Hi Mr. Kratovil,

Please be advised that the State Ethics Commission is not permitted to accept an OPRA request by way of email. You must request same on the following website: www.state.nj.us/lps/opra You can choose "onlin request form" from the left hand of the page and then choose "Law and Public Safety" and then "The State Ethics Commission" from the drop down menu.

Outlined below are the reasons set forth by Law and Public Safety, as they also pertain to the State Ethics Commission (SEC), as the SEC is an in-but-not-of agency of the Law & Public Safety as described in detail below:

Pursuant to regulation, N.J.A.C. 13:1E-2, and long-standing L&PS policy and practice, submission of OPRA requests by facsimile transmission or e-mail is not permitted.

N.J.A.C. 13:1E-2.4(a) states: “Written Open Public Records Act (OPRA) requests shall be hand-delivered during normal business hours of the public agency, mailed or submitted electronically to the appropriate division or agency custodian of records over the Internet by means of a web-enabled OPRA request form, which can be found on the Department of Law and Public Safety OPRA website, www.state.nj.us/lps/opra. Submission of requests by facsimile transmission or e-mail is not permitted.”

N.J.A.C. 13:1E-2.4(b) provides, in part: “Only the appropriate division or agency custodian of the record requested is authorized to accept receipt of an OPRA request on behalf of that division or agency.”

This restriction is supported by New Jersey case law. In 2009, the Appellate Division stated in Renna v. County of Union, 407 N.J. Super. 230 (App. Div. 2009), “the primary objective of the statutory construct is that the requester set forth in writing, and in a cogent and clear manner, the nature of the request and the other information required by N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5(f).” On the same day, the Appellate Division held in Paff v. City of East Orange, 407 N.J. Super. 221 (App. Div. 2009):

“We conclude that the authority N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5 (f) (1) confers upon a custodian of government records to adopt a form for requesting access to a government record, which includes ‘specific directions and procedures for requesting a record,’ authorizes a custodian to direct that a request for a government record must be transmitted only by methods specified in the form, which need not include every method of transmission mentioned in N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5(g).”

The records request form, in relevant part, states:

1. State Law requires that in order to request access to government records, you must complete, sign and date a written request for access and deliver it in person or by mail during regular business hours to the appropriate custodian of the record requested. You may also complete and submit a web enabled version of this request form at www.nj.gov/opra. L&PS will not accept submission of a written request for access by fax or email. Your request is not considered filed until the written request has been received by the appropriate custodian of the record requested.

2. If you 1) submit a request for access to government records to someone other than the appropriate custodian; or 2) do not complete a written request containing the information required in this form; or 3) make a request for access by telephone, email or fax, the Open Public Records Act and its deadlines, restrictions and remedies will not apply to your request.

It is not known what email addresses you used; not all of your emails were received by the proper custodian of records for the individual L&PS divisions and/or agencies. L&PS divisions and in-but-not-of agencies include: the Office of the Attorney General, the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control, the Division on Civil Rights, the Division of Consumer Affairs, the Division of Criminal Justice, the Division of Gaming Enforcement, the Division of Highway Traffic Safety, the Division of Law, the Division of State Police, the New Jersey Racing Commission, the Election Law Enforcement Commission, the State Ethics Commission, the Juvenile Justice Commission and the Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness.

For these reasons, the L&PS divisions and in-but-not-of agencies are not able to accept your recent e-mails as valid OPRA requests.

You can file an OPRA request on-line with any L&PS division or agency by using the Online Request Form found at the Department of Law and Public Safety OPRA website www.state.nj.us/lps/opra.

The online OPRA request process was designed for the ease and convenience of requesters. You are not required to submit an OPRA request by using the online or paper OPRA request form. However, you are required to submit OPRA requests in writing. Should you choose to submit written OPRA requests, please be sure to mail them individually to the appropriate division records custodians.

