via electronic mail
Taeho Kim
[OPRA #12129 email]

RE: OPRA request dated May 27, 2020

Dear Requestor:

The Borough of Cliffside Park received your Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request on May 27, 2020. As such, the seven (7) business day deadline to respond to your request is June 5, 2020. This response to your request is being provided to you within the time required by statute.

Please provide all purchase order history for purchases by the police department from 2012 to 2019. For each order, please include the date, description, vendor, and amount of the purchase.

Excel form is preferred, but other electronic forms are fine if that is not feasible.

This request seeks information or asks questions and does not identify specific government records. As such, your request is an invalid OPRA request and is denied. When a request is “complex” because it fails to specifically identify the documents sought, then that request is not “encompassed” by OPRA. See New Jersey Builders Association v. New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing, 390 N.J. Super. 166, 180 (App. Div. 2007). A proper request under OPRA must identify with reasonable clarity those documents that are desired, and a party cannot satisfy this requirement by simply requesting all of an agency’s documents. See Bent v. Stafford Police Department, 381 N.J.Super. 30, 37 (App. Div. 2005).

OPRA is not intended to serve as a research tool by which government officials may be compelled to identify and siphon information. The statute is intended to operate to make specific and identifiable government records available to those requesting same. See, MAG Entertainment, LLC v. Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control, 375 N.J. Super. 534, 546 (App.Div. 2005). Consequently, a records custodian is not required to conduct open-ended searches of the agency’s files or to analyze, compile and collate the information contained in the agency’s files in an effort to locate information that is the subject of a request. Id. at 549. It is the obligation of the requestor to “identify with reasonable clarity those documents that are desired.” Bent v. Stafford Police Department, 381 N.J. Super. 30, 37 (App.Div. 2005). A request that does not provide the requisite specificity is deemed complex and falls outside the scope of OPRA. See, New Jersey Builders Assn. v. New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing, 390 N.J. Super. 166, 180 (App.Div. 2007). Failure by the records custodian to comply with such a request does not constitute an unlawful denial of access to government records under OPRA.

Your request fails to reasonably identify any specific governmental record sought but instead requests information and data. Furthermore your request does not seek an existing government record but rather demands that the Records Custodian search his files, analyze and collate information and create a document. For these reasons, your request made pursuant to OPRA is denied.

To constitute a public record pursuant to the common law the subject document must be a written memorial made by a public officer authorized by law to make it. Nero v. Hyland, 76 N.J. 213, 222 (1978); Loigman v. Kimmelman, 102 N.J. 98 (1986). Furthermore, one who makes a request for access to a public record made pursuant to common law must identify his legally recognized interest in the subject matter contained in the record to allow the Custodian to determine whether the requestor’s right of access outweighs the governmental agency’s interest in preventing disclosure. Loigman, supra at 104. Your request does not pertain to documents made by a public officer authorized by law to make them nor does your request identify any legally recognized interest in the subject matter contained in the record. For these reasons, your request made pursuant to the common law right of access is denied.

If your request for access to a government record pursuant to OPRA has been denied or unfilled within the seven (7) business days required by law, you have a right to challenge the decision to deny access. At your option, you may either institute a proceeding in the Superior Court of New Jersey or file a complaint with the Government Records Council (GRC) by completing the Denial of Access Complaint Form. You may contact the GRC by toll-free telephone at 866-850-0511, by mail at P.O. Box 819, Trenton, NJ 08625, by e-mail at [email address], or at their web site at www.state.nj.us/grc. The GRC can also answer other questions about the law. All questions regarding complaints filed in Superior Court should be directed to the Court Clerk in your County.

Very truly yours,

SERCAN ZOKLU
Borough Clerk

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Sercan Zoklu, RMC
Municipal Clerk
Borough of Cliffside Park
525 Palisade Avenue
Cliffside Park, NJ 07010
Phone: (201) 313 - 2003
Fax: (201) 945 - 9823
[Cliffside Park Borough request email]

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