New Jersey Foundation for Open Government

04/27/2021

New Jersey is one of the few states where police disciplinary records are completely inaccessible to the public.
That means police are policing themselves, with no oversight. As a result, victims of police brutality are denied justice, and innocent people are at risk of wrongful conviction.
Over 100 groups and impacted individuals have formed a coalition calling on the New Jersey Legislature to pass Senate Bill 2656, which ensures that officer misconduct information is no longer kept confidential.
Ask your State Senator to support Senate Bill 2656 by calling 551-230-7366, or see the action page below for further information on how you can help the effort.

Recently, the New Jersey Attorney General released the disciplinary records of Neptune Police Officer Phillip Seidle, who killed his ex-wife Tamara Wilson-Seidle in 2015.

03/20/2021

In what is the first statewide study of municipalities, local authorities and boards of education, NJFOG performed an extensive examination of municipal compliance with OPMA requirements across New Jersey.
The Open Public Meetings Act is the state law that protects your right to attend and be fully informed about public meetings of your local government or school board.
We are publicly releasing our findings from this study. The results were disturbing, to say the least.
The time has come for legislative reform, and an enforcement mechanism that has teeth. Working with the State Legislature on amending OPMA is a priority for NJFOG this year.

In the first statewide study of municipalities, local authorities and boards of education, NJFOG examined municipal compliance with OPMA.

01/27/2021

Senator Loretta Weinberg is asking for more grassroots support to get Senate Bill S2656 moving. S2656 would make police disciplinary records accessible to the public, while keeping sensitive personal information protected.
NJ is one of the few states where there is an alarming lack of oversight and accountability because such records are not accessible by anyone but Internal Affairs (IA) units.
In NJ, the police are essentially policing themselves.
This bill was introduced in June, and no effort has been made to even schedule it to be heard in Senate Committee. An effective way to get legislation moving is to send letters to legislative leaders. An email template and the necessary contact info are in the article.
Please support S2656 by sending emails to Governor Murphy, Senate President Sweeney, and Assembly Speaker Coughlin, and urge them to make this important legislation a priority.

https://www.speakupnj.org/nj-police-transparency-bill

01/21/2021

An interesting court decision passed along to us by NJFOG board member John Paff.
The Appellate Division has published a precedential opinion today that tenured board of education employees, unlike other public employees, are governed by the more restrictive Tenured Employees Hearing Law which requires all charges against them to be discussed in private.
Since a tenured employee has no right to force such discussions to a public meeting, the court reasoned, he or she likewise has no right to a Rice notice.

Under New Jersey’s Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA), a public agency may discuss taking adverse action against a public employee in a closed (executive) meeting unless the employee being discussed exercises his or her right to have the discussion conducted in public. In order for the employee to me...

10/21/2020

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has also just released a letter urging the State Legislature to pass , which would classify law enforcement disciplinary records as government records subject to public access, as well as mandate retention of the records.

S. 2656 would classify law enforcement disciplinary records as government records subject to public access.

10/21/2020

NJFOG is a member of the NJ Coalition for Transparent Policing, which sent the letter mentioned in this article to state Legislative leaders this week urging passage of Bill S2656.
New Jersey’s current system allows police to police themselves, without external oversight. S2656 would put New Jersey more in line with the majority of states, where police internal affairs records are subject to inspection by the public and the press.
This bill would expand OPRA to include these disciplinary records, while leaving out certain sensitive or personal information. Only 20 states shield disciplinary complaints from the public.
Passage of this bill could help reduce the number of wrongful convictions in New Jersey, and save taxpayers millions of dollars in lawsuits.

The growing coalition includes former prisoners whose convictions were overturned after decades behind bars.

09/25/2020

A vitally important new directive has been passed down by the NJ State DCA governing how public bodies must conduct their meetings in time of emergency.

Among other important items, the regulations require that citizens be allowed to submit *live* public comments by audio or video, whichever medium is being used by the governing body to hold the meeting.

Many municipalities have restricted citizens to submitting their comments prior to the meeting, while not allowing any sort of realtime commentary during their allocated time to speak. This conduct is now barred.

Perhaps most important, if the governing body is holding a physical meeting, citizens MUST be allowed to attend in person. If maximum capacity limitations would restrict the number of citizens who are reasonably expected to attend, the governing body must find a more suitable venue, or go to a hybrid meeting format in order to allow citizens to be present.

The spirit of this directive is that citizens must be given the same level of access as public officials and their staff. If a governing body can meet in person, the public must be allowed to be there in person. If the governing body can communicate via video conferencing, the public must be allowed to participate in the same manner.

As there are many revisions, NJFOG strongly urges all citizens to review their new rights, and for all public bodies to make provisions for immediate compliance with the State's mandate.

This directive is effective immediately, and will be signed into permanent law in late October. However, the final regulations may be modified after the public comment period closes.

01/23/2020

Recent editorial in support of OPRA reform, which Senator Weinberg just refiled because the bill died in the prior session.

There is much to endorse in this bill, for every stakeholder that came to Weinberg’s conference table.

01/20/2020

NJFOG's President Walter Luers was quoted in this NJ Law Journal article about a settlement that was sealed, and then unsealed, by a Superior Court judge. The article also references the case of Doe v. Hillsborough Township Public School System, which is a case where a student has alleged that she was repeatedly r***d by a principal in the school system. The Court in that case completely sealed the record, going so far as to even remove it from the Court's public docket system. NJFOG Board members John Paff and Don Baldwin have worked, so far unsuccessfully, so make aspects of those proceedings public.

Some lawyers fear judges may be more likely to instinctively seal documents given how easily they can be accessed online.

02/05/2019

UPDATED: 2/5/19. Filed reply Brief and Exhibits of Plaintiff in Schmidt v. Rockaway et. al. See link under Case Documents. Defendants did not file opposition papers. http://njfog.org/2019/02/03/schmidt-v-township-of-rockaway-et-al/

02/04/2019

Residents sue Town of Dover and Dover Mayor James P. Dodd. Town may have improperly adopted an ordinance changing the Administration of the Town's government and may have also violated the OPMA. Case Summary: Ryan et. al. v. Town of Dover and Mayor James P. Dodd.

Case Name: Ryan et. al. v. Town of Dover et. al. Docket Number: MRS-L-000089-19 County / Vicinage: Morris / Vicinage 10 (Morris/Sussex) Filing Date: January 11, 2019 Judge: Stuart A. Minkowtiz, A.…

02/03/2019

Rockaway Township denies records exist but requestor has evidence they do. Case summary of the OPRA lawsuit Schmidt v. Township of Rockaway et. al. with court documents obtained from e-courts. The hearing is scheduled for Feb. 12th at 2:00 p.m. http://njfog.org/2019/02/03/schmidt-v-township-of-rockaway-et-al/