My lockout from the courthouse
Dear New Jersey Attorney General's Office,
This is a request for public records made under OPRA and the common law right of access. I am not required to fill out an official form. Please acknowledge receipt of this message.
Records requested:
All records pertaining to the lockout of John Milner from the state courthouse on or about June to October 2018. This is a closed case.
Yours faithfully,
John W. Milner
Mr. Milner,
You submitted a request via email to the Department of Law and Public
Safety (L&PS), Office of the Attorney General (OAG), seeking: "All records
pertaining to the lockout of John Milner from the state courthouse on or
about June to October 2018. This is a closed case. "
Please be advised that pursuant to regulation, N.J.A.C. 13:1E-2, and
long-standing L&PS policy and practice, submission of OPRA requests by
e-mail is not permitted. N.J.A.C. 13:1E-2.4(a). Written Open Public
Records Act (OPRA) requests must be hand-delivered during normal business
hours of the public agency, mailed or submitted electronically to the
appropriate division or agency custodian of records over the Internet by
means of a web-enabled OPRA request form, which can be found on the
Department of Law and Public Safety OPRA website,
www.state.nj.us/lps/opra. Submission of requests by fax or e-mail is not
permitted.
You may either submit a request via the online portal at
[1]https://www-njlib.state.nj.us/NJ_OPRA/de... or you may elect
to mail via hard copy correspondence your request to the appropriate
Custodian. I have attached a copy of the L&PS OPRA form as it contains
the mailing address information for all of the Division Custodians within
L&PS.
Ivonnely Colon-Fung
Deputy Attorney General
L&PS Custodian of Records
State of New Jersey
Office of the Attorney General
P.O. Box 081
Trenton, New Jersey 08625-0081
Phone: (609) 984-6998
Fax: (609) 984-5949
[2][email address]
-----Original Message-----
From: John W. Milner <[OPRA #7555 email]>
Sent: Wednesday, October 9, 2019 9:25 AM
To: OAG Records <[email address]>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] OPRA request - My lockout from the courthouse
Dear New Jersey Attorney General's Office,
This is a request for public records made under OPRA and the common law
right of access. I am not required to fill out an official form. Please
acknowledge receipt of this message.
Records requested:
All records pertaining to the lockout of John Milner from the state
courthouse on or about June to October 2018. This is a closed case.
Yours faithfully,
John W. Milner
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Dear OAG Records,
I reluctantly accede to your request.
However, please be aware that NJSA 47:1A-5(g) says, "A request for a government record shall be in writing and hand-delivered, mailed, transmitted electronically, or otherwise conveyed to the appropriate custodian". Since state law supersedes administrative code at all times, and since the attorney general's office is in the vanguard of assuring the highest standards of public transparency, I urge that a lawyer change your administrative code so that it complies with common law.
This policy reflects other attorney general opinions that contravene state law regarding public oversight over the state's municipalities. They are...
Opinion 97-0135 auditors are exempt from filing financial disclosure statements
Opinion 91-0096 judges are exempt from filing financial disclosure statements
Opinion 91-0136 ethics rules exemption for town councils
...and weak opinions 5 & 6, that were followed through by DCA policy #7, on the following website that deal with after hours work for police officers:
https://www.state.nj.us/dca/divisions/dl...
Too, this policy is similar to the common misinterpretation of paragraph three of NJSA 47:1A-1 (the safeguarding of personal information of citizens) that shields state employees from public oversight.
I once requested key card access attendance reports from the Middlesex County Prosecutor's office to verify that all employees were at work, and to assure no shift work was going on. They turned this request down on the grounds that it jeopardized the security of the building and the employees. I think the building has great potential. I hope that you sympathize with my cause.
Yours sincerely,
John W. Milner