Ethics Board Meeting Minutes/Recordings 2022-Present
Charlie Kratovil made this OPRA request to Edison Township Automatic anti-spam measures are in place for this older request. Please let us know if a further response is expected or if you are having trouble responding.
Dear Edison Township,
Please provide copies of all minutes and recordings for each Edison Ethics Board meeting held since January 1, 2022.
Yours faithfully,
Charlie Kratovil
Your request requires additional time beyond the seven (7) business days to fulfill. OPRA allows custodians to seek extensions of time pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5.i. Specifically, OPRA states that, "the requestor shall be advised by the custodian when the record can be made available.
Your request requires an extension of time until 6/7/2024.
Office of the
Township Clerk
Clerk's Office | Township of Edison
P: 732-248-7350
F: 732-248-3738
E: [email address]
Your request requires additional time beyond the seven (7) business days to fulfill. OPRA allows custodians to seek extensions of time pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5.i. Specifically, OPRA states that, "the requestor shall be advised by the custodian when the record can be made available.
Your request requires an extension of time until 7/8/2024.
Office of the
Township Clerk
Clerk's Office | Township of Edison
P: 732-248-7350
F: 732-248-3738
E: [email address]
Dear Ms. Nill,
I don't understand why an additional extension is needed for this request that I filed on May 24. Are the records archived? How many ethics board meetings were there in the past two years?
These are basic records that would only be a couple of years old (at most), so I can't in good conscience agree to an extension that takes this request all the way into July. Please respond to my questions and advise of the status of the request. Thanks.
Yours sincerely,
Charlie Kratovil
Dear Ms. Nill,
A minor correction to my email: My request was first filed on May 14, over a month ago.
Yours sincerely,
Charlie Kratovil
Your request requires additional time beyond the seven (7) business days to fulfill. OPRA allows custodians to seek extensions of time pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5.i. Specifically, OPRA states that, "the requestor shall be advised by the custodian when the record can be made available.
Your request requires an extension of time until 8/8/2024.
Office of the
Township Clerk
Clerk's Office | Township of Edison
P: 732-248-7350
F: 732-248-3738
E: [email address]
Dear Ms. Nill,
Where are the minutes kept? Are these records archived? Why does this request require an additional month to be fulfilled? Please advise the reason(s).
Yours sincerely,
Charlie Kratovil
Dear Ms. Nill,
I asked if the records were archived or not. You cited N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5.i. Was that citation erroneous?
You should familiarize yourself with this section of the law, which states clearly that, unless the records are archived, your office "shall grant access to a government record or deny a request for access to a government record as soon as possible, but not later than seven business days after receiving the request."
Please respond to confirm you received my question about the location of the records. If I don't hear back from you by the close of business on Monday, I will have to escalate this request to the Township's attorneys.
Yours sincerely,
Charlie Kratovil
Your request requires additional time beyond the seven (7) business days to fulfill. OPRA allows custodians to seek extensions of time pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5.i. Specifically, OPRA states that, "the requestor shall be advised by the custodian when the record can be made available.
Your request requires an extension of time until 9/7/2024.
Office of the
Township Clerk
Clerk's Office | Township of Edison
P: 732-248-7350
F: 732-248-3738
E: [email address]
Dear Edison Township Clerk,
Unfortunately, Ms. Nill has ignored my questions regarding this request for several months now.
Are the records archived?
How many ethics board meetings were there in the past two years?
Where are the minutes kept?
Why does this request require an additional month to be fulfilled? Please advise the reason(s).
You cited N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5.i. Was that citation erroneous?
The repeated extensions are very much beginning to seem like purposeful obstruction. Please provide an update on the request. If I don't get reasonable answers to the above questions next week, I will have no choice but to complain to other authorities about Edison Township and its noncompliance with the law.
Yours faithfully,
Charlie Kratovil
Your request requires additional time beyond the seven (7) business days to fulfill. OPRA allows custodians to seek extensions of time pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5.i. Specifically, OPRA states that, "the requestor shall be advised by the custodian when the record can be made available.
