Response to Teaneck Engineer by County Engineering Team re: bike lane on Degraw Ave.
Dear Bergen County,
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-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:
Response from Nancy Dargis, Bergen County Engineering Department Head, or other Bergen County Planning/Engineering Department member to Farah Gilani, Teaneck Township Engineer, or other Teaneck official, relating to email sent on June 12, 2019 with/regarding the subject "Bike lane - Degraw Avenue."
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,
Christian Nowell
Please be advised that the requested records are exempt from disclosure under both OPRA and the Common Law. Although the definition of a " [g]overnment record" is very broad, the term "shall not include inter-agency or intra-agency advisory, consultative, or deliberative material." N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1.1. "That exemption language . . . has, from its inception, been understood to encompass the common law deliberative process privilege." Education Law Center v. New Jersey Department of Education, 198 N.J. 274, 284 (2009). "The deliberative process privilege 'permits the government to withhold documents that reflect advisory opinions, recommendations, and deliberations comprising part of a process by which governmental decisions and policies are formulated.'" Id. at 285.