At the May 10, 2011 Runnemede (Camden County) Board of Education executive session, Board Attorney Philip E. Stern, Esq. said that he would contact me and another citizen “requesting that [we] cease and desist [filing OPRA requests] under possible charges of harassment.” The minutes of the closed meeting, which I learned about just today, are available on the Board’s site as well as here.
According to the minutes, I and two other citizens were filing Open Public Records Act (OPRA) requests “in an effort to find some information to support [a] suspicion . . . that some fraud or unethical events occurred.” Board attorney Phillip Stern opined that “the volume and nature [of the OPRA requests] has been expanding and interferes with the ability to administer the district.”
I confess that I am guilty as charged. I filed two OPRA requests with the Board–on April 7, 2011 and May 7, 2011–in an attempt to find out why the Board entered into a settlement agreement with its former business administrator and gave her a seven-month paid leave of absence at her annual salary of $99,465. The Board’s responses to my two OPRA requests resulted in my June 3, 2011 lawsuit against the Board: That lawsuit is on-line here.
For unknown reasons, Stern never followed through on his promise to send me a “cease and desist” letter.
