Dear Matawan Borough,

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 N.J.S.A. 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:

Under OPRA and the common law right of access, I request all records related to debt service, tax impact, or financing analyses prepared for or in relation to Ordinance 25-18, including but not limited to:

1. Spreadsheets & Financial Calculations
All Excel files, Google Sheets, CSVs, and any other spreadsheets calculating:
- Debt service schedules
- Principal and interest projections
- Bond amortization schedules
- Long-term financial impact
- Tax rate impact analysis
- Multi-year financing models
(Include all versions, including drafts.)

2. Memos, Reports & Internal Analyses
- All written memoranda
- Departmental or BA office financial summaries
- Budget impact analyses
- Debt capacity evaluations
- Tax impact estimates
- Internal or consultant-prepared financing recommendations

3. Emails, Communications, Notes
All emails, text messages, handwritten notes, internal correspondence, and digital communications involving:
- Business Administrator
- CFO / Finance staff
- Mayor
- Borough Council members
- Borough Attorney
- Bond Counsel
- Auditor
- Financial advisors or consultants
that discuss, estimate, or reference:
- Debt service costs
- Financing strategy
- Bond issuance options
- Repayment schedules
- Taxpayer impact
- Financial risk or exposure
- Any draft or final calculation tied to Ordinance 25-18

4. Financing Option Materials
- Any documents comparing financing alternatives
- Correspondence with bond counsel or underwriters
- Debt rating considerations
- Internal projections used for public meetings or presentations
- Draft or final PowerPoints or spreadsheets referencing debt service or tax impact

Required Format of Production (Mandatory)
Under Paff v. Galloway, all electronic files must be produced in their original native formats, including:
- XLSX / CSV for spreadsheets
- MSG / EML / PST for emails
- ICS for calendar entries
- PDF only where the native file itself is PDF
- EXIF-intact files for images
Metadata is part of the government record.
Please include all metadata such as:
- File creation/modified timestamps
- Authors
- File paths
- Email headers
- Version history (if available)

Redaction Requirements
If any portion is withheld or redacted:
- Provide a GRC-compliant redaction index
- Cite the specific statutory OPRA exemption for each redaction
- Provide all non-exempt portions immediately
Generalized or blanket redactions are not permitted.

Anti-Delay / Anti-Extension Requirements
This request is made under N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5(i).
The Borough must respond within 7 business days.

Any extension request must:

1. Include a specific factual justification,
2. Cite the statutory basis, and
3. Provide a firm date certain.

General statements such as “we need more time” or open-ended extensions do not comply with OPRA and will be treated as an unlawful denial under Burnett, Paff, and GRC precedent.

My preferred delivery method for all responses is email with attachments.

Please confirm receipt of this request. If you are not the custodian of records, please forward it to the correct custodian and provide their email address for future reference.

Thank you,

John Certo

Dear Records Custodian Wynne,

I write in response to the December 9, 2025 correspondence transmitted through Borough counsel regarding my November 29, 2025 OPRA and common law rights request concerning debt service, tax impact, and financing analyses related to Ordinance 25-18.

Your letter was transmitted on the seventh business day following receipt of my request and seeks an extension until December 31, 2025, effectively a 30-day time frame. I do not agree to, or consent to, a 30-day extension. N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5(i) requires that access to government records be granted or denied as soon as possible, but not later than seven business days after receipt, and further provides that when additional time is needed, the custodian must state the specific reasons for the delay and provide a specific date when the record will be made available. The generalized reasons given in your letter (multiple departments, outside professionals, and the holiday period) are not tied to particular categories of records, particular systems, or particular search or review steps, and were not raised until the last day of the statutory response period. In light of N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5(i), I respectfully request that you reconsider the length of the extension, limit any extension to the minimum time actually necessary to complete specific, identified tasks, and treat my statutory rights under the seven-business-day requirement as fully preserved.

To the extent you are asserting that meeting the seven-business-day deadline would substantially disrupt Borough operations, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5(g) requires that you attempt to reach a reasonable solution with the requestor. A unilateral 30-day extension communicated on the seventh business day does not give me a meaningful opportunity to participate in such a solution. If you believe substantial disruption is at issue, please identify: (1) the specific disruption anticipated, (2) the specific record categories and systems implicated, and (3) what concrete steps you propose to minimize that disruption so that we may attempt to reach a reasonable solution consistent with N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5(g).

