Open Government Advocacy Project
The Open Government Advocacy Project is a committee of the NJ Libertarian Party. Its goal is to ensure transparency and accountability at all levels of government. Articles posted here are a subset of the work of the committee. For more information visit the Open Government Advocacy Project blog.
If you would like to demand accountability and ensure that your local governing body or school board adheres to the Open Public Records Act we can help you request information from them. Contact John Paff, the project chair here.
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According
to the Coast Star of December 20, 2007 Manasquan Borough agreed to
amend its policy so that disclosure of closed
session minutes no
longer relies on formal "approval" by the council. The
article began by describing John Paff,” a member of the New Jersey
Libertarian Party and chairman of the party's Open Government
Advocacy Project,” who had requested the closed session minutes of
a number of council meetings
As reported in the newspaper, the council discussed Mr. Paff's letter urging the borough to alter its policy to speed up the release of closed session meeting minutes. At the meeting of the mayor and council. It was decided that the clerk, township administrator, and borough counsel could review the documents together before releasing them. The step where the council would formally resolve to release the records would be eliminated. John says “this might shave a week or two from responses to requests.”
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Seeking the “naked truth” from Long Hill Board os Ed
With attorney Walter Luers representing him, John sued the Long Hill (Morris County) school board so that he could either confirm or dispute unverified statements on the Internet that a former, male member of the Long Hill Board of Education told a female member of the school district's administration that "If you take your clothes off, you can have anything you want in [administrative contract] negotiations."
After having
received a heavily redacted copy of the Board's
nonpublic (i.e.
closed or executive session) minutes from April 23, 2007 in response
to an earlier records request, he found an on-line article that
claimed that "reliable sources" had reported that a former
Board of Education member had allegedly made the above-described
comment that ultimately resulted in the member's resignation from the
Board and the female administrator filing a grievance and taking an
extended medical leave
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The NJ Libertarian recently interviewed John Paff asking him why Libertarians should care about the Open Public Records Act (OPRA). John's name and activities are well known to the regular readers of the NJ Libertarian. John is serving as the Chair of the Open Government Advocacy Council of the NJ Libertarian Party.
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On June 26, 2007, during a public meeting, the Evesham Township (Burlington County) suspended a kindergarten teacher, with pay, for "improper interaction with a student in her charge."
For the last several weeks, John Paff of the NJLP Open Government task force has been trying to learn the nature of the "improper interaction" so that he (and others--especially parents and taxpayers in Evesham) can be in a position to judge whether the paid suspension was appropriate. As expected, the Board has completely denied him access to any and all information regarding this matter.
See John's letter to the Board's attorney.