Joseph A. Manfredi & Associates Contract, Bills, and Vendor Report
Charlie Kratovil made this OPRA request to New Brunswick Housing Authority as part of a batch sent to 9 authorities This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.
Dear New Brunswick Housing Authority,
Under OPRA and the common law right of access, please provide:
1) a copy of the current contract for Joseph A. Manfredi & Associates
2) copies of all bills received from the above firm for work done during the calendar year 2022
3) a vendor report showing the amounts of all payments made to this vendor (under their current name listed above and prior name "Manfredi & Pellechio") from the time they were first hired by the authority until present day.
Yours faithfully,
Charlie Kratovil
Mr. Kratovil:
The Housing Authority has received your Open Public Records Act request
dated May 3, 2023 for certain records pertaining to the services provided
by Manfredi & Pellechio.
The Housing Authority hereby requests an extension of fourteen (14) days
to respond to your request. This additional time is necessary for the
Housing Authority to review the records and redact any and all information
protected by attorney-client privilege and/or other confidential
information protected by law.
Regards,
John
John Clarke
Executive Director
New Brunswick Housing and Redevelopment Authority
7 Van Dyke Ave
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
Phone: 732-745-5157 ext. 301
Fax: 732-253-7799
E-mail: [email address]
Web Site: [1]www.newbrunswickhousing.org
Notice of Confidentiality:
The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to
which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged
material.. Any review re-transmission dissemination or other use of or
taking of any action in reliance upon this information by persons or
entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you received
this in error please contact the sender immediately by return electronic
transmission and then immediately delete this transmission including all
attachments without copying distributing or disclosing same.
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
From: Charlie Kratovil
<[OPRA #42207 email]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 3, 2023 4:08 PM
To: John Clarke <[email address]>
Subject: OPRA request - Joseph A. Manfredi & Associates Contract, Bills,
and Vendor Report
Dear New Brunswick Housing Authority,
Under OPRA and the common law right of access, please provide:
1) a copy of the current contract for Joseph A. Manfredi & Associates
2) copies of all bills received from the above firm for work done during
the calendar year 2022
3) a vendor report showing the amounts of all payments made to this vendor
(under their current name listed above and prior name "Manfredi &
Pellechio") from the time they were first hired by the authority until
present day.
Yours faithfully,
Charlie Kratovil
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Please deliver records electronically via email to the below UNIQUE
address for all replies to this request:
[OPRA #42207 email]
Is [email address] the wrong address for OPRA requests to New Brunswick
Housing Authority? If so, please contact us using this form:
[2]https://opramachine.com/change_request/n...
Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on
the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
[3]https://opramachine.com/help/officers
View this OPRA request & responses online:
[4]https://opramachine.com/request/joseph_a...
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.
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References
Visible links
1. http://www.newbrunswickhousing.org/
2. https://opramachine.com/change_request/n...
3. https://opramachine.com/help/officers
4. https://opramachine.com/request/joseph_a...
Dear Mr. Clarke,
Thanks for your response. Please provide what you can now. For instance, the current contract is an immediate access document pursuant to the OPRA. Can I come pick it up on Monday? Or are you able to produce it via email?
Yours sincerely,
Charlie Kratovil
Yours sincerely,
Charlie Kratovil
Mr. Kratovil,
See attached contracts for legal services per your request.
Regards,
John
John Clarke
Executive Director
New Brunswick Housing and Redevelopment Authority
7 Van Dyke Ave
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
Phone: 732-745-5157 ext. 301
Fax: 732-253-7799
E-mail: [email address]
Web Site: [1]www.newbrunswickhousing.org
Notice of Confidentiality:
The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to
which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged
material.. Any review re-transmission dissemination or other use of or
taking of any action in reliance upon this information by persons or
entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you received
this in error please contact the sender immediately by return electronic
transmission and then immediately delete this transmission including all
attachments without copying distributing or disclosing same.
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
From: Charlie Kratovil
<[OPRA #42207 email]>
Sent: Friday, May 12, 2023 10:05 PM
To: John Clarke <[email address]>
Subject: Re: OPRA request - Joseph A. Manfredi & Associates Contract,
Bills, and Vendor Report
Dear Mr. Clarke,
Thanks for your response. Please provide what you can now. For instance,
the current contract is an immediate access document pursuant to the OPRA.
Can I come pick it up on Monday? Or are you able to produce it via email?
Yours sincerely,
Charlie Kratovil
Yours sincerely,
Charlie Kratovil
Dear Mr. Clarke,
I received the contracts. Thank you. Why did you make redactions to the signatures?
