Addresses with water-shut off
Dear Madison Borough,
I am requesting a list of current addresses within the town/city that have had their water shut off within the past three months (September 1st - December 1st) of 2019.
My understanding is that the town/city is responsible for the turning on/off of the water supply to each address within it's legal boundaries. According to the NJ Utilities Code, the addresses of said properties are public information and can be provided upon notice via an Open Public Records Request (OPRA).
Please share the information in the following format:
Date, Mailing Address
i.e. (11/01/2019, 34 Main Street Rockaway NJ 07866)
Thank you for your efforts and time,
Emanuelle Sedita
Emanuelle,
This is to let you know that the Borough of Madison did not disconnect
water supply to any address from September 1, 2019 to December 1, 2019.
Your OPRA request is now deemed answered and closed.
Thank you.
Kathy Notine
Borough of Madison
Clerk's Office
973-593-3040
Emanuelle,
This is to let you know that the Borough of Madison did not disconnect
water supply to any address from September 1, 2019 to December 1, 2019.
Your OPRA request is now deemed answered and closed.
Thank you.
Kathy Notine
Borough of Madison
Clerk's Office
973-593-3040
Dear Notine, Kathleen,
Thank you so much for the information provided on those dates. Could you also provide the above request for the following dates?
Jan. 1st 2019 - Sept. 1st 2019
Thank you for your time and effort into this matter.
Yours sincerely,
Emanuelle Sedita
Emanuelle,
The Borough of Madison did not disconnect water supply to any address from January 1st 2019 to September 1 2019.
Thank you.
Kathy Notine
Dear Notine, Kathleen,
I find that hard to believe. Not a single address within a population of ~16,000 residents disconnected water service in the year of 2019?
Please provide records for the years of 2017, 2018, and 2019 of homes that had water service disconnected for any reason from their address.
Best,
Emanuelle Sedita
Dear Ms. Sedita,
The Borough of Madison does not maintain a list of addresses for water shut off.
This request seeks information and does not identify specific government records. As such, your request is an invalid OPRA request. When a request fails to specifically identify the documents sought, then that request is not “encompassed” by OPRA. See New Jersey Builders Association v. New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing, 390 N.J.Super. 166, 180 (App. Div. 2007). A proper request under OPRA must identify with reasonable clarity those documents that are desired, and a party cannot satisfy this requirement by simply requesting all of an agency's documents. See Bent v. Stafford Police Department, 381 N.J.Super. 30, 37 (App. Div. 2005). Custodians are not required to conduct research or create new records in response to an OPRA request.
Elizabeth Osborne
Borough Clerk
Borough of Madison
50 Kings Road
Madison, NJ 07940
973.593.3041 phone
973.593.0125 fax
Dear Osborne, Elizabeth,
I find it hard to believe that an authority that maintains the water for a town would not maintain records of address with or without water service. Unless all properties in your jurisdiction maintain water service, I would like to clarify my record request:
Please provide the records from the water department for the time period mentioned in my original request:
1. "Applications for Water Meter and Misc. Water Charges billed to Addresses"
2. "Fee Schedule/Service Charges of Water Department"
Applications can include to turning off/on water or water billing charges related to the turning off/on of the water. Fee schedule is the charges to the customers from the water department maintains for it's jurisdiction.
Yours sincerely,
Emanuelle Sedita
Attached please find the OPRA response you requested from the Borough of
Madison on 12/4/2019.
Kathy Notine
Borough of Madison
Clerk's Office
973-593-3040