Sincerely,

Regan A. Barbetti
Ethics Compliance Officer
State Ethics Commission
28 West State Street
P.O. Box 082
Trenton, NJ 08625-0082
609-292-1892
fax: 609-633-9252
https://www.nj.gov/ethics/
 
NOTICE: This e-mail message and any attachment to this e-mail message may contain information that may be legally privileged and confidential from the State of New Jersey, State Ethics Commission.
NOTE: This e-mail is protected by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. Sections 2510-2521. Its contents may be privileged and confidential due to the Attorney Client Privilege, Attorney Work Product, Deliberative Process or under the New Jersey Open Public Records Act. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not review, transmit, convert to hard copy, copy, use or disseminate this e-mail or any attachments to it. If you have received this e-mail in error, please immediately notify us by return e-mail or by telephone at 609-292-1892 and delete this message. Please note that if this e-mail message contains a forwarded message or is a reply to a prior message, some or all of the contents of this message or any attachments may not have been produced by the State of New Jersey, State Ethics Commission.
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Hi Mr. Kratovil,

Thank you for your response. Unfortunately I was not the one who responded to you back in 2017, so I cannot speak as to why or how that happened at this time.

As the OPRA custodian, I am required to abide by N.J.A.C. 13:1E-2.4(a), which is clear in its prohibition against email submissions of record requests. Law & Public Safety also has a long standing policy /practice against accepting OPRA email requests, which is also supported by case law and the Government Records Council. The SEC is in-but-not-of L&PS and so I am expected to follow this practice.

I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and I understand how this may be frustrating. If you do not want to use the State's online platform, you may choose to mail in your request via hard copy correspondence or even hand deliver it to our office.

However, if you want to use the State's online platform and need any help in doing so, I will be happy to provide you any direction you might need.

Thank you and I apologize again for any inconvenience this may cause.

Regards,

Regan A. Barbetti
Ethics Compliance Officer
State Ethics Commission
28 West State Street
P.O. Box 082
Trenton, NJ 08625-0082
609-292-1892
fax: 609-633-9252
https://www.nj.gov/ethics/
 
NOTICE: This e-mail message and any attachment to this e-mail message may contain information that may be legally privileged and confidential from the State of New Jersey, State Ethics Commission.
NOTE: This e-mail is protected by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. Sections 2510-2521. Its contents may be privileged and confidential due to the Attorney Client Privilege, Attorney Work Product, Deliberative Process or under the New Jersey Open Public Records Act. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not review, transmit, convert to hard copy, copy, use or disseminate this e-mail or any attachments to it. If you have received this e-mail in error, please immediately notify us by return e-mail or by telephone at 609-292-1892 and delete this message. Please note that if this e-mail message contains a forwarded message or is a reply to a prior message, some or all of the contents of this message or any attachments may not have been produced by the State of New Jersey, State Ethics Commission.
This notice is automatically appended to each e-mail message sent from this e-mail account.

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Hi Mr. Kratovil,

Attached please find the SEC's response to your OPRA request, the requested documents and two receipts for your records.

Thank you.

Regards,

Regan A. Barbetti
Ethics Compliance Officer
State Ethics Commission
28 West State Street
P.O. Box 082
Trenton, NJ 08625-0082
609-292-1892
fax: 609-633-9252
https://www.nj.gov/ethics/
 
NOTICE: This e-mail message and any attachment to this e-mail message may contain information that may be legally privileged and confidential from the State of New Jersey, State Ethics Commission.
NOTE: This e-mail is protected by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. Sections 2510-2521. Its contents may be privileged and confidential due to the Attorney Client Privilege, Attorney Work Product, Deliberative Process or under the New Jersey Open Public Records Act. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not review, transmit, convert to hard copy, copy, use or disseminate this e-mail or any attachments to it. If you have received this e-mail in error, please immediately notify us by return e-mail or by telephone at 609-292-1892 and delete this message. Please note that if this e-mail message contains a forwarded message or is a reply to a prior message, some or all of the contents of this message or any attachments may not have been produced by the State of New Jersey, State Ethics Commission.
This notice is automatically appended to each e-mail message sent from this e-mail account.

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