Transparency NJ

At its August 20, 2009 meeting, the Union County Freeholders will read an apology that it recently negotiated with the New Jersey American Civil Liberties Union. The County’s letter to the ACLU in which it agreed to apologize is on-line here. The ACLU’s involvement came in response to the Freeholder Board’s informal “rule” that prohibits […]

I recently sued the Hoboken City Council on a single issue: Did the City Council violate the Meetings Act’s “promptly available” mandate by refusing to disclose even redacted minutes of an executive session held approximately eight months earlier? Instead of proceeding by summons and complaint, as I normally do, I asked the court to issue […]

On October 3, 2008, I filed a civil complaint against seventeen (17) Atlantic County municipalities to challenge their noncompliance with the Sen. Byron M. Baer Open Public Meetings Act. The suit concluded yesterday. Of the seventeen defendant municipalities, I entered into Consent Judgments with sixteen of them and won a summary judgment against one. Copies […]

The Government Records Council (GRC) will hold its annual seminar on the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) on Wednesday, August 26, 2009, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the New Jersey State Museum Auditorium, 205 West State St., Trenton. The seminar is open to all, free of charge and no pre-registration is required. There is […]

Update:  On January 25, 2010, the New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the Appellate Division’s holding that a “confidential” settlement agreement between a civil litigant and a public agency or employee is a a public record.  Click here.  In a July 20, 2009 Order, the New Jersey Supreme Court agreed to review the Appellate Division’s […]