Gina LaPlaca BA misconduct and leveraging personal connections to evade transparency and accountability.
Dear Neptune Township,
Pursuant to the Open Public Records Act (OPRA), N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq., I am requesting access to the following records:
Phone records showing calls made and received between January 1, 2023, and June 4, 2024, with specific dates and times for the following numbers:
Ms. Gina Marie LaPlaca Esq.: (609) 218-3798 and (917) 648-4720
Lt. James Macconchie: (732) 904-5725
These records should be retrieved from the phone carrier, as these phones are township property. I specifically request the actual carrier records to ensure accuracy, detailing each date and time of calls made to and from the aforementioned numbers.
Additionally, I respectfully request that any other municipal clerk aside from Ms. Gabriella Siboni fulfill this request, due to previous requests seemingly unanswered or dismissed, potentially due to her personal connection with the business administrator Gina LaPlaca.
Please provide these records in electronic format and please acknowledge receipt of this message.
If you need any further information to process this request, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
John Klein
Dear Neptune Township,
It has now been 8 days since this initial request, and as per previously seen with ignored requests that were sent in email to Ms. Siboni, I have received no communication on this matter. By law, you are supposed to send some communication, whether it be a request for more time or with the actual OPRA documents. Please advise as to the status of this legal request.
Yours faithfully,
John Klein
The Township of Neptune received an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request on June 19. As such, the seven (7) business day deadline to respond to your request is July 1.
The request was for:
"Pursuant to the Open Public Records Act (OPRA), N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq., I am requesting access to the following records:
Phone records showing calls made and received between January 1, 2023, and June 4, 2024, with specific dates and times for the following numbers:
Ms. Gina Marie LaPlaca Esq.: (609) 218-3798 and (917) 648-4720 Lt. James Macconchie: (732) 904-5725 These records should be retrieved from the phone carrier, as these phones are township property. I specifically request the actual carrier records to ensure accuracy, detailing each date and time of calls made to and from the aforementioned numbers."
Please see attached in response to your request. Upon the advice of labor counsel, under OPRA, the Township is only required to search for and obtain records that exist. Administrator LaPlaca’s certification and Lt. MacConchie’s Certification is consistent with the requirements set out by the Appellate Division in Paff v. N.J. Dept. of Labor, 392 N.J. Super. 334, 341 (App. Div. 2007) (e.g., creating the outline for what has become known as a “Paff Certification”). The Township has searched for the records and provided you with all responsive records that it could find, thereby exhausting its responsibility under OPRA.
The Township did search for responsive records, but it should be noted that the request did not meet all criteria for a proper OPRA request as detailed below.
1. Seeks Information: This request seeks information or asks questions and does not identify specific government records. As such, your request is an invalid OPRA request and is denied. When a request is “complex” because it 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. Refer to, 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.
2. Research/ Compile/ Analyze: Pursuant to NJSA 47:1A-1.1 it has been determined that this request does not qualify as a document request pursuant to the OPRA laws and the definition thereof. This governmental custodian is not required to conduct research, analyze, collate, compile and/or correlate data from existing government records. A blanket request for all documents is not a document request pursuant to OPRA and existing case law. Pursuant to MAG Entertainment, LLC v Div. of Alcoholic Beverage Control, 375 N.J.Super. 534, 868A2d 1067 (App.Div.2005), and Bent 381 NJ Super 30. Under OPRA, agencies are required to disclose only “identifiable” governmental documents not otherwise exempt. Wholesale requests for general information which have to be collated, analyzed and compiled by the entity are not required. Therefore, I respectfully deny your request at this time.
3. Communication Criteria: The GRC established criteria deemed necessary under OPRA to specifically request an email communication in Elcavage v. West Milford Twp. (Passaic), GRC Complaint No. 2009-07 (April 2010). The Council determined that to be valid, such requests must contain: (1) the content and/or subject of the email, (2) the specific date or range of dates during which the email(s) were transmitted, and (3) the identity of the sender and/or the recipient thereof. See Elcavage, GRC 2009-07; Sandoval v. NJ State Parole Bd., GRC Complaint No. 2006-167 (Interim Order March 28, 2007). The Council has also applied the criteria set forth in Elcavage, to other forms of correspondence, such as letters. See Armenti v. Robbinsville Bd. of Educ. (Mercer), GRC Complaint No. 2009-154 (Interim Order May 24, 2011). In Verry v. Borough of South Bound Brook (Somerset), GRC Complaint No. 2009-124 (April 2010), the complainant’s OPRA request sought all e-mails to or from a particular e-mail account for a specific time period. The custodian’s counsel responded advising the complainant that his OPRA request was invalid because it represented an open-ended search of the Borough’s files. The Council held that the complainant’s request was invalid under Elcavage, GRC 2009-07 because it did not include a subject or content. Id. at 7. Herein, the Complainant’s OPRA request sought e-mails from all employees for a certain date range. However, similar to the request at issue in Verry, the request here did not identify a subject or the content of the e-mails sought. For this reason, the request did not meet the express criteria necessary to appropriately request e-mails and is thus invalid. The GRC notes that the Complainant’s clarified request identified specific senders/recipients. However, the clarification did not cure the deficiency of this request because the Complainant did not include a subject or content.
If your request for access to a government record has been denied or unfilled within the seven (7) business days required by law, you have a right to challenge the decision by the Township of Neptune to deny access. At your option, you may either institute a proceeding in the Superior Court of New Jersey or file a complaint with the Government Records Council (GRC) by completing the Denial of Access Complaint Form. You may contact the GRC by toll-free telephone at 866-850-0511, by mail at P.O. Box 819, Trenton, NJ, 08625, by e-mail at [email address], or at their web site at www.state.nj.us/grc. The GRC can also answer other questions about the law. All questions regarding complaints filed in Superior Court should be directed to the Court Clerk in your County.
Best Regards,
Gabriella Siboni
Township Clerk
Township of Neptune
25 Neptune Blvd
Neptune, NJ 07753
[email address]
732.988.5200 Ext. 234
Dear Gabriella Siboni,
I think you again refused the information that was requested pursuant to the OPRA law. Throwing “___vs.____” that has no parallel to the information requested gives off the impression that you are giving the run around to assist in saving Ms. LaPlaca’s already deteriorating and tarnished reputation. Her inappropriate affairs with subordinates is documented on many public forums, as well as the records that are being requested. This is only one of the many that will be requested moving forward. I have evidence from months of email requests that you have knowingly and purposefully refused and/or ignored OPRA requests, which in fact must be due to your personal relationship with said Business Administrator. This information will be forwarded to the Ethics Board for unlawful actions on your end. Again, this was the purpose of asking you what the difference was if this information was posted on OPRA machine as opposed to your personal work email. Our request was that someone other than you handle this legal document, but you have also disregarded that very important request as well due to your affiliation.
Please expect much more detailed OPRA requests that you will not be able to state are “blanket requests” so that it is very clear what we are looking for in Ms. LaPlaca’s deceptive and immoral behavior as Business Administrator and “said political figure”.
Yours sincerely,
John Klein