When can I expect to the receive the other records that I requested?
Yours sincerely,
Charlie Kratovil
Mr. Kratovil:
The Housing Authority hereby requests an additional extension until June
21, 2023 to respond to the remaining portions of your Open Public Records
Act requests. This additional time is needed to complete the required
redactions of any and all information protected by attorney-client
privilege and/or other confidential information protected by law.
John
John Clarke
Executive Director
New Brunswick Housing and Redevelopment Authority
7 Van Dyke Ave
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
Phone: 732-745-5157 ext. 301
Fax: 732-253-7799
E-mail: [email address]
Web Site: [1]www.newbrunswickhousing.org
Notice of Confidentiality:
The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to
which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged
material.. Any review re-transmission dissemination or other use of or
taking of any action in reliance upon this information by persons or
entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you received
this in error please contact the sender immediately by return electronic
transmission and then immediately delete this transmission including all
attachments without copying distributing or disclosing same.
References
Visible links
1. http://www.newbrunswickhousing.org/
Mr. Kratovil:
Enclosed please find a partial production of the requested legal service
records, subject to the redaction of attorney-client privileged matters
pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1.1; information concerning criminal
investigatory records or for use by a law enforcement agency pursuant
to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1.1; confidential personnel matters pursuant
to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-10; and information concerning HUD federally subsidized
tenancies pursuant to the Federal Privacy Act, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1,
and Burnett v. County of Bergen, 198 N.J. 408, 422-423 (2009) (explaining
that N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 is substantive in nature and “imposes an obligation
on public agencies to protect against disclosure of personal information
which would run contrary to reasonable privacy interests.”).
A partial production was necessary due to the sheer volume of redactions
required. The NBHA hereby requests an additional seven (7) days to respond
to the remaining portions of your Open Public Records Act requests and to
complete the required redactions of any and all information protected by
attorney-client privilege and/or other confidential information protected
by law.
Regards,
John
John Clarke
Executive Director
New Brunswick Housing and Redevelopment Authority
7 Van Dyke Ave
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
Phone: 732-745-5157 ext. 301
Fax: 732-253-7799
E-mail: [email address]
Web Site: [1]www.newbrunswickhousing.org
Notice of Confidentiality:
The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to
which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged
material.. Any review re-transmission dissemination or other use of or
taking of any action in reliance upon this information by persons or
entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you received
this in error please contact the sender immediately by return electronic
transmission and then immediately delete this transmission including all
attachments without copying distributing or disclosing same.
References
Visible links
1. http://www.newbrunswickhousing.org/
Dear Mr. Clarke,
in reference to my request filed on May 3, I have received the partial, redacted response to item #2, and still await a response to item #3. I question if all of the redactions were necessary in item #2. I also asked why you made redactions to the records provided in response to item #1. Please provide a response to these concerns, and I'll look forward to receiving the remaining responsive records soon.
Yours sincerely,
Charlie Kratovil
Dear Mr. Clarke,
I have not received any further communication from you since June 22, when you indicated you were asking for "ran additional seven (7) days to respond to the remaining portions of your Open Public Records Act requests and to complete the required redactions of any and all information protected by attorney-client privilege and/or other confidential information protected by law."
It is now July 13, and I still have received only a small fraction of the records requested. For example, you only provided invoices dated 8/16/22 though 12/14/22, but I had requested "all bills received... for work done during the calendar year 2022" You acknowledged it was only a partial production, but haven't followed up. When can I expect to receive the vendor reports and remaining bills? Why did you make redactions to the contract?
Yours sincerely,
Charlie Kratovil
Mr. Kratovil:
Enclosed please find the remainder of the requested legal service records,
subject to the redaction of attorney-client privileged matters pursuant to
N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1.1; information concerning criminal investigatory records
or for use by a law enforcement agency pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1.1;
confidential personnel matters pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-10; and
information concerning HUD federally subsidized tenancies pursuant to the
Federal Privacy Act, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1, and Burnett v. County of Bergen,
198 N.J. 408, 422-423 (2009) (explaining that N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 is
substantive in nature and “imposes an obligation on public agencies to
protect against disclosure of personal information which would run
contrary to reasonable privacy interests.”).
John
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From: Charlie Kratovil
<[1][OPRA #42207 email]>
Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2023 7:15 PM
To: John Clarke <[2][email address]>
Subject: Re: OPRA Response
Dear Mr. Clarke,
I have not received any further communication from you since June 22, when
you indicated you were asking for "ran additional seven (7) days to
respond to the remaining portions of your Open Public Records Act requests
and to complete the required redactions of any and all information
protected by attorney-client privilege and/or other confidential
information protected by law."
