Liquid church
Dear Town of Dover,
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:
I would like a copy of all emails to or from mayor dodd concerning the subjects "liquid church, grimes, lefty, Islam or burka" from January 1, 2025 through September 11, 2025. Please search his government email and his personal email for those subjects
I would like a copy of all recorded phone calls to or from mayor dodd concerning the subjects "liquid church, grimes, lefty, Islam or burka" from January 1, 2025 through September 11, 2025.
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,
William Bailey
Good Afternoon,
You submitted an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) Request Form to the Town of Dover which was received by the Municipal Clerk on 9/11/2025. Pursuant to the Act, the Town has 7 business days, beginning the day after receipt of the request by the Records Custodian, within which to respond. As such, the seven (7) business day deadline to respond to your request is 9/22/2025. Please accept this email as the Town’s response to your request.
Your request sought access to the following:
• Copies of all emails to or from Mayor Dodd concerning the subjects "liquid church, grimes, lefty, Islam or burka" from January 1, 2025 through September 11, 2025. Please search his government email and his personal email for those subjects
• Copies of all recorded phone calls to or from Mayor Dodd concerning the subjects "liquid church, grimes, lefty, Islam or burka" from January 1, 2025 through September 11, 2025
Please be advised that your request is overbroad under OPRA and denied as submitted as it fails to adequately identify specific records, as required under OPRA. (A valid OPRA request must “identify with . . . specificity or particularity the government records sought”); Shipyard Assoc.’s v. City of Hoboken, 2015 WL 10352982, *5 (App. Div. Sept. 15, 2015) (finding use of “any and all” and “not limited to” improper under OPRA); see also Elcavage v. W. Milford Twp., GRC Complaint No. 2006-64 (May 2008) (“Because OPRA does not require custodians to research files to discern which records may be responsive to a request, the Custodian had no legal duty to conduct research to locate records potentially responsive to the Complainant’s request.”). As it relates to emails, you must provide the sender of the email, the subject matter of the email, recipient of email and a timeframe. I understand you provided a timeframe and keywords however, you failed to identify a specific sender and or a specific recipient.
As it relates to the phone records, please be advised, the records sought are currently part of an ongoing investigation and as such are being withheld pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-3(a); which specifically states: any records pertaining to an investigation in progress by any public agency, may be denied, if disclosure of such record or records shall be detrimental to the public interest. Therefore, the records sought are exempt from disclosure at this time.
This request is now deemed complete and closed.
Thank you,
Tara M. Pettoni, RMC, CPM
Municipal Clerk
Town of Dover
37 North Sussex Street
Dover, NJ 07801
(973) 366-2200 ext. 1128
Dear Tara Pettoni,
Ny request is not overload, my request sought specific public records, the mayors emails concerning specific subjects, see wronko vs. Jackson Township. If I do not receive my records I will seek all legal remedies.
Yours sincerely,
William Bailey