February 8, 2011
By MIKE CONDON, Staff Writer Recorder Community Newspapers Observer-Tribune
HARDING TWP. – Don’t tell Sparta resident Jesse Wolosky that he doesn’t know the intricate ins and outs of the state Open Public Records Act (OPRA).
An investor, Wolosky classified himself Friday in a lengthy interview as an “activist and an advocate.”
And, last summer, he set his sites on making sure Harding Township’s custodian of public records- Township Administrator Gail McKane- was in compliance with all OPRA regulations.
It turns out, he said, that she was not.
And, as a result, Wolosky has filed a complaint with the Government Records Council (GRC), which oversees OPRA-related complaints.
Last month, the Harding Township Committee fired back, asking legislators to amend the OPRA legislation to give municipalities more time to respond to requests that may be missing certain elements before a complaint could be filed.
They said Wolosky was trying to make money via attorney fees, which the township may have to pay if it is found to be not in compliance. They said OPRA requests such as his are frivolous, and costly.
Wolosky said, however, that a very recent amendment to the OPRA law is headed in exactly the opposite direction; it holds custodians of public records more accountable.
Previously, for example, he said the law said custodians could be fined if they “knowingly and willfully” withheld public information.
As of Jan. 31, the law states the clerk could be held responsible if he/she “arbitrarily” withheld information.
“Before, you would have needed nothing less than a confession from the custodian of public information that they withheld information. Now, the GRC will have an easier time ruling against the custodian,” he said.
An OPRA advocate, Wolosky said that, contrary to claims made by Harding Township officials, he is not trying to specifically target Harding, nor is he trying to “trap” them.
Instead, he said, he has, for the past three or four years, randomly solicited information from towns and school boards, in every county, around the state.
“I challenge them to make sure they are in compliance with OPRA. I am randomly checking for transparency. I go county to county and I submit OPRA requests, just to make sure that they know the law and that they are following the law,” he said.
This past summer, he targeted towns and school boards in Morris County. And that’s where he hit a snag in Harding Township.
For starters, he said, Harding was not complying with the law which requires executive session minutes to be approved by the governing body within 30 days for release to the public.
He did not, however, file a complaint over that.
“The whole idea behind this is to get these government agencies to comply with the law. Nobody is watching them. The GRC and the Superior Court only gets involved if there is a complaint filed,” he said.
Another example he said he finds frequently, although not necessarily in Harding, is that towns and school boards overcharge for the CD or cassette tape of a public meeting.
“They are supposed to charge only the cost of the CD or the tape, which is about 35 cents to 65 cents. Some towns I have found are charging $195 for a CD. That is against the law,” he said.
“In my very first OPRA request in Harding, they were in violation of the Open Public Meetings Act, because they hadn’t released their executive session minutes. I didn’t file a case over that,” he said.
“They were also unwilling to e-mail or fax requests, which the law also requires.
“When I asked her (McKane) for the executive session minutes, they had not been approved yet. If I wanted to trap them, as they claim, I could have filed a Superior Court action then,” he said.
“If they work with me, I will give them the time they ask for to comply,” he said.
After disagreeing with a municipal issue in Sparta, he said he “started to look around” at other towns.
“I found that it’s all over, everywhere. They are pushing residents around, and it wasn’t just my town and my board of education,” he said.
“The more I looked into it, the more I found that these towns and school boards can’t even follow their own laws. Government agencies are violating the law, and when I find that, I take them to court, and I have won in Superior Court many times,” he said.
“Many times, the judge agrees with me. They come back and say I’m wasting taxpayer money, and I’m taking money away from the children, but my response is simple, follow the law” he said.
McKane also has said Wolosky requested her home address, and said that was the one piece of information that she withheld temporarily, prompting his complaint.
Wolosky said, however, that it was much more than that.
“The law says you can redact certain items on public documents, but it has to be clearly marked as a redaction, with a black marker. She (McKane) simply used White Out, with no reason given, and you can’t do that,” he said.
“She redacted her address from a financial disclosure statement. If you are a public employee, your address is public, as is your salary and all of your employment information.
“She would not disclose her net pay. I asked her for a pay stub, and she whited out her net pay,” he said.
“She makes $133,000 by the way,” he said. “But, that was redacted without giving a reason. You are a public employee, but you don’t want to show me how much you make?”
He also took exception to Harding Township Attorney Laura Lande’s claim that he had to wait seven days before filing a non-compliance complaint.
“I could have filed a complaint on the second day, but I didn’t do that,” he said.
McKane was on vacation and was not available for comment on Wolosky’s comments.
Mayor Marshall Bartlett said Assemblyman Jon Bramnick, R-Morris, has introduced legislation that will permit a municipality another seven days to respond, after it is made aware that a submission of information was deficient.
“We’ve also asked them to look into having it off limits to request a home address of an administrator,” Bartlett said.
“I have never met Mr. Wolosky. I have never spoken to him, but I do know that at the end of the seventh day, he didn’t come back and tell us we were missing something. He filed a complaint with the Government Records Council,” he said.
“And there is no good reason, that I have heard, that he needs any of this information. Towns are extremely short of money and manpower right now, and I certainly think Mr. Wolosky should take that into consideration,” he said.
“Harding Township wants to comply with OPRA, and we did furnish Mr. Wolosky with a great deal of information, and only a few small points were defective,” Bartlett said.
Showing posts with label Y) Observer-Tribune. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Y) Observer-Tribune. Show all posts
20110210
Legislature to consider changing public records process
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)