Ordinance O-26-11
Dear Howell Township,
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-5(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:
1 records referring, reflecting or relating to planning and engineering support showing analysis and reasoning behind impervious coverage limits proposed to be set under ordinance O-26-11.
2 documents showing the number of lots expected to not meet the new limits set under ordinance O-26-11.
3 records referring, reflecting or relating to communication between township manager, governing body, attorney, township employees and/or township professionals ordinance O-26-11.
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,
Tommy Shelby
Good afternoon,
Please be advised that in order to fulfill your OPRA request 26-1333 an extension is required. Your request requires additional time beyond the seven (7) business days. OPRA allows custodians to seek extensions of time pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5.i
If the documents are available prior to the extension to 6/15/26 they will be sent to you.
Thank you.
Jill Abernathy
Office of the Municipal Clerk
Township of Howell
4567 Route 9 North, 2nd Floor
Howell, NJ 07731
732-938-4500 ext. 2241
Good afternoon,
Please note that in response to your OPRA request 26-1333, items 1 and 3 have been denied as requests for materials that would be composed of inter-agency advisory/consultative/deliberative material exempt from production under OPRA. See N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1.1.
Item 2, has been denied as it fails to identify specific records being sought and instead amounts to a request for information. An OPRA request must be framed in a way that does not place on records custodians the burden of making evaluative determinations regarding the contents of a potential record and whether it is relevant to a request. The New Jersey Appellate Division has previously held that “OPRA simply operates to make identifiable government records ‘readily accessible for inspection, copying, or examination.’ N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1." See MAG Entertainment, LLC v. Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control, 375 N.J. Super. 534, 546 (App. Div. 2005). For that reason, "[u]nder OPRA, agencies are required to disclose only ‘identifiable’ government records not otherwise exempt ... OPRA does not countenance open-ended searches of an agency's files.” Id. at 549.
This request has been closed.
Thank you.
Jill Abernathy
Office of the Municipal Clerk
Township of Howell
4567 Route 9 North, 2nd Floor
Howell, NJ 07731
732-938-4500 ext. 2241