Dear Town of Boonton,

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:

Legal invoices with accompanying sender's email for all legal services rendered and reimbursed by the Town of Boonton from January 1, 2022 through December 31, 2022. Including but not limited to Town Counsel, Labor Counsel, Special Counsel, Civil Counsel, Bond Counsel, and any other attorney work performed for, and paid by, the Town of Boonton or its Insurer(s).

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,

Stephen Jones

Dear Elizabeth Bonsiewich (Municipal Clerk),

Thanks for the update, I look forward to the response by close of business 5/16/25.

Yours sincerely,

Stephen Jones

Dear Elizabeth Bonsiewich (Municipal Clerk),

Thanks for the update, I look forward to the response by close of business 5/30/25.

Yours sincerely,

Stephen Jones

Dear Town of Boonton,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Open Public Records Act reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Town of Boonton's handling of my OPRA request 'Legal Invoices with accompanying emails for 2022'.

In this request I asked for the following:

"Legal invoices with accompanying sender's email for all legal services rendered and reimbursed by the Town of Boonton from January 1, 2022 through December 31, 2022. Including but not limited to Town Counsel, Labor Counsel, Special Counsel, Civil Counsel, Bond Counsel, and any other attorney work performed for, and paid by, the Town of Boonton or its Insurer(s)."

I HAVE NOT RECEIVED THE "ACCOMPANYING SENDER'S EMAILS", for clarification, I see the invoices in some instances were sent to "mayor AT boonton.org", you have ONLY provided the "attachments" to these emails, NOT the "accompanying sender's emails" themselves as requested. These invoices were "attachments" to an "email"...you have not provided me the "emails".

To properly fulfill my OPRA request, please provide the actual emails from the sender from all subject law firms in this OPRA request to fulfill my request that were sent to and received by emails addresses operated by Town of Boonton Officials, including but not limited to "mayor AT boonton.org, nhenry AT boonton.org, rcorcoran AT boonton.org, townclerk AT boonton.org, bgurney AT boonton.org, jlynch AT boonton.org etc. etc. - these are merely suggestions, and should not preclude you from furnishing me my requested documents.

*Please note, in above email examples "AT" is substituted for the @ symbol due to restrictions in this OPRAmachine request format.

If you require further clarification on my request, please do not hesitate to ask.

I await your response, of note I will also be attending the next Public Town Council Meeting to address this failure to provide a statutorily protected citizen's right in expecting their government to fulfill an OPRA request promptly and accurately.

Please confirm receipt of this message.

A full history of my OPRA request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://opramachine.com/request/legal_in...

Yours faithfully,

Stephen Jones

Dear Elizabeth Bonsiewich (Municipal Clerk),

Thank you for your PROMPT response!

I believe my original request, as well as my clarified request of this date both comply with the statement below quoted from your last response, for the following numbered reasons below:

"Under OPRA, requests for emails must contain the content and/or subject, the specific date or range of dates, and the sender and/or recipient information..."

1. The "range of dates" in the request was, and still is, "1/1/2022 through 12/31/2022".
2. The "content and/or subject" was, and still is, plainly stated in the original request, and follow up requests as being the "email" that "accompanied" the "legal invoices" for "legal services rendered and reimbursed by the Town of Boonton". It is the "email" that "contained" the "attachment" of the "legal invoice" you have provided. Using simple logic, it should be safe to assume by a reasonable person that you have already located, or can quite quickly locate, these "accompanying emails" that I have requested, as you have located and provided a number of the invoices for this request. The invoices are only 1/2 of the equation, the "email" is the other 1/2. The invoices were sent to the Town by email, at which point both the email and the attached invoice became a government record and subject to this OPRA request. But for some reason the emails are still missing from the request, I am at a loss with what the disconnect was here? I am hoping it is now resolved.
3. The "sender and/or recipient information" was, and still is, very clear. The "recipient" is the "Town of Boonton" as the government entity, period. Now my clarification message earlier this date suggested a number of email addresses that may have received these invoices, but I clearly stated it was not "limited" to those addresses. They were provided solely as a courtesy example for you, to aid in your search regarding my request.*

*If necessary, please advise if I need to make a separate OPRA request for ALL email addresses registered for the Town with email domains, including but not limited to: @boonton.org, @boonton.net., @boonton.com etc. that were in use during the time period in this request of 1/1/2022 through 12/31/2022.

To sum up, You have provided a response that contains a number of invoices, now I cannot concede that it is a complete response as of yet with regard to the invoices until I take a closer look at the records, however these invoices that have been produced were sent by email from the vendor providing the legal services to the Town of Boonton, and the "accompanying emails" that I asked for are still missing from your response.

As you should be aware, on this date I have also made an additional OPRA request for the same content that was requested in this OPRA, but for the updated date range of 1/1/2023 through 12/31/2023. All of the same points I have raised and addressed for the 2022 "Legal Invoices with accompanying emails" also apply for my 2023 request.

Please acknowledge and advise if you need anything further from me to help you finally complete this request.

Yours sincerely,

Stephen Jones