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EDITORIAL, (nj.com)
from the Web, April 30, 2007
There is no denying that John Paff is
a thorn in the side of municipal officials. The public records advocate
and all-around gadfly pesters towns in Central Jersey with requests for council
meeting minutes and other documents. He wants to see whether
administrators and clerks are following the state law that says open records are
supposed to be easily and promptly available.
This is not a bad thing. No one in state government or in county
prosecutor's offices has the time or personnel to conduct oversight of the Open
Public Records Act. Most citizens don't, either. And Paff's tortuous
experience with South Bound Brook shows the ongoing need for vigilance.
Last May, Paff requested that the small Somerset County borough provide him with
the minutes of three months' worth of its council's executive session meetings.
The state records act not only gives the public the right to the minutes so long
as the issues being discussed have been resolved; it also says a town has to
produce them within seven days.
But South Bound Brook seems to have gotten caught in some quantum time warp.
Paff didn't get the documents for nine months and then only after the Government
Records Council, a state watchdog body, sent numerous orders to Donald Kazar,
the municipal clerk-administrator, to cough up the minutes.
In fact, Kazar ignored the records council's missives so often that the council
finally ordered him to Trenton to explain himself. And his explanation was
a doozy. He was busy. So was his assistant.
The council is considering fining Kazar as much as $1,000 for his stall tactics.
It shouldn't hesitate to send out the bill. Flagrant flouting of the
public's right to know deserves a strong slap. Public knowledge of how
government works -- or doesn't -- is a strong vaccine against official
corruption, waste and abuse.
A serious fine will remind officials in other towns that ignoring the Open
Public Records Act is not just undemocratic but illegal.
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