News
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- Written by: Walter M. Luers, Esq.
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
by Linda Baum / edited by Walter Luers, esq.
New Jersey Foundation For Open Government
August 2013
New Jersey’s Open Public Records Act (OPRA), effective in July 2002, is one of the best tools the public has to obtain information about what government is doing.
OPRA requests must be in writing. While many governmental entities have a specific form for this purpose, you are not required to use it. In fact, legally you can send an email request, with the description of the records you are seeking in the body of the email itself. Importantly, the email must clearly state “OPRA request” in the email. Also, you should include your name, address, phone number and email address so the records custodian may contact you. (There is no legal requirement to identify yourself when making an OPRA request – the OPRA law allows you to submit a request anonymously.)
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
09/07/13 Update: The case has been scheduled for a hearing before Hon. Mary C. Jacobson, A.J.S.C. in Trenton on Wednesday, October 30, 2013 at 11 a.m. The signed Order to Show Cause is on-line here.
When you see a police car protecting a construction site on a public roadway, the taxpayers are probably not paying that officer's salary. Instead, the construction or utility company pays the police agency for the officer's salary and for use of the police car and the agency in turn pays the salary over to the officer. This is known as "extra-duty" and can be a lucrative source of income for local police officers.
I requested to know the amount of "extra-duty" pay a particular Ewing Township (Mercer County) police officer received during 2012, but the Township denied my request. The Township's position is that "payment for voluntary, off-duty work paid by a third party does not involve the expenditure of public funds" and is not a public record.
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- Written by: Mark Richards
- Category: Letters to Editor
Originally published at Suburban Trends newspaper
Dear Editor:
Libertarians are evidently getting under the skin of some folks, a sign that the philosophy of individual liberty and small limited government is growing!
On the one hand we have our bully of a governor, Mr. Christie saying libertarianism is dangerous in his attacks on Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. We then have a local letter writer giving a completely distorted view of what he thinks Libertarians believe in.
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie recently stated in an interview that there is a strand of libertarianism that is in both the Democratic and Republican parties that he finds repugnant and “dangerous” when it comes to foreign and domestic policy. In the same interview, he attacked libertarian politicians like Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) and others both personally and professionally.
On foreign affairs, Mr. Christie believes that it is justified to have U.S, troops stationed in 140 countries for the sole purpose of sending them into battle in wars and conflicts that are not in U.S. interests. He further believes that it is the duty of the U.S. to be the world’s policeman. Mr. Christie agrees with Neo-Conservatives like William Kristol and Charles Krauthammer that the U.S. must follow the foreign policy of Woodrow Wilson to make the world safe for democracy no matter where. Libertarians believe the opposite. They are of the belief that wars should only occur when a nation is attacked or threatened. Furthermore, while they believe that all nations of the world should be free and prosperous, they are the well wishers of their own nation. They also believe that the U.S. should stay out of the affairs of other nations both internally and externally.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Police Accountability Project
On August 6, 2013, an Administrative Law Judge will conduct a confidential settlement conference regarding a police discipline matter captioned In the Matter of Jon Andrews, OAL Docket No. 08542-2013 or Civil Service 2013-3466).
Andrews, a Lavallette Police sergeant has appealed a 20 day suspension for "conduct unbecoming a public employee" and "other sufficient cause" that was imposed by way of a Final Notice of Disciplinary Action issued on May 31, 2013. According to the police, Andrews was "suspended without pay" by way of a written notice issued by Police Chief Colin Grant on August 22, 2012. The notice accused Andrews of being "involved in sending and receiving text messages and pictures of a lewd, lascivious and/or inappropriate nature during working hours to a fellow member of the Lavallette Police Department with remarks as to another Department member." He was also charged with claiming three hours of overtime for attending a court session that he did not in fact attend.
Despite the "without pay" provision of Chief Grant's notice, the Borough Council, at a September 5, 2012 special meeting, "voted to extend the paid medical leave of Sgt. John Andrews until a disciplinary hearing can be held by the police department." (See, Ocean Star, September 7, 2012 "Council Votes to Extend Officer's Paid Medical Leave.")
Andrews' appeal and Grant's August 22, 2012 notice are on-line here. Andrews is being represented by Anthony Pope, Esq. of Newark. The Borough is being represented by Eric Bernstein, Esq. of Warren.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project
As a result of a request from the NJLP Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project, the Manville Borough Council has agreed to repeal their Morality Ordinance at their upcoming meeting on August 12th1. This ordinance covers loitering, being drunk, fighting, cursing, trespassing, lewdness, public nudity, annoying a school teacher, cursing at a police officer, and other things. The Manville News covers the story here.
Local laws like this in New Jersey are invalid because the 1978 criminal code preempts local ordinances like this. The 1978 criminal code specifically excluded several acts that were at one time illegal, including loitering, public drunkenness, and some consensual sexual acts.