Regardless of any extension, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5(i) still requires that access be provided as soon as possible, not simply by the end of an extended period. I therefore request rolling production of responsive records as they are located and reviewed, rather than waiting to complete all multi-department searches and retrievals from outside professionals before producing anything. Any clearly segregable, readily accessible electronic materials already maintained within Borough systems — including existing spreadsheets, final financial summaries, memoranda, and internal analyses held by Administration, Finance, the Clerk’s Office, or Legal — should be produced on an ongoing basis as they are identified and reviewed.

As set forth in my original request, all responsive electronic records must be produced in their native formats, with associated metadata, consistent with N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1.1 and applicable case law. This includes, for example, XLSX and CSV for spreadsheets, original email formats with full headers, and any other native formats maintained by the Borough, along with associated metadata such as creation and modification timestamps and author information. Please confirm that the Borough’s searches and productions will adhere to these format and metadata requirements.

Your December 9 letter indicates that potentially responsive materials may be dispersed across Administration, Finance, the Clerk’s Office, Legal, and outside professionals, including but not limited to bond counsel, auditors, and financial advisors. Because the definition of “government record” in N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1.1 encompasses records made, maintained, or kept on file for the Borough in the course of its official business, please confirm that the Borough’s OPRA search includes all such outside professionals and that any responsive records they hold on the Borough’s behalf will be retrieved, reviewed, and produced (or properly redacted with cited exemptions) on the same basis as records held in internal Borough systems.

For any responsive records that you contend are exempt in whole or in part, OPRA requires that you (1) identify the specific statutory exemption(s) relied upon for each record or category of record, and (2) produce all reasonably segregable nonexempt portions. See N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5(g) and 47:1A-5(i). In line with my original request, please provide a GRC-compliant redaction index identifying each withheld or redacted record, the specific exemption(s) asserted, and a brief description sufficient to allow me to understand the nature of the record without revealing the claimed exempt information. Generalized or blanket references to possible privileges or exemptions will not satisfy these statutory requirements.

To the extent the Borough ultimately determines that any specifically described category of records does not exist, or that no responsive records are maintained for that category, please provide a certification of non-existence consistent with N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5(g), identifying the locations, systems, and offices searched so that the completeness of the search can be understood.

Finally, because the December 9, 2025 correspondence came from outside counsel rather than directly from you as Records Custodian, I request that you confirm that counsel’s letter accurately reflects your determinations under OPRA and that all searches, productions, redactions, any claimed exemptions, and any asserted need for additional time are being made under your authority and in compliance with N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq.

Thank you for your attention to these issues. I look forward to prompt and rolling production of responsive records as they become available, and to your clarification regarding the necessity and length of any extension under N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5(i) and 47:1A-5(g).

Sincerely,

John Certo

Dear Records Custodian Karen Wynne,

This is a records preservation notice issued pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-9 and the common law right of access. Please preserve, maintain, and not destroy, delete, alter, overwrite, conceal, or modify any records responsive to this OPRA request, as well as any records responsive to all OPRA requests I have previously submitted to the Borough of Matawan, while each request is pending and until each is fully and finally resolved. This preservation obligation applies immediately upon receipt of this notice.

This duty applies regardless of routine or automated deletion policies, email retention limits, backup overwrites, document management schedules, device replacement, or any other internal records management practice.

This preservation obligation applies Borough-wide and includes records maintained by any department, office, official, employee, contractor, or agent acting for or on behalf of the Borough.

This preservation obligation applies to all formats and locations where responsive records may reasonably be maintained, including emails, attachments, drafts, internal notes or memoranda, logs, tracking records, databases, shared drives, cloud storage, third party systems used by or for the Borough, metadata, and system generated records maintained in the ordinary course of business.

This notice is issued by me solely in my capacity as a private New Jersey resident exercising statutory and constitutional rights under the New Jersey Constitution, the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, the Open Public Records Act, and the common law right of access. No adverse action, retaliation, obstruction, or discriminatory treatment may lawfully result from the exercise of these rights.

If any responsive record is later asserted not to exist, please provide the written certification of non existence required by N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5(g), certifying that a reasonable search was conducted across all systems and departments where responsive records are ordinarily maintained.

This preservation notice does not modify, restart, or toll any statutory response deadlines under OPRA and is issued solely to ensure compliance with existing legal obligations.

This obligation continues through any administrative review or appeal related to these OPRA requests.

Thank you.

John Certo