press release (august 1, 2011)
TRANSCRIPT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:Jacob Magiera, ChairThe Concerned Citizens Of Roselle ParkPhone: (908) 998-1300Fax: (908) [email protected]
LOCAL GROUP CONTINUES FIGHT TOGET TAXPAYER INFORMATION FROMMUNICIPALITY
Roselle Park, NJ - August 1, 2011 — The Concerned Citizens Of Roselle Park are pursuinga legal course of action after having been met with resistance from Roselle Park’s mayorand council when the Borough denied two (2) OPRA (Open Public Records Act) requests.
The municipality initially denied requests to provide a copy of the settlement agreementbetween the Borough and Monica Montoya. In 2007, Ms. Montoya was arrested forobstruction and resisting arrest after helping police translate for a woman who was struckby a vehicle. Ms. Montoya brought a lawsuit against the municipality after the chargesagainst her were dropped. Additionally, the municipality has demanded a $400 minimumfee to provide the Concerned Citizens Of Roselle Park with a simple export file from theBorough’s accounting software.
On July 14, 2011, the governing body agreed through a resolution to pay the boroughattorney’s office $5,000 to fight the group’s OPRA requests. Mayor Joseph Accardi stated,“We feel firmly that we are doing the right thing by expending taxpayer dollars to defendourselves in this matter.”
This amount is twice what mayor & council recently agreed to pay to look into re-openingnegotiations with AvalonBay Communities, a developer that sued the Borough under aBuilder’s Remedy lawsuit in 2007.
Jake Magiera, the chair of the Concerned Citizens Of Roselle Park, commented on themunicipality’s refusal to provide information, “When our government fails to abide by thelaw, then there are no laws for the people to follow. We don’t understand why our mayor& council are willing to spend taxpayer dollars to deny information on how tax dollars arebeing spent.”
On July 26, 2011, the municipality disclosed the settlement agreement between MonicaMontoya and the Borough of Roselle Park to the Concerned Citizens of Roselle Park,through their attorney Walter Luers. “We are glad that one of our OPRA requests havebeen provided,” Chair Jacob Magiera stated, “We are hopeful that the municipality willcomply with our remaining request regarding information on Roselle Park taxpayer dollars.”
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A brief Q&A is attached which provides further background and detail on the matter.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS REGARDING
THE CONCERNED CITIZENS OF ROSELLE PARK V. THE BOROUGH OF ROSELLE PARK
July 31, 2011
Is it true that the Concerned Citizens of Roselle Park are suing the Borough? Why?
Yes, The Concerned Citizens of Roselle Park have filed a lawsuit because the organizationbelieves that the municipality has violated the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) and thecommon law right of access on two (2) occasions.
The first instance happened when the municipality refused an OPRA request for thesettlement agreement between the municipality and Monica Montoya. The municipalityclaimed that the agreement is not in the Borough’s possession. We believe that the NewJersey Joint Insurance Fund (NJJIF) was acting as an agent for the Borough and that themunicipality, not NJJIF, has the responsibility to provide the requested information.
The second instance occurred when the organization requested a simple export of themunicipality’s check register to an electronic format from the Munidex software program.An initial request was made where the organization asked for just the check register to beprovided in electronic format. The municipality returned with a demand to have theConcerned Citizens of Roselle Park provide a minimum $400 deposit because themunicipality claimed it would require additional work to retrieve that specific informationfrom what they called a ‘data dump’, which is a simple exporting of all information to acomputer file. The organization returned and asked for the ‘data dump’ so it could do all theadditional work. The municipality returned with the same demand of a $400 deposit.
We feel that government should be open, accountable, and transparent and our requestsare aimed to further that belief since what we are asking for concerns taxpayers’ money.
Is it true you are going to cost taxpayers $5,000? I thought you were supposed tohelp the residents, not hurt them.
During the July 14th Mayor & Council meeting, Resolution 160-11 was put on the agendaand the governing body voted and agreed to budget $5,000 to fight our requests. Theoriginal request for the resolution was made by the Borough Clerk and the amount originallyrequested was up to $10,000.
The final amount of $5,000 was voted to unanimously by council representatives LarryDinardo, Marc Caswell, Tanya Torres, Modesto Miranda, and Carl Hokanson. As a matterof reference, this amount is twice the amount that the governing body approved to re-opennegotiations with AvalonBay Communities. Even though Mayor Joseph Accardi was notrequired to vote on Resolution 160-11, he nevertheless commented on the issue, “We feelfirmly that we are doing the right thing by expending taxpayer dollars to defend ourselvesin this matter.”
- more -
T h e
C o n c e r n e
d C i t i z e n s o
f R o s e
l l e P a r k
Post Office Box 144
Roselle Park, NJ 07204
www.rp-citizens.org
(908) 998-1300
This comment was made just one week after Mayor Accardi stated that council agreed toonly spend $2,500 to re-open negotiations with AvalonBay because the governing body didnot want to spend a lot of taxpayer money on legal fees needlessly.
We had hoped that our OPRA requests would have not been unreasonably denied whichwould have avoided litigation. We do not understand why mayor & council are willing to spend taxpayer dollars to deny information on how and where tax dollars are being spent.
We believe that if the municipality really wanted to save taxpayers money, it would cost lessto place a phone call to their insurance carrier for a copy of a settlement agreement andto adequately learn how to export a computer file. Even according to the fees provided bythe Borough Clerk’s office, four (4) hours of ‘extraordinary expenditure’ would come outto less than half of the $5,000 that council approved to fight our requests.
I thought you had an ‘us with them’ not an ‘us versus them’ attitude. Why didn’t youtry to work it out without suing?
We did try to work with the municipality to avoid a lawsuit. We filed two (2) OPRA requeststo accommodate the municipality in their claim that extra work would be required forretrieval of our requested information. We stated that we would accept the raw data andthen do all the work. It was when the municipality returned with absolutely no change orleeway in their position that negotiations were no longer possible outside of the courts.
On July 26th, 2011, the municipality sent our attorney, Walter Luers, the settlementagreement between Monica Montoya and the Borough of Roselle Park. We are glad thatone of our OPRA requests have been provided and we are hopeful that the municipality willcomply with our remaining request regarding information on Roselle Park taxpayer dollars.
Please feel free to visit our website at www.rp-citizens.org to review our OPRA requestsand the denials by the municipality. Also, please feel free to contact your councilrepresentatives and ask them why they have decided to spend $5,000 of taxpayer moneyto fight requests for information that belongs to the residents.
Mayor Joseph Accardi [email protected] (908) 245-6180
1st Ward Council Larry Dinardo [email protected] (908) 403-2945
2nd Ward Council Marc Caswell [email protected] (908) 241-6116
3rd Ward Council