Can a public body block release of meeting minutes under OPRA simply by failing to approve them?

Governmental bodies are required to keep minutes of their public meetings under the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA), but release of those records is largely governed by the Open Public Records Act (OPRA). Though the OPMA requires that minutes be “promptly available,” court and GRC decisions have sanctioned long-term non-release of minutes on the grounds Read More …

GRC’s Parave-Fogg decision challenged to bring unapproved minutes under OPRA

The GRC decided in Parave-Fogg v. Lower Alloways Creek Township that public meeting minutes are exempt from OPRA as “inter-agency, intra-agency advisory, consultative, or deliberative material” until they are approved by the public body. This often results in unreasonable delays in public access to these records. Delays of several years are not uncommon. The GRC Read More …

Lawsuit argues that 3-yr old, unapproved, public meeting minutes are not “deliberative”

Many people who have sought public meeting minutes have heard the familiar refrain, “the minutes are not approved for release.” That would seem to imply that failure of a governing body to adopt a set of minutes could forever block their release, even for minutes of an open public meeting. The OPMA and OPRA laws Read More …