It is now July 13, and I still have received only a small fraction of the
records requested. For example, you only provided invoices dated 8/16/22
though 12/14/22, but I had requested "all bills received... for work done
during the calendar year 2022" You acknowledged it was only a partial
production, but haven't followed up. When can I expect to receive the
vendor reports and remaining bills? Why did you make redactions to the
contract?
Yours sincerely,
Charlie Kratovil
Mr. Clarke,
I've now received a response to items #1 and #2 of my May 3 request. When is the agency going to provide item #3?
For your reference, item #3 is: a vendor report showing the amounts of all payments made to this vendor (under their current name listed above and prior name "Manfredi & Pellechio") from the time they were first hired by the authority until present day.
Yours sincerely,
Charlie Kratovil
Hi Mr. Camacho,
At the May 24 meeting of the NBHA board, you will recall NBHA Board
Chairman Zachary Wright directed me to reach out to you. I've copied him,
as well as the City Council liason and the Executive Director, on this
message so they can be clear on what has transpired since that
conversation.
As I've noted in my prior message to you, you responded to Mr. Wright's
referral of my questions by saying you would "be happy to answer [my]
questions offline." Two days later, I called your workplace and left a
message for you with your staff. I never heard from you until yesterday.
Of course the NBHA board cancelled its scheduled June meeting (even though
all participants could join remotely). On July 13 I sent you an email
reminding you that you had not returned my May 26 call. I also used this
email to point out that the NBHA was deficient in its responses to my May
3 OPRA request. While other housing authorities were able to produce
responses to identical requests within a matter of days, NBHA's response
has been abysmal and continues to be in violation of state law after many
months.
The NBHA initially requested a 14-day extension to respond, then released
item #1 of the request on May 15, including unnecessary redactions. On
June 15, long after the extension had expired, the NBHA requested an
additional extension to June 21. On June 22, the NBHA provided four
documents, specifically bills from your law firm. There were some absurd
over-redactions (such as redacting the "OIG" in "HUD OIG") in the records
provided, and these redactions were used to justify providing a "partial
production" of the remaining records that had been requested. Already I
noticed some troubling things. For instance, the authority budgeted just
$55,000 for legal fees in the 2022-23 year, but your firm alone has billed
$67,016.32 in just half of that year. I was also shocked to see nearly
$20,000 in bills from your firm for defending against my ethics complaint.
NBHA requested an additional 7 days to produce the remaining records. On
June 28, I asked questions about the records produced and received no
response. On July 13, having received no further records or responses
from the NBHA, I again asked when the remaining items would be produced.
On July 20, I submitted two additional OPRA requests. It should be noted
that one of my requests was for the agency's budget, a document that is
required to be posted to the agency website by law and has not been posted
in violation. This is also an "immediate access" document under the OPRA
which means it should have been provided to me same-day. As of this
moment, a visitor to the NBHA's poor, outdated website will find the most
recent budget available was for the year ending June 30, 2022. No 2022-23
budget has been posted to the website, in violation of state
law: [1]https://newbrunswickhousing.org/notices/...
Before the NBHA office closed for the day on July 20, I tried to speak
with NBHA's OPRA custodian John Clarke in person, but I was told he was
out of the office. The building was closed to the public, allegedly due
to the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the fact every other government building
in the city has re-opened. I spoke to a staff member through a doorbell
and he said he would inform Mr. Clarke that I was trying to speak to him,
and that Mr. Clarke would return to work on Monday, July 24.
Yesterday, NBHA finally provided three additional bills from your firm,
allegedly completing the production of the second of the three items I
requested back on May 3. However, I believe there may be an additional
bill or from May/June that has not yet been produced. Please confirm if
all bills requested in the second item of my request have been produced,
or if there are still additional bills to be provided. Additionally, the
third item was never produced, and I have raised this point several times
to Mr. Clarke, as you can see in the original OPRA request and the
responses, which are available for review
here: [2]https://opramachine.com/request/joseph_a...
My July 20 OPRA requests are available here:
[3]https://opramachine.com/request/new_brun...
[4]https://opramachine.com/request/john_cla...
I don't understand why the NBHA cannot manage to comply with the OPRA. My
requests are not difficult to fulfill, and I am likely the only person
filing any requests. Of course, this is not the first time NBHA has
violated the OPRA, and as you well know, there are avenues available to me
to challenge these violations. I am drafting this message to you in a
last-ditch attempt to achieve compliance before I am forced to take legal
action against the authority for violating the OPRA.