Your request requires an extension of time until 9/23/2024.
Office of the
Township Clerk
Clerk's Office | Township of Edison
P: 732-248-7350
F: 732-248-3738
E: [email address]
Mr. Burns,
I take it from your email that the Township's repeated assertions of NJSA
47-1A-5(i) were not accurate. Should I anticipate an apology from the
Clerk's Office for their repeated false statements and for ignoring
my repeated follow-up questions? Will there be any training or
re-training for staff on OPRA compliance? As you know, this is not the
first time that Edison has violated the OPRA with regard to my requests.
As to your allegation of the Ethics Board's "infrequent nature of
meetings," they apparently held a meeting in June, during the pendency of
my OPRA request (see attached). If the Clerk's Office were truly making
"every effort" to receive approval of the minutes, the staff member who
serves as secretary to the board would have been simply placed any
unapproved minutes as agenda items for approval during the June 27
session. However, no minutes were placed on the board's agenda, and it
should be noted that during this time period, the Clerk's Office was
ignoring my questions about this request and never explained any of the
efforts they were supposedly making (see here:
[1]https://opramachine.com/request/ethics_b...).
As to the "ongoing nature" of the matters before the board, public
meetings are public, whether the matter discussed is active or closed. As
you know, there are provisions related to closed sessions of public
bodies, provisions that require the adoption of a resolution to enter a
closed session. However, open sessions ought to be documented in minutes
and those minutes should be made public, in full, as required by state
law. If the Township doesn't release the records soon, I will have to
take legal action.
The Open Public Meetings Act states clearly that "each public body shall
keep reasonably comprehensible minutes of all its meetings showing the
time and place, the members present, the subjects considered, the actions
taken, the vote of each member, and any other information required to be
shown in the minutes by law, which shall be promptly available to the
public to the extent that making such matters public shall not be
inconsistent with section 7 of this act." The Ethics Board is simply not
complying with this law, and the responses I have received thus far have
proven to be inaccurate, misleading, or ignorant.
I've copied the attorney for the Ethics Board on this email and I kindly
ask him to enlighten us as to the dates of any public meetings for which
the board's minutes have not yet been approved. I will assume all others
have been approved and therefore ought to be OPRA-able. It's not
complicated. Just comply with the law, and produce the requested records.
Mr. Burns, when can I anticipate receiving the records that you indicated
"are being prepared for delivery"? What preparation is necessary? Why is
this such a time-consuming process for the Township?
Sincerely,
Charlie
On Wed, Sep 11, 2024 at 2:23 PM Michael Burns <[2][email address]>
wrote:
“Charlie – my understanding is that due to the infrequent nature of
meetings of the Ethics Board and the ongoing nature of some of those
matters under deliberation, the minutes you sought had not yet been
approved at the time of your request. As you know, under GRC guidelines
and subsequent Superior Court rulings, unapproved minutes are considered
“deliberative material” and “preliminary documents subject to revision”
and are therefore exempt from OPRA’s disclosure requirements. See
Libertarians for Transparent Government v. GRC, 453 N.J. Super 83 (App.
Div. 2018).
Since your request was made, rather than an outright denial, the Clerk’s
office has made every effort to prepare the minutes and receive approval
for the minutes from the Board to satisfy that request. Although it
appears that the Clerk’s office referenced NJSA 47-1A-5.i in order to
provide you with a time period for when they anticipated providing the
records, it seems it would have been more accurate to refer to NJSA
47:1a-1.1under the definitions of deliberative material.
Please do not hesitate to reach out if you think this office can be of
assistance in the future.
From: Charlie Kratovil <[3][email address]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2024 12:02 PM
To: Michael Burns <[4][email address]>
Cc: Harlynne Lack <[5][email address]>
Subject: Re: OPRA issues in Edison
CAUTION: Rainone, Coughlin, Minchello: This email originated from
outside of our Law Firm. Do not trust this email's sender, links or open
attachments unless you verify the sender independently of this email and
know the content is safe. If you have any questions, please call our
Technology Department
Thanks, I look forward to receiving them, as well as answers to my
questions, such as: Were the records archived or stored on-site at the
municipal building?
