Copies of "all" legal bill incurred by the Board of Education since January 1, 2023
Michael Gottesman, Founder NJPEC made this OPRA request to Hanover Township School District This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.
Dear Hanover Township School District,
This is a request for public records made under OPRA and the common law right of access. I am not required to fill out an official form. Please acknowledge receipt of this message.
Records requested:
Copies of all legal bills received and/or paid by the Hanover School District from January 1, 2022 to present. This includes bills from the Board Counsel currently under contract with the Board or any Board Counsel previously under contract with the Board during the time in question. It also includes bills received and/or paid to any outside counsel that may have been retained for Board business.
Please note that the request does not require the District’s records custodian to conduct research in order to identify responsive records which was your objection to the previous response. It merely requires the records custodian to make photocopies and/or scan all bills in order to email them in response to the request. It does not convert a custodian into a researcher as noted in Lagerkvist v. Office of Governor of State, 443 N.J. Super. 230, 237 (App.
Div. 2015.
Yours faithfully,
Michael Gottesman, Founder NJPEC
I am currently out of the office and scheduled to return on Tuesday, July
25. If you need immediate assistance, please call 973-515-2401. Please
note that any OPRA requests submitted July 13 - July 24 will be considered
received upon my return.
--
Vanessa M. Wolsky
Business Administrator/Board Secretary
Hanover Township Board of Education
Confidentiality Note: This message and any attachments may
contain confidential information. Any unauthorized disclosure, use or
dissemination of this e-mail message or its contents, either in whole or
in part, is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient of this
e-mail message, kindly notify the sender and then destroy it.
Dear Ms. Wolsky,
Thank you for your response to my Opra request. I noticed that the last bill you provided was dated July 7, 2023. You failed to provide the bill for the month of July 2023 which would have been issued to the district at the beginning of August. Please provide same in a timely manner.
Yours sincerely,
Michael Gottesman, Founder NJPEC
Dear vanessa wolsky,
Additionally, please provide copies of attorney bills for August when received.
Yours sincerely,
Michael Gottesman, Founder NJPEC
The District conducted a good-faith search and identified the attached
eight pages as responsive. Please be advised that the District redacted
the invoices to remove information protected by attorney-client privilege
and attorney work-product. OPRA specifically provides that certain records
are deemed to be confidential, and thus are not encompassed within the
definition of a “government record” under OPRA. This includes any record
within the attorney-client privilege. See N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1.1. OPRA
further specifies that while attorney bills are not fully exempt from
public access, “such bills or invoices may be redacted to remove any
information protected by the attorney-client privilege.” Accordingly, the
responsive records have been redacted to remove references to specific
topics of legal research, legal strategies, and discussion/correspondence
between the District’s legal counsel and the District’s representatives to
ensure that confidential communications in the course of the lawyer-client
relationship are not inadvertently revealed.
Please also note that the enclosed records contain personal identifying
information of students. N.J.S.A. 47:1A-9(b) allows exemptions from
disclosure for any grant of confidentiality established or recognized by
the Constitution of this State, statute, court rule or judicial case law,
to apply to OPRA. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”),
20 U.S.C. 1232(g) and its supplemental regulations codified under 34
C.F.R. 99.30, precludes schools from disclosing student names and personal
identifying information without obtaining consent. See also N.J.A.C.
6A:32-7.1 to -7.8. Accordingly, the invoices have also been redacted to
remove identifiable student information.
Lastly, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1.1 exempts information generated by or on behalf
of public employers in connection with collective negotiations, including
documents or statements of strategy or negotiation position. See Paff v.
Gloucester City (Camden), GRC Complaint No. 2009-102 (June 2011).
Accordingly, the invoices have also been redacted to remove information
pertaining to collective negotiations.
Your OPRA request is now deemed answered and closed. Thank you for your
attention to this matter.