Internal Communications
Dear Civil Service Commission,
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.
Records requested:
All internal communications and memoranda discussing the timing, scoring, publication of results, and candidate reviews for the June 4, 2025, examination for Title of Chief of Police.
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,
R James
To R James,
On July 5, 2025, pursuant to the Open Public Records Act (OPRA), N.J.S.A.
47:1A-1 et seq., you submitted an OPRA request to the Civil Service
Commission for:
All internal communications and memoranda discussing the timing, scoring,
publication of results, and candidate reviews for the June 4, 2025,
examination for Title of Chief of Police.
Please be advised your request as written is overbroad and improper. Under
OPRA, a "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 Cnty. Pub. Housing
Agency, 406 N.J. Super. 445, 451 (App. Div. 2009) (citations omitted); see
also Bent v. Twp. of Stafford Police Dep't, 381 N.J. Super. 30 (App. Div.
2005).
Further, your request seeking communications is likewise overbroad.
Requests for communications must “identify a specific job title or
accounts to be searched, a specific subject matter, and [be] confined to a
reasonable time period[.]” N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5(g); see Burke v. Brandes, 429
N.J. Super. 169, 176-78 (App. Div. 2012). Your request fails to identify
the specific job title or accounts to be searched, and is thus overbroad
and improper.
Accordingly, your request is denied.
The OPRA Office
NJ Civil Service Commission
-----Original Message-----
From: R James <[1][OPRA #78229 email]>
Sent: Saturday, July 5, 2025 1:21 PM
To: CSCCommunications [CSC] <[2][Civil Service Commission request email]>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] OPRA request - Internal Communications
Dear Civil Service Commission,
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.
Records requested:
All internal communications and memoranda discussing the timing, scoring,
publication of results, and candidate reviews for the June 4, 2025,
examination for Title of Chief of Police.
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,
R James
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please deliver records electronically via email to the below UNIQUE
address for all replies to this request:
[3][OPRA #78229 email]
Is [4][Civil Service Commission request email] the wrong address for OPRA requests to
Civil Service Commission? If so, please contact us using this form:
[5]https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://opra...
Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on
the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
[6]https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://opra...
View this OPRA request & responses online:
[7]https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://opra...
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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CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail, including any attachments, may
include advisory, consultative and/or deliberative material and, if so, is
privileged and/or confidential and not a public document. Any information
in this e-mail identifying an employee subject to the jurisdiction of the
Civil Service Commission is confidential. If you received this e-mail in
error, you are not authorized to review, transmit, convert to hard copy,
copy, or in any way further use or disseminate this e-mail or any
attachments to it. You must immediately notify the sender and delete this
message. If the e-mail you received in error contained protected employee
information, you must also notify CSC's Privacy Officer immediately at
[8]https://info.csc.nj.gov/PrivacyEmail, confirming in writing that you
deleted the e-mail(s)/attachment(s) and that you did not/will not further
use or disclose the information contained in the e-mail.
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[OPRA #78229 email]
2. mailto:[Civil Service Commission request email]
3. mailto:[OPRA #78229 email]
4. mailto:[Civil Service Commission request email]
5. https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/opram...
6. https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/opram...
7. https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/opram...
8. https://info.csc.nj.gov/PrivacyEmail
Dear R James,
The Civil Service Commission received your Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request on July 5, 2025. This response to your request is being provided to you today.
You made the following request:
"All internal communications and memoranda discussing the timing, scoring, publication of results, and candidate reviews for the June 4, 2025, examination for Title of Chief of Police.
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."
The above request is denied. The request is overly broad and/or unclear as it fail to name specifically identifiable government records and requires research beyond the scope of a custodian's duties pursuant to MAG Entertainment, LLC v. Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control 375 N.J. Super. 534, 546 (App. Div. 2005), Bent v. Stafford Police Department, 381 N.J.Super. 30, 37 (App. Div. 2005), New Jersey Builders Association v. New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing, 390 N.J.Super. 166, 180 (App. Div. 2007), and Schuler v. Borough of Bloomsbury, GRC Complaint No. 2007-151 (February 2009).
The Open Public Records Act permits a person who believes he or she has been improperly denied access to a government record to file a complaint with the Government Records Council or to file an action in Superior Court to challenge the decision and compel disclosure. See N.J.S.A. 47:1A-6. You will find attached to this letter the document that describes the procedures for taking these actions.
Your OPRA request is now hereby deemed closed. Thank you for the opportunity to be of service.
Best regards,
Office of OPRA
NJ Civil Service Commission
-----Original Message-----
From: R James <[OPRA #78229 email]>
Sent: Saturday, July 5, 2025 1:21 PM
To: CSCCommunications [CSC] <[Civil Service Commission request email]>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] OPRA request - Internal Communications
Dear Civil Service Commission,
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.
Records requested:
All internal communications and memoranda discussing the timing, scoring, publication of results, and candidate reviews for the June 4, 2025, examination for Title of Chief of Police.
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,
R James
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please deliver records electronically via email to the below UNIQUE address for all replies to this request:
[OPRA #78229 email]
Is [Civil Service Commission request email] the wrong address for OPRA requests to Civil Service Commission? If so, please contact us using this form:
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://opra...
Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://opra...
View this OPRA request & responses online:
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://opra...
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."
-------------------------------------------------------------------
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail, including any attachments, may include advisory, consultative and/or deliberative material and, if so, is privileged and/or confidential and not a public document. Any information in this e-mail identifying an employee subject to the jurisdiction of the Civil Service Commission is confidential. If you received this e-mail in error, you are not authorized to review, transmit, convert to hard copy, copy, or in any way further use or disseminate this e-mail or any attachments to it. You must immediately notify the sender and delete this message. If the e-mail you received in error contained protected employee information, you must also notify CSC's Privacy Officer immediately at https://info.csc.nj.gov/PrivacyEmail, confirming in writing that you deleted the e-mail(s)/attachment(s) and that you did not/will not further use or disclose the information contained in the e-mail.