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- Written by: Justin Raimondo
- Category: Latest News
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By Justin Raimondo. This article originally appeared at antiwar.com and is republished here by permisssion. |
Asked about the national debate unleashed by the Snowden revelations, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie declared war on libertarians:
“As a former prosecutor who was appointed by President George W. Bush on Sept. 10, 2001, I just want us to be really cautious, because this strain of libertarianism that’s going through both parties right now and making big headlines, I think, is a very dangerous thought.”
Asked if he was referring to Senator Rand Paul, Christie said he is “one of them," and went on to sneer:
“You can name any one of them that’s engaged in this. These esoteric, intellectual debates – I want them to come to New Jersey and sit across from the widows and the orphans and have that conversation. And they won’t, because that’s a much tougher conversation to have.”
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- Written by: Joe Siano
- Category: Latest News
The 2013 Farm Bill needs to be reconciled between the Senate version and the House version. Let’s think about this. The Farm Bill incentivizes farmers to be unproductive in order to drive up food prices. This was instituted during the New Deal in the 1930’s.Thirty years later the Foods Stamps program was passed into law as part of President Johnson’s Great Society agenda. Presumably this was to help lower income people afford the food that the federal price supports had made so costly.
Did anyone in Washington, DC ever notice that the goal of capitalist, free market system is to create innovative methods of production and distribution so as to make so as to make goods more affordable and accessible to the masses? Occam’s Razor demands that farm price supports be lifted so that an abundance of affordable food can be provided to a hungry world.
I wonder who’s paying for all this anyway?
As a perplexed Ricky Riccardo might lament, “Lucy, you have some ‘splainen to do”.
Has anyone other than me ever noticed the ever declining prices of flat screen TVs, computers, smart phones, tablets and such?
Perhaps it’s time we had a TV Bill, and a Computer Bill and a Smart Phone Bill? Are you listening, Washington?
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- Written by: radiofriendly
- Category: Latest News
It’s been just over a month since the NSA’s dragnet surveillance program was leaked to the public. Tomorrow, Congress is voting on an amendment that would block funding for NSA programs that collect the call records of innocent Americans.
A win tomorrow may start a chain reaction – but it won’t happen unless we speak up. We have one day to convince Congress to act.
Congressional Switchboard Number: (202) 224-3121
A critical vote is happening tomorrow, July 24th, on the Defense Appropriations Bill in the House of Representatives. The bill gives taxpayer money to fund defense programs, including NSA surveillance.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
Following is my July 15, 2013 letter to the asking it to a) adopt my more precise and informative form of closed session resolution and b) to stop discussing general policy matters in closed session. Unfortunately, violations such as these are common among local governments.
I encourage readers to submit Open Public Records Act (OPRA) requests to their own town councils and/or school boards. Simply request "the resolutions, as required by N.J.S.A. 10:4-13, authorizing the three most recent closed or executive sessions held by [name of governing body]." If you receive resolutions that, like Winslow's, describe the closed session topics broadly and vaguely, you may want to modify the form of resolution I sent to Winslow for your town and/or school board and encourage them to adopt it.
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- Written by: Mark Lagerkvist
- Category: Police Accountability Project
O
riginally published at newjersey.watchdog.org - republished under agreement.
Joe Derrico – the disabled New Jersey cop turned roughhousing repo man on reality TV – took a hard punch today from the state Police and Firemen’s Retirement System.
The PFRS board of trustees stripped Derrico of his $69,703 a year tax-free disability pension and declared him fit to return to work for the Hamilton Township police. The action was sparked by an investigative report by New Jersey Watchdog and NBC 4 New York two months ago.
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- Written by: Mark Richards
- Category: Letters to Editor
Originally published at Suburban Trends newspaper
Dear Editor:
In the July 3rd Suburban Trends, Holly Ennist Stewart in her "My Word" column starts off by talking about the erosion of the civil liberties since 9/11 (no argument from me on that score, although the war on individual liberty started long before 9/11). From that point on, Holly’s article seems to go downhill (in a leftward direction very fast). Growth of government interference in our lives is actually the fault of the business community according to Holly, not the politicians who enact unconstitutional laws and the bureaucrats who enforce them. Did it ever occur to Holly that businesses wouldn’t have lobbyists were it not for all the unconstitutional regulations they have to deal with?
Free-market capitalism isn’t the problem; rather it’s the lack of it! As to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, what Holly doesn’t understand is that the federal government has no constitutional authority to determine state and local elections laws and policies. I have several of those pocket-sized editions of the Constitution courtesy of groups as divergent as the ACLU, the Libertarians Cato Institute, former Congressman Ron Paul, and the John Birch Society. Not one of those copies of the Constitution shows any federal power granted over local election laws. The powers of the federal government are supposed to be, as James Madison said, "few and defined."
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
A judge has ordered that a report on a Egg Harbor Township police officer found asleep at the wheel at a light in Northfield be made public.
John Paff, Chair of the NJ Libertarian Party Open Government Advocacy Project, tried to obtain the report in 2011 however Northfield refused to release the report. He filed suit to have the report released.
