This is a bit confusing, but let’s see if we can make it a bit easier:
A non-profit citizens’ group called the New Jersey Foundation for Open Government is suing the state agency that’s supposed to deal with people’s requests for public records, because the citizens’ group wants the e-mail addresses of people who have sought government records and been denied.
NJFOG believes the state agency — the Government Records Council — is violating the state’s Open Public Records Act (OPRA, no relation to Winfrey), by withholding those e-mail addresses.
But the state agency apparently believes the people filing the complaints deserve some privacy.
According to a NJFOG press release: “The civil lawsuit, New Jersey Foundation for Open Government (NJFOG) v. Government Records Council (GRC), was filed in Mercer County Superior Court by Richard Gutman, a Montclair attorney specializing in public records access cases who is representing NJFOG. It is scheduled for a hearing in Trenton on June 26 before Superior Court Judge Linda R. Feinberg.”
NJFOG President Ron Miskoff said, “This case is important because while the GRC claims it is protecting the privacy of those seeking help in obtaining government records which have been denied to them, what it is actually doing is trying to protect itself from accountability to the public. It’s also ironic that the GRC, which was established to help requestors challenge improper denials of government records, is instead violating the very law it was created to enforce.”
The case started because on March 18, NJFOG wanted to see all the e-mails sent from the GRC to members of the public since Jan. 1 of this year, confirming denial of record requests by state or local goverment officials.
The GRC actually provided 69 e-mails, but blacked out the e-mail addresses “on grounds of privacy.”
The release explains: “NJFOG’s was seeking the email addresses for three reasons: first, to offer general assistance or support where needed since many requesters do not have Lawyers and are filing their complaints on their own; second, to seek potential members of NJFOG to help with its open government work; and, third, as a way to evaluate and monitor the GRC’s performance in handling individual complaints.”
Got that?
Well, I don’t know if anyone read this far except Eric Kurta. Hi, Eric!
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