Transparency NJ

Sometimes a municipal attorney may, due to illness, scheduling conflicts, or other reason, send a member of his or her firm to attend a municipal council meetings. In 1998, a question arose in North Wildwood City (Cape May County) as to whether the replacement needs to file a Financial Disclosure Statement with the City Clerk. […]

A weekly newspaper printed the story below about the New Jersey Libertarian Party’s efforts to get Milltown Borough (Middlesex County) to do a better job getting its municipal officers to file their Financial Disclosure Statements. My ethics complaint is on-line here. John PaffSomerset, New Jersey Advocate says officials violated disclosure laws Ethics Board chairman calls […]

I have recently written a letter to the municipal council and school board of South Bound Brook Borough (Somerset County) after being informed that the council and school board there each selected three of its members to serve on a joint committee to evaluate, without public observation, which items should be cut from a recently […]

At its May 6, 2009 meeting, the Board of Commissioners for the Borough of Longport Borough (Atlantic County) agreed to settle my Open Public Records Act and Open Public Meetings Act suit. I sued Longport, along with sixteen other Atlantic County municipalities last September, because the Borough failed to provide me with closed session minutes […]

The following question often arises: How long before a meeting must a public body make its meeting agenda available to the public? My town council has an annoying habit of not preparing its meeting agendas until about a half hour before the meeting starts. This makes it impossible for people to prepare their comments and […]