New Jersey Taxpayers Pay the Price for State Withholding Public Records

From January 2012 through March 4, 2016, the State had to reimburse over $1 million to successful plaintiffs for their legal fees in 54 cases involving requests for records.  That taxpayer-funded tab doesn’t even include defense and other costs.  -NJFOG — NBCPhiladelphia.com “New Jersey Taxpayers Pay the Price for Christie Withholding Public Records” by Josh Cornfield March Read More …

Port Authority of NY/NJ to comply with OPRA, it says

On Dec. 6, we shared John Paff’s post about the Port Authority’s failure to comply with the Open Public Records Act, a law it first became subject to in late June.  Now, some six months following the effective date of the new legislation, the agency plans to adopt procedures for handling OPRA requests. -NJFOG Dec. 16, 2015 Port Read More …

Chester Township works to maintain, protect records

It’s always nice to see local governments taking steps to better organize and maintain their records. – NJFOG December 2, 2015 By MARK KITCHIN Staff Writer Observer-Tribune (article here and re-posted below) CHESTER TWP. – Records and how to keep and protect them was the subject of much of the Township Council meeting on Tuesday. Read More …

Is Police Misconduct a Secret in Your State?

In New Jersey, police misconduct findings are rarely made public. The WNYC study ranks access to these records in New Jersey as confidential versus many other states where access is either public or limited.  See the article for interesting color-coded diagrams showing state by state openness. -NJFOG WNYC News Oct 15, 2015 by Robert Lewis, Read More …