U.S. Army Corp. of Engineers
Dear Ridgewood Village,
This is a request for public records made under OPRA and the common law right of access. I am not required to fill out an official form. Please acknowledge receipt of this message.
Records requested:
Please provide all communications between the Village Manager and the Mayor, between October 1, 2023 and the effective date of your response, that discuss the flooding of either Maple Field or the High School fields. Email search to include the words "army" or "flooding"
Additionally, please provide a copy of the entire file maintained by the Village Manager with regard to the U.S. Army Corp. of Engineers investigation of the flooding at the High School and the proposed search for solutions.
Yours faithfully,
Anonymous
In response to your OPRA request, we require an extension. I expect to
have your response on or before Monday, March 25, 2024.
Eileen Young
Deputy Village Clerk
Village of Ridgewood
131 North Maple Avenue
Ridgewood NJ 07450
201-670-5500 x2205
[1][email address]
[2]cid:image001.png@01DA6A45.505498A0
Notice: You are advised that copies of correspondence, including e-mail
correspondence and attachments, between the public and the Village of
Ridgewood are obtainable by any person filing a request under the Open
Public Records Act (OPRA) unless subject to a specific OPRA exception.
There should be no expectation that the content of emails exchanged
between the public and municipal officials and employees will remain
private.
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. https://www.ridgewoodnj.net/
In response to your OPRA request, we require an extension. I expect to
have your response on or before March 28, 2024.
Eileen Young
Deputy Village Clerk
Village of Ridgewood
131 North Maple Avenue
Ridgewood NJ 07450
201-670-5500 x2205
[1][email address]
[2]cid:image001.png@01DA6A45.505498A0
Notice: You are advised that copies of correspondence, including e-mail
correspondence and attachments, between the public and the Village of
Ridgewood are obtainable by any person filing a request under the Open
Public Records Act (OPRA) unless subject to a specific OPRA exception.
There should be no expectation that the content of emails exchanged
between the public and municipal officials and employees will remain
private.
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. https://www.ridgewoodnj.net/
Please be advised that your request as submitted has returned an
extraordinary amount of pages of documents. We were able to perform a
search through our Village server using the email addresses of the Village
Manager and Mayor with the search terms “army” OR “flooding” and have
found over 600 pages of email documents. In addition there are 111 pages
of paper documents for a total of approximately 711 pages.
When responsive documents to an OPRA request are under 200 pages and do
not require more than 3 hours of staff time, there is no charge. After
that, there will be a Special Services Charge.
The responsive documents need to be reviewed and possibly redacted and
would incur a special services charge. A special services charge is
calculated by the number of hours needed to complete the work (after 3
hours) at the rate of the hourly wage of the lowest salaried individual
capable of doing the job in this department. We estimate about 3 minutes
per page for review and redaction which would be 3 x 711 = 2100 minutes or
35 hours minus the first 3 hours 32 hours. 32 hours at $24.05 (lowest
hourly wage in Village Clerk’s Office) = $770 approximately. There is
also a charge of 5 cents per page as the documents are too voluminous to
scan and email. That would be .05 x 711 = $35.55. The total estimated
cost would be approximately $805.55. We would require a deposit in order
to commence the reviewing and possible redactions.
Please let us know if you would like to go forward with the request as is
(incurring the special services charge) or adjust your OPRA request and
resubmit it. If we do not hear from you before April 15, 2024, we will
consider this request closed.
Feel free to call me if you have any questions.
Eileen Young
Deputy Village Clerk
Village of Ridgewood
131 North Maple Avenue
Ridgewood NJ 07450
201-670-5500 x2205
[1][email address]
[2]cid:image001.png@01DA6A45.505498A0
Notice: You are advised that copies of correspondence, including e-mail
correspondence and attachments, between the public and the Village of
Ridgewood are obtainable by any person filing a request under the Open
Public Records Act (OPRA) unless subject to a specific OPRA exception.
There should be no expectation that the content of emails exchanged
between the public and municipal officials and employees will remain
private.
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. https://www.ridgewoodnj.net/
Dear Eileen Young,
Please go back and read my request carefully. I only requested emails BETWEEN the Mayor and Village Manager. I also only asked for the contents of one file.
Yours sincerely,
Anonymous
I did read your OPRA request carefully. The responsive email documents have either the Village Manager or the Mayor as the sender AND the Village Manager or the Mayor as a recipient (in fact, we removed all emails that either of them were cc'd). The file contains 111 pages.
Eileen Young
Deputy Village Clerk
Village of Ridgewood
131 North Maple Avenue
Ridgewood NJ 07450
201-670-5500 x2205
[email address]
There would be no charge at all for 110 pages of documents. Would you like to amend your request to just receive them at this time?
Eileen Young
Deputy Village Clerk
Village of Ridgewood
131 North Maple Avenue
Ridgewood NJ 07450
201-670-5500 x2205
[email address]
Dear Eileen Young,
Please amend my request to the contents of the file.
Yours sincerely,
Anonymous
Please see the attached documents in response to your amended OPRA request
regarding file maintained by the Village Manager with regard to the Army
Corp of Engineers investigation of flooding.
Please note that information has been redacted in the documents provided
in accordance with OPRA Exemptions – N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1.1 – Item 16
regarding unlisted telephone numbers and personal identification
information. N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 OPRA Exemptions Item #24 Privacy Interest
provides that “a public agency has a responsibility and an obligation to
safeguard from public access a citizen's personal information with which
it has been entrusted when disclosure thereof would violate the citizen's
reasonable expectation of privacy…”
At this time, we will consider this request closed and our obligation
satisfied.
Eileen Young
Deputy Village Clerk
Village of Ridgewood
131 North Maple Avenue
Ridgewood NJ 07450
201-670-5500 x2205
[1][email address]
[2]cid:image001.png@01DA6A45.505498A0
Notice: You are advised that copies of correspondence, including e-mail
correspondence and attachments, between the public and the Village of
Ridgewood are obtainable by any person filing a request under the Open
Public Records Act (OPRA) unless subject to a specific OPRA exception.
There should be no expectation that the content of emails exchanged
between the public and municipal officials and employees will remain
private.
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. https://www.ridgewoodnj.net/