Cape May County requires ID to attend public meetings

Cape May County Freeholders began this year to require ID to attend their public meetings, according to the below article. Supposedly it’s for security purposes, but the ACLU-NJ says there is no legitimate reason for it. It’s easy to see how the ID requirement could dissuade persons from attending a public meeting. -NJFOG     Read More …

Court to review Housing Authority’s OPMA violations

UPDATE (8/20/2015) – The summary judgment hearing scheduled for 08/21/15 has been CANCELLED.  Judge Hely will decide the matter on the papers submitted. UPDATE (8/22/2015) – See bottom of this post for the list of case documents to date. UPDATE (9/9/2015) – The trial court ruled in NJFOG’s favor on OPRA counts.  However, although the Summit Housing Authority has not prepared minutes Read More …

Summit Housing Authority sued for public meeting and records violations

UPDATE (8/22/2015) – See bottom of this post for the list of case documents to date. — Press Release July 9, 2015 For immediate release CONTACT: New Jersey Foundation for Open Government (NJFOG) https://njfog.org/contact/ The Housing Authority used to keep minutes for its non-public meetings – they are required to – but stopped a few years ago. At 10:00 Read More …

NJFOG wins judgments against Trenton school board

This is a good article about the issues in the NJFOG v. Trenton School Board case, which highlights the systemic issues with regard to Open Public Meetings Act compliance statewide.  –NJFOG N.J. open records group wins judgments against Trenton school board By Kevin Shea NJ.com June 30, 2015 (Full article here and posted below) TRENTON – Read More …

League of Municipalities called “a bad partner,” blamed for halting OPMA and OPRA reform

Disappointingly, OPMA and OPRA reform bills S781 and S782, which were scheduled for a 6/23 vote by the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, were pulled from the Committee’s agenda.  This follows multiple revisions and intense negotiations by many interested parties.  NJFOG, the ACLU-NJ, NJPA and SPJ-NJ all supported the bills with Senator Weinberg’s amendments, which Read More …