Dear sir or madam,

The Tinton Falls Public Schools (“District”) records custodian received
your Open Public Records Act (“OPRA”) and common law request (“Request”)
on March 4, 2024. The seven business day deadline to respond to your
Request is March 13, 2024. As such, the District is timely responding to
your Request in accordance with New Jersey law. N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5.

            Your Request seeks the following records:

Total Fees Charged by Professionals in order of A to Z by name of the
vendor for the 2023 Calendar Year.

Professionals are defined as Attorneys, Engineers, Insurance Brokers,
Auditors, IT Consultants & Architects.

Please be advised that your Request constitutes an invalid request for
information. Please note that OPRA operates to make identifiable
government records “readily accessible for inspection, copying, or
examination.”  N.J.S.A. § 47:1A-1; MAG Entertainment, LLC v. Div. of
Alcoholic Beverage Control, 375 N.J. Super. 534, 546 (App. Div. 2005). 
MAG Entertainment, LLC held, “[w]hile OPRA provides an alternative means
of access to government documents not otherwise exempted from its reach,
it is not intended as a research tool . . . to force government officials
to identify and siphon useful information.” Id. at 547. “Under OPRA,
agencies are required to disclose only ‘identifiable’ government records
not otherwise exempt. Wholesale requests for general information to be
analyzed, collated and compiled by the responding government entity are
not encompassed therein.”  Id. at 549; see also Bent v. Stafford Police
Dep’t, 381 N.J. Super. 30, 37 (App. Div. 2005) (holding that OPRA only
allows requests for records as contrasted from information, and to qualify
under OPRA a request must reasonably identify a record and not generally
data, information or statistics).  The Appellate Division repeated these
principles in holding:

[A]gencies are only obligated to disclose identifiable government
records.  The statute “only allows requests for records, not requests for
information.”  A proper request “must identify with reasonable clarity
those documents that are desired.”  “Wholesale requests for general
information to be analyzed, collated and compiled” by the agency are
outside OPRA’s scope. 

Burke v. Brandes, 429 N.J. Super. 169, 174 (App. Div. 2012) (citations
omitted); see also Lagerkvist v. Office of Governor of State, 443 N.J.
Super. 230, 237 (App. Div. 2015) (holding that OPRA does not convert a
custodian into a researcher, which would have been the effect of the
request).     

In light of the above, your Request seeking information regarding fees
charged by professionals in 2023 clearly constitutes a request for
information that is outside of the scope of OPRA. You are purportedly
asking the District to conduct research to analyze, compile, and collate
information for you. Such an analysis clearly exceeds the obligations of a
record custodian. Accordingly, the District is not legally obligated to
respond to your inquiry.

To the extent that you are seeking access to this information pursuant to
the common law right of access, your Request is similarly deficient for
the reason stated above.

            Your Request is now deemed answered and closed. Thank you for
your attention to this matter.

Thanks,
Vin Daniels
Business Administrator/Board Secretary
Tinton Falls Public Schools
658 Tinton Ave.
Tinton Falls, NJ 07724
Phone: 732-460-2406
[1]www.tfschools.org

show quoted sections