fined personally,” she said.
Lande agreed with McKane.
“In this case, we gave him most of the requested information within five days. He knew this one little thing was missing, and he waited until time had expired, and then filed a complaint,” she said.
Bartlett also questioned Wolosky’s motive.
“He had no business asking for all of this, but that doesn’t matter,” he said.
“But, if we can get a change in the law, that will be great. To get legislation changed in New Jersey is a triumph. So, we’ll shoot for this and not ask for too much,” he said.