Finally, as for my questions asked at the last meeting, fortunately I made
a recording of the meeting, which available
here: [5]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbu8JJRF...
Please respond to the questions I asked during the meeting, as well as to
the concerns I raised in this message, as soon as possible. I'll look
forward to your responses.
SIncerely,
Charlie Kratovil
Mr. Kratovil:
Enclosed please find the remainder of the requested legal service records,
subject to the redaction of attorney-client privileged matters pursuant
to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1.1; information concerning criminal investigatory
records or for use by a law enforcement agency pursuant
to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1.1; confidential personnel matters pursuant
to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-10; and information concerning HUD federally subsidized
tenancies pursuant to the Federal Privacy Act, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1,
and Burnett v. County of Bergen, 198 N.J. 408, 422-423 (2009) (explaining
that N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 is substantive in nature and “imposes an obligation
on public agencies to protect against disclosure of personal information
which would run contrary to reasonable privacy interests.”).
John
John Clarke
Executive Director
New Brunswick Housing and Redevelopment Authority
7 Van Dyke Ave
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
Phone: 732-745-5157 ext. 301
Fax: 732-253-7799
E-mail: [email address]
Web Site: [1]www.newbrunswickhousing.org
Notice of Confidentiality:
The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to
which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged
material.. Any review re-transmission dissemination or other use of or
taking of any action in reliance upon this information by persons or
entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you received
this in error please contact the sender immediately by return electronic
transmission and then immediately delete this transmission including all
attachments without copying distributing or disclosing same.
References
Visible links
1. http://www.newbrunswickhousing.org/
Mr. Clarke,
We are now more than three months into an absurd and needlessly prolonged response to a single three-item OPRA request. Your August 1 email confirms that you were not accurate when you claimed to have provided "the remainder of the requested legal service records" in a previous message. As I suspected, there were bills for May and June that were not provided in your prior response, despite your characterization of the production as "the remainder of the requested... records." Typically, under these circumstances, one would expect an acknowledgment of the error, and apology for same. Nevertheless, thank you for providing the records.
Additionally, I still have not received an explanation/justification of the redactions to the records provided in response to item #1. I also have not received anything at all in terms of item #3. It's been more than three months since I requested these items. NBHA should produce unredacted versions of both #1 and #3 immediately. Until you comply with the OPRA, the NBHA runs the risk of being sued for violating the law.
When will you be able to provide the record I requested in item #3? Similar to the situation with item #2, considering you are so extremely delinquent in responding to this request, an apology would be most appropriate. You should also provide a clear timeline for fulfilling the outstanding items from my request.
Yours sincerely,
Charlie Kratovil
Dear Mr. Clarke,
The authority remains in violation of the OPRA, having never provided the record requested in item #3 of my May 3, 2023 request (and also by providing a redacted version of item #1 when no redaction was necessary or justified).
Nearly four months ago, this request was filed with 9 different housing authorities and the only ones that have not complied are New Brunswick and Franklin (which, of course, is run by New Brunswick).
Are you going to provide the requested report or do I have to file affirmative litigation against the authority to obtain it?
Yours sincerely,
Charlie Kratovil
Dear Mr. Toto,
Unfortunately, your predecessor Mr. Clarke left several of my pending OPRA requests unfulfilled, and the authority has been recklessly risking legal liability by not complying with the state statute NJSA 47:1A.
The NBHA never provided the vendor report requested in item #3 of my May 3, 2023 request (and provided an unlawfully-redacted version of the contract in item #1 when no redaction was necessary or justified).
It's my understanding that you have taken over for Mr. Clarke as the custodian of records. I am concerned that the law firm referenced in my request has been involved in stonewalling my First Amendment protected activates, overbilling the agency for obstructionist and dubious activities of their own, and concealing the proof of this by unlawfully delaying the release of their bills to the press, despite the fact lawful requests have been made for those records. We have already litigated issues about releasing bills from this firm in the past and the authority did not prevail in that matter.
Critically, my request for the vendor report would show how many hundreds of thousands of dollars this firm has been paid by the NBHA, and allow for me to share that information with the general public. If the NBHA does not comply with the OPRA, I will be forced to again file affirmative litigation demanding the release of this record, and others that the authority has failed to provide. I sincerely hope you will correct the problematic course that the NBHA is currently on, and restore proper transparency to the agency.
Additional follow-ups regarding other pending requests will be forthcoming.
Yours faithfully,
Charlie Kratovil
Unredacted contract and report with one total amount paid for
5/1/2019-9/26/2023 provided shortly after the email below