December 6, 2024

 

Good afternoon,

 

The Office of the State Comptroller (OSC) received your OPRA request on
December 4, 2024. The seven-day business day deadline to respond to your
request is December 13, 2024.  This response is being provided to you on
the second business day, December 6, 2024.

 

Your request sought access to the following documents pursuant to OPRA and
under the common law:  “For the period 9/1/24 to 12/4/24 I am seeking any
written or emailed correspondence with the New Jersey Office of the
Comptroller and Hazlet Township. This would include, but not limited to
request for records involving the auditing firm of Holman, Frenia, and
Allison and their related financial consulting branch. Key names would
include Robert Allison, Anthony Mannino, & Joseph Sarno.”

 

OSC is an independent State agency that conducts audits and investigates
government agencies throughout New Jersey. N.J.S.A. 52:15B-8; N.J.S.A.
52:15C-5. OSC’s investigative authority is set forth in N.J.S.A. 52:15B-1
et seq. Pursuant to N.J.S.A. 52:15B-7, OSC has “establish[ed] a full-time
program of investigation, to receive and investigate complaints concerning
alleged fraud, waste, abuse or mismanagement of State funds, designed to
provide increased accountability, integrity and oversight of every public
entity recipient of State funds.” N.J.S.A. 52:15B-7. To accomplish these
important governmental oversight goals, OSC is afforded “all powers
necessary to carry out its duties and functions and to fulfill” its
statutory responsibilities, including the power to conduct investigations
and issue subpoenas and the authority to call on any State entity for any
needed information, resources, assistance and cooperation. N.J.S.A.
52:15B-6,-8.

 

Against this backdrop, please be advised that OSC can neither confirm nor
deny the existence of records in response to your OPRA request. See N.
Jersey Media Group, Inc. v. Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, 447 N.J.
Super. 182 (App. Div. 2016). Furthermore, to the extent any such records
exist, your request must nevertheless be denied because such records would
be considered advisory, consultative, or deliberative and exempt from
disclosure under OPRA.

 

Please be further advised that your requests must be denied as improper
and overbroad. OPRA does not allow a blanket request for every document a
public agency has on file or a wholesale request for general information.
Gannett N.J. Partners, LP v. Cty. of Middlesex, 379 N.J. Super. 205, 212
(App. Div. 2005); MAG Entm’t, LLC v. Div. of Alcoholic Beverage Control,
375 N.J. Super. 534, 549 (App. Div. 2005); Bent v. Twp. of Stafford Police
Dep’t, 381 N.J. Super. 30, 36-37 (App. Div. 2005); Spectraserv, Inc. v.
Middlesex Cty. Utils. Auth., 416 N.J. Super. 565, 578 (App. Div. 2010);
N.J. Builders Ass’n v. N.J. Council on Affordable Hous., 390 N.J. Super.
166, 178-79 (App. Div. 2007). It also does not contemplate “open-ended
searches of an agency's files” nor is it “intended as a research tool
litigants may use to force government officials to identify and siphon
useful information.” MAG Entertainment, LLC v. Div. of Alcohol Beverage
Control, 375 N.J. Super. 534, 546-49 (App. Div. 2005). “The requestor must
identify the records sought with specificity. The request may not be
a broad, generic description of documents that requires the custodian to
search the agency's files and ‘analyze, compile, and collate’ the
requested information.” Bart v. Passaic Cty. Public Housing Agency, 406
N.J. Super. 445, 451 (App. Div. 2009) (citations omitted); Bent v. Twp. of
Stafford Police Dep't, 381 N.J. Super. 30 (App. Div. 2005)(holding that
OPRA allows requests for specific records, not requests for general
information, data, or statistics). Your request for “any written or
emailed correspondence with the New Jersey Office of the Comptroller and
Hazlet Township. This would include, but not limited to request for
records involving the auditing firm of Holman, Frenia, and Allison and
their related financial consulting branch” to the extent any such records
exist is improperly overbroad and is thus denied. (emphasis added).

 

Your request is also denied for the following additional reason.  Requests
for correspondence under OPRA must identify the individuals or accounts to
be searched and be confined to a discrete and limited subject matter.
Burke v. Brandes, 429 N.J. Super. 169, 176-78, (App. Div. 2012); see also
Elcavage v. West Milford Twp (Passaic), GRC Complaint No. 2009-08 (April
8, 2010)(stating that a proper request for email correspondence must
contain “(1) the content and/or subject of the e-mail, (2) the specific
date or range of dates during which the e-mail was transmitted or the
emails were transmitted, and (3) a valid e-mail request must identify the
sender and/or the recipient thereof”). Because your request fails to meet
these requirements, to the extent any such requested documents exist, your
request must be denied.

 

Your request for any OSC requests to Hazlet Township (i.e., “request for
records involving Holman, Frenia, and Allison and their related financial
consulting branch”) to the extent any such records exist is also improper
pursuant to N.J.S.A. 52:15C-14c and N.J.S.A. 15B-13.

 

              You have also requested the above documents under the common
law right of access. That request is denied because OSC’s interests in
protecting confidential documents from disclosure, to the extent any such
documents exist, outweighs your interest in accessing such records.

 

In light of the above, OSC considers its response to this request to be
completed. OSC reserves the right to supplement its bases for denial with
any additional basis for exemption to public access as may hereinafter
also be determined to apply.

 

 

Thank you,

 

Robert Shane

Custodian of Records 

 

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

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Dear New Jersey State Comptroller's Office,

 

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:

 

For the period 9/1/24 to 12/4/24 I am seeking any written or emailed
correspondence with the New Jersey Office of the Comptroller and Hazlet
Township. This would include, but not limited to request for records
involving the auditing firm of Holman, Frenia, and Allison and their
related financial consulting branch. Key names would include Robert
Allison, Anthony Mannino, & Joseph Sarno.

 

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,

 

Audit questions

 

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Please deliver records electronically via email to the below UNIQUE
address for all replies to this request:

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Please note that in some cases publication of requests and responses will
be delayed.

 

If you find this service useful as an OPRA custodian, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's website.

 

"OPRAmachine’s mission is to give people easy and affordable access to New
Jersey public records.

For more information, contact us at: ‪(732) 707-1628 or PO Box 3180, New
Brunswick, NJ 08903."

 

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