Charlie
On Wed, Sep 11, 2024 at 11:24 AM Michael Burns <[6][email address]>
wrote:
Charlie:
I spoke with my partner regarding this request and my understanding is
that the available documents are being prepared for delivery. You
should receive those responses in short order.
From: Charlie Kratovil <[7][email address]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2024 2:32 PM
To: Michael Burns <[8][email address]>
Subject: OPRA issues in Edison
CAUTION: Rainone, Coughlin, Minchello: This email originated from
outside of our Law Firm. Do not trust this email's sender, links or
open attachments unless you verify the sender independently of this
email and know the content is safe. If you have any questions, please
call our Technology Department
Hi Mr. Burns,
Last night I shared my trials and tribulations attempting to obtain
meeting minutes and recordings from the Edison Ethics Board meetings.
I asked a number of questions and was informed that "legal" would be
responding. Please let me know when I can expect a response to the
questions.
Sincerely,
Charlie Kratovil
References
Visible links
1. https://opramachine.com/request/ethics_b...
2. mailto:[email address]
3. mailto:[email address]
4. mailto:[email address]
5. mailto:[email address]
6. mailto:[email address]
7. mailto:[email address]
8. mailto:[email address]
Attached please find approved board minutes at this time. Items that have been redacted are due to open investigations.
Office of the
Township Clerk
Clerk's Office | Township of Edison
P: 732-248-7350
F: 732-248-3738
E: [email address]
Hi Mr. Burns,
I'm following up on my remarks at recent Council meetings regarding the
Township's non-compliance with the OPRA. I know you said you would look
into it. However, I have not heard from you since then, so if a further
response was sent, I have not received it.
I've never heard of public meeting minutes being redacted, but the Edison
municipal government is once again leading the way when it comes to ending
transparency. As I stated at the Council meeting, the Clerk's Office
provided six records in response to my request for Edison Ethics Board
meeting minutes, two of which were redacted.
The response is problematic for the following reasons:
• Response is incomplete because it is silent as to my request for
recordings of the meetings
• Response is deficient because it does not identify a proper OPRA
exemption to justify redactions to the 11/29/2022 and 3/9/2023 meeting
minutes
• Response is deficient because it does not acknowledge or respond to my
common law right of access request for these records
• Response is incomplete because it is missing most of the records that
exist, specifically no minutes were provided for the following
meetings: 06/08/22, 08/13/22, 01/24/23, 03/30/23, 07/19/23, 08/22/23,
09/21/23, 01/31/24, 05/09/24, 06/27/24, 08/15/24
• Response is deficient because the minutes provided are not signed,
even though the Clerk's Office claims to have provided me with
"approved" minutes
Considering the Clerk's Office had almost four months to prepare this
response, it is all the more disappointing. State law requires meeting
minutes be made available "promptly" so Edison is once again clearly in
violation of the law. The fact that a board that is supposed to enforce
the Local Government Ethics Law is violating another state statute is not
lost on me.
No OPRA exemption was cited to justify the redactions, perhaps because
there is no valid justification. Rather, the response indicated that
"Items that have been redacted are due to open investigations." While
there is a criminal investigatory records exemption to the OPRA, these are
not criminal matters. Further, the exemption for records of investigation
in progress can only be applied if the release of the records "shall be
inimical to the public interest." Does Edison Township really believe
that it would be inimical to the public interest to release the meeting
minutes and recordings of the Ethics Board's public meetings? How so?
Please release the requested records swiftly pursuant to the OPRA, and if
not under the OPRA, then pursuant to the common law right of access. As
you know, I am a reporter covering Edison and require the records for my
work. Can you please look into this and provide a response?
Thank you for your time and attention to this matter,
Charlie Kratovil
Editor, New Brunswick Today