Contracts and invoices for council for police discipline
Dear Parsippany-Troy Hills Township,
Please accept this electronic request for public records made under OPRA and the common law right of access. I am not required to fill out an official form or use a particular software platform to submit my request per NJSA 47:1A-6(f), which states that an email from a requestor including all of the information required on the adopted form shall suffice in place of a completed form as a valid government record request.
I HAVE NOT been convicted of any indictable offense under the laws of New Jersey, any other state, or the United States.
I WILL NOT use the requested government records for a commercial purpose.
I AM NOT seeking records in connection with a legal proceeding.
Records requested:
Please provide all contracts for counsel approved by the township council to hear police discipline matters and act as a hearing officer for the years 2020/2021; 2022/2023 & 2024/2025.
Also provide all invoices to counsel and hearing officers for 2022 to present.
My preferred delivery method for response(s) to this request is by E-mail as attachments. Please confirm you have received this request. If you are not the custodian of records, please forward my request to that person and provide their email address to me for future reference.
Yours faithfully,
Elsa Smith
Dear Parsippany-Troy Hills Township,
By Law, the township has 7 business days to answer this request. If a municipality does not respond to an OPRA request within the allotted time frame, a complaint will be filed with the Government Records Council. The lack of response is seen as a denial of access to the records which was requested.
Yours faithfully,
Elsa Smith
Good afternoon,
Your OPRA request for all contracts for counsel approved by the Township.
At this time, we respectfully request an extension on your OPRA until
February 26, 2025. Thank you for your patience and cooperation in this
matter.
Sincerely,
Mary Moore
Township of Parsippany
Clerks Office
1001 Parsippany Blvd.
Parsippany N.J. 07054
Phone: 973-263-4356
Fax: 973-299-7985
Email: [1][email address]
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
Dear Mary Moore,
According to 2024 New Jersey Revised Statutes
Title 47 - Public Records
Section 47:1A-5 - Times during which records may be inspected, examined, copied; access; copy fees:
e. Immediate access ordinarily shall be granted to budgets, bills, vouchers, contracts, including collective negotiations agreements and individual employment contracts, and public employee salary and overtime information. Immediate access to government records shall not be required to be granted for documents over 24 months old.
Please provide this information by Friday, February 14, 2024.
Yours sincerely,
Elsa Smith
Good Morning,
Attached are some of the responsive documents related to your request.
Please be advised there are still responsive documents outstanding related
to your request; at this time such documents are being reviewed by the
attorneys and will be disclosed to you by the end of the extension
period. Thank you for your time and anticipated cooperation in this
matter.
Sincerely,
Mary Moore
Township of Parsippany
Clerks Office
1001 Parsippany Blvd.
Parsippany N.J. 07054
Phone: 973-263-4356
Fax: 973-299-7985
Email: [1][email address]
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
Dear Mary Moore,
Please provide the current contract for 2025. This contract should have been the first to be accessible and sent. Any invoices are available for public knowledge online. I would like to see the actual invoices and what each invoices consists of.
Yours sincerely,
Elsa Smith
Dear Mary Moore,
Today is the 27th. I was promised the remainder of the paperwork (current 2025 contract, all invoices) requested by the 26th. I will be filing a complaint regarding the lack of response.
Yours sincerely,
Elsa Smith
Good morning,
Your OPRA request for Contracts & Invoices for Council for Police
discipline is due. At this time, we respectfully request an extension on
your OPRA until March 17, 2025. Thank you for your patience and
cooperation in this matter.
Sincerely,
Mary Moore
Township of Parsippany
Clerks Office
1001 Parsippany Blvd.
Parsippany N.J. 07054
Phone: 973-263-4356
Fax: 973-299-7985
Email: [1][email address]
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
Dear Mary Moore,
This is not acceptable. The request was submitted in January. The current contract for the attorney was also not submitted. The complaint was filed with the GRC.
There is a reason the rules state this needs to be supplied within a certain time frame.
Yours sincerely,
Elsa Smith
Dear Mary Moore,
What is the reason for these extensions? The current year should be easily accessible.
Yours sincerely,
Elsa Smith
Dear Ms. Smith,
I was asked to respond to your email regarding the reason we have asked
for extensions to your OPRA request. We are requesting an extension due to
the fact that the contracts for the hearing officers and other legal
counsel have not been adopted by Council yet. They are due to be approved
by Council at tomorrow evening’s Council Agenda meeting. I have attached a
copy of the agenda so you can see these contracts are part of the
Non-Consent agenda. We will gladly provide you with copies of the
contracts once they have been approved and executed. At that time we will
be able to release them to you. Please allow time for the execution of the
contracts. We should be able to have them to you sometime next week. It
has never been our intention to deny your request, we have just been
waiting for Administration to place these items on the agenda.
Should you have any other questions or concerns please do not hesitate to
contact me.
Thank you for your patience and understanding, we appreciate it.
Respectfully,
Leslie Miller, RMC/CMR
Deputy Clerk / Registrar
1001 Parsippany Blvd.
Parsippany, NJ 07054
Tel: 973-263-4357
Email: [email address]
Dear Leslie Miller,
There has also been invoices paid to The Ambrose Group on the 1/29 check run in the amount of $17K. Please provide copies of these invoices.
Yours sincerely,
Elsa Smith
Good Afternoon Elsa,
There have been changes made to the agenda I sent you yesterday. The professional service agreements, including the hearing officer and other legal counsel have been pulled from the agenda and will be placed on the March 18th agenda for consideration. Unfortunately this will delay our response to your OPRA request. We apologize for the delay and the inconvenience. We are currently processing your other request and should have that response to you shortly.
Respectfully,
Leslie Miller, RMC/CMR
Deputy Clerk / Registrar
1001 Parsippany Blvd.
Parsippany, NJ 07054
Tel: 973-263-4357
Email: [email address]
Administration decided to pull them off. They will be back on for March 18th.
Respectfully,
Leslie Miller, RMC/CMR
Deputy Clerk / Registrar
1001 Parsippany Blvd.
Parsippany, NJ 07054
Tel: 973-263-4357
Email: [email address]
Dear Leslie Miller,
Can you tell me why the delay in any of the invoices? This is pretty cut and dry and easily accessible. By ignoring this, it is a denial in information.
Yours sincerely,
Elsa Smith
Attached are the responsive documents related to your request for copies
of the Ambrose Group invoices. If you have any questions, please feel
free to contact me.
Sincerely,
Mary Moore
Township of Parsippany
Clerks Office
1001 Parsippany Blvd.
Parsippany N.J. 07054
Phone: 973-263-4356
Fax: 973-299-7985
Email: [1][email address]
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
Dear Mary Moore,
Thank you for providing. Please supply the invoices from the attorneys as well. The attorney payments were listed on the financials on the township website.
Yours sincerely,
Elsa Smith
Dear Mary Moore,
Please inform Leslie as well as Khalid that I have requested prior year invoices as well as invoices for 2025 for the attorneys which have not been supplied. If there is not a contact, why are there 2025 invoices being paid out to attorneys? The mayor and BA were well aware what would take place at last nights meeting and chose to put the chiefs contract before these 2 requested contacts. Now I’m assuming this other information will take another 2 weeks? This is unacceptable as the request was made on 1/31/25. There is no reason these contract were not approved as we are going into the second quarter.
Elsa Smith