Should elected officials be allowed to phone in to public meetings?

Allowing the members of a public body to attend its public meetings by phone is a practice increasingly mired in controversy. Should it be legal in other than emergency or special circumstances? Certainly, members of the public can’t do it — i.e., a town resident who monitors a public meeting remotely via open phone line Read More …

ELEC has oversight authority, rules Appellate Court

An Appellate Court has ruled that the lack of appointees to the Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) doesn’t limit the agency’s statutory authority to enforce the state’s campaign finance laws. In a published decision, the 3-judge Appellate Division panel overturned a ruling by an Administrative Law Judge who said that an ELEC investigation could not Read More …

Appellate Court finds “knowing and willful” violation of OPRA

In this Records Act case involving the City of Orange (Essex County), the the Government Records Council (GRC) found that there was no knowing and willful violation of OPRA, but the Appellate Division ruled that there was evidence of it and reversed the GRC. The case was remanded to the GRC. The Appellate Division’s June Read More …

Two courts rule for release of informal or draft settlement documents. Two more cases pending.

A 9/14/2016 decision by an Essex County Superior Court judge favored a records requestor seeking a settlement confirmation letter pertaining to a lawsuit against Caldwell Borough. The court ruled that the letter was disclosable under OPRA even though the settlement had not been formally approved. That makes two such decisions now supporting the early release Read More …

CASE SUMMARY: LFTG v. Borough of Caldwell

  Case Name:  Libertarians for Transparent Government (LFTG) v. Borough of Caldwell Docket Number:  ESX-L-005197-16 County:  Essex Filing Date:  August 3, 2016 Presiding Judge:   Covello, Frank Status:  Closed   Overview: The complainant sought settlement correspondence and draft agreements traded between the parties to a lawsuit in which the Borough of Caldwell was the defendant. At Read More …