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- Written by: Patrick McKnight
- Category: Candidates and Elections
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Patrick McKnight is a Libertarian Candidate for Assembly in the 16th District. See mcknight1776.com. |
The United States Constitution is a formal agreement between a free People and their chosen form of government. As such it is the most important type of binding legal contract. The wisdom of the Constitution is in the establishment of a limited government with clearly-articulated individual freedoms. The adoption of this system and the accompanying Bill of Rights represented a singular historical triumph for civilization, as for the first time a government was established in liberty and reason rather than in plunder and force. Our Constitution, though not perfect nor a panacea, remains the bulwark of our freedom and the source of our national greatness.
This contrast is written in the blood of Patriots who made the ultimate sacrifice so that their children could live in a free, solvent United States of America. Only the Libertarian Party realizes that freedom requires constant struggle because the nature of government is to always revert backwards into illegal tyranny.
Not so long ago the American people suffered under the unlimited power of a feudal monarch. Today the monarch has been replaced by federal bureaucracy but still we are not free. Lest we forget that in an empire the individual is nothing more than government-property with legal rights essentially equivalent to an animal or inanimate object. Likewise, in an empire there can be no justice because there is no rule of law, only the arbitrary whim of monarchs and despots. In an empire human beings exist only to be exploited, sacrificed in military adventures and oppressed politically. This is the essence of the imperial-feudalism our country was founded to oppose. In America We the People are the Constitutional Sovereigns and first branch of government.
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- Written by: Alex Libman
- Category: Selected Blogs
Tent City is a voluntary institution that exists as the result of local supporters and mutual aid, saving the taxpayers 1-2 million dollars a year! It is a perfect example of how more can be accomplished on a voluntary nickel than on a dollar that has been stolen from the taxpayers by the corrupt and inefficient racket called the Welfare State! The government here has done nothing to help the homeless, and everything that it could think of to try to shut this place down... The film covers the personal stories of several individuals, as well as the never-ending harassment from the local government.
Destiny's Bridge is an authentic look into the lives of otherwise-homeless individuals living in a little village of about 100 tents and shanties - a homestead that has been built on "public" woodland over the past 7-8 years. This film will be particularly enjoyable to people interested in off-the-grid living, agorism / homesteading, the small house movement, government corruption, protests / civil disobedience, and voluntary charity. It also explores some very complex issues, like the underlying causes of homelessness in America, artificial scarcity, sustainable living, personal responsibility, addiction, love, hope and despair.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Police Accountability Project
PATERSON — A group of Paterson police officers repeatedly punched and kicked a handcuffed, nearly unconscious suspect during a 2011 arrest, according to a civil rights lawsuit filed in federal court last week.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Police Accountability Project
June 27, 2013
Mary Beth Jahn, Committeewoman
Township of Neptune
25 Neptune Blvd
Neptune, NJ (via e-mail to
RE: Neptune Police Department Internal Affairs Procedure
Dear Committeewoman Jahn:
I invite your attention to our blog entry entitled "CLOSED: Internal Affairs Complaint - Neptune Township" which is on-line here.
As you will see, the blog post contains our Internal Affairs Complaint against Neptune Police Lieutenant Robert Mangold with a link to the Internal Affairs Unit's June 24, 2013 letter which exonerated Mangold. From a careful reading of the complaint, the court opinion upon which our complaint was based and the IA Unit's response, it appears that: a) Mangold directed a subordinate officer to conduct a warrantless strip-search of an arrestee; b) two courts, finding that the strip-search was illegal, suppressed the evidence that was the fruit of the search and c) neither Mangold's nor the subordinate officer's actions violated any departmental rules, procedures or other standard.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
In a twenty-three page opinion issued on June 25, 2013, Atlantic County Superior Court Assignment Judge Julio L. Mendez ruled that the public is allowed to see a report written by Egg Harbor Township Police Sergeant Michael Hughes soon after Northfield Police found an off-duty Egg Harbor Township officer named Jeffrey Lancaster asleep behind the wheel of his personal vehicle during the early morning hours of February 27, 2011. Judge Mendez's opinion and order are on-line here and background on the lawsuit is on-line here.
Judge Mendez found that since there was no internal affairs investigation pending at the time Hughes wrote his report, it was not subject to the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) exception that restricts access to records that "pertain to an investigation in progress." Judge Mendez, noting that police officers serve "in a position of trust" found that disclosure of the report "will only fortify the trust and credibility afforded to the Egg Harbor Township police department by its citizenry."
The court did allow certain "legitimately confidential information" to be redacted from Hughes' report and denied access to Lancaster's preliminary and final disciplinary records that arose from the incident.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Candidates and Elections
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEWS RELEASE from KENNETH KAPLAN, Libertarian Party Candidate for Governor
A long-time supporter of marriage equality, Kenneth Kaplan, Libertarian Party candidate for Governor, applauded the two Supreme Court decisions on that subject today. "This is a great day for Americans of all sexual orientations. It is a civil rights victory that we should all celebrate together!" He went on to say, "Chris Christie vetoed a bill that would have established marriage equality in New Jersey, and voters should remember that in November."
See Ken testifying before the New Jersey Civil Union Review Commission in 2008 in this video.