The New York Times has published an article about the serious lack of transparency regarding the proposals that cities have submitted bids to Amazon for their HQ2 Headquarters. Despite the fact that the taxpayers of the winning city will be on the hook for billions of dollars in incentives, too many cities are still keeping the public in the dark about what Amazon is being offered.
The article references our lawsuit, which secured access to the City of Newark's bid, which we published.
Our client, Reclaim the Records, just published a newsletter explaining how PSWH partner CJ Griffin helped the organization gain access to New Jersey's Death Index.
Reclaim The Records is a not-for-profit activist group of genealogists, historians, researchers, and journalists. It works to identify important genealogical record sets that are not online anywhere and not broadly available to the public. Through public records laws, it works to obtain copies of the records and then digitizes them and puts them online for free use.
What did Reclaim the Records do with the Death ...
We previously wrote about an OPRA lawsuit we filed on behalf of citizen seeking a list of users that various public officials from Glen Rock have blocked from their official Facebook accounts. Today we are happy to report that the suit was successful.
In Larkin v. Glen Rock, the Honorable Bonnie J. Mizdol, A.J.S.C., ruled that the lists of blocked users from each of the Facebook pages in questions were "government records" that are subject to access under OPRA. In her 23-page opinion, the judge noted that there is no "one-size-fit-all" approach to determine whether a particular Facebook ...
On June 4, 2018, the Appellate Division issued an unpublished OPRA opinion titled Benedetto v Russo and Union County. While the opinion is not binding on lower courts because it is unpublished, we think it is helpful in several ways.
First, the case involves very important records: incident reports regarding suicide and suspicious deaths within a County Correctional Facility. Given the widespread coverage regarding several deaths in the Hudson County Jail recently, it is important that the public has access to information about these deaths and the conditions inside the jail.
In ...
CJ Griffin of Pashman Stein Walder Hayden P.C. Submitted Amicus Curiae
Brief on Behalf of Non-profit Organization
in Brennan v. Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office
Hackensack, NJ (May 23, 2018) – The Supreme Court of New Jersey has issued its opinion in Brennan v. Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, in which Pashman Stein Walder Hayden P.C. partner CJ Griffin submitted an amicus curiae brief on behalf of Libertarians for Transparent Government, a non-profit organization. The Court’s decision today provides important guidance to lower courts on how to apply the Open ...
Ruling protects the right of out-of-state media to utilize OPRA
Pashman Stein Walder Hayden P.C. partner CJ Griffin secured an important victory today in a consolidated Open Public Records Act (OPRA) case. The Appellate Division ruled that OPRA can be used by “any person” and is not limited only to New Jersey citizens. No other appellate court has previously addressed this issue. The Appellate Division’s decision can be viewed here.
The case, which has been approved for publication, is captioned Harry Scheeler v. Atlantic County Municipal Joint Insurance Fund. The ...
Government agencies often distribute surveys to the public regarding various issues of public concern. Are the completed surveys subject to public access under OPRA? We think so and a court is being asked to decide.
Recently, we learned of an OPRA lawsuit filed by a requestor who seeks the results of a survey that was sent to residents of the Borough of Saddle River. The survey, which was sent by a local veterinarian who serves on the Borough's Non-Lethal Deer Population Control Committee, asked residents whether they would allow access to their property to carry out a non-lethal deer ...
We previously blogged about an OPRA lawsuit we filed on behalf of an activist seeking access to Newark's Amazon HQ2 proposal. We are happy to announce that Newark has now released its proposal to our client.
Newark's proposal is titled, "Yes, Newark." As evidenced by the privilege log it attached to the proposal, Newark redacted approximately 6 pages from its 200+ page proposal. These pages contained the financial incentives that Newark is offering to Amazon. All other information has been disclosed. We consider this a significant transparency victory.
"I strongly believe in open ...
It's a hot button topic: are government officials creating government records that are subject to OPRA when they utilize social media? A judge will soon decide.
CJ Griffin was recently interviewed by Fios 1 News television regarding a lawsuit she filed on behalf of a requestor seeking a list of users that various government officials have blocked from their official Facebook accounts.
The Record also covered the lawsuit.
We think the answer is obvious: if a government official conducts official government business on a social media account (such as updating constituents on official ...
We have always recommended that clients challenge their OPRA denials in Superior Court. Why? Primarily because the process is significantly faster. An action filed in Superior Court will generally be resolved within 2-4 months in most cases, unless there is an appeal. This expedited process is vital to transparency, especially for reporters who need the records to report news to the public in a timely fashion.
In contrast, we have filed 4 denial of access complaints in the GRC and the process was unbearably long. One case took 25 months, another 22 months, and a third took 13 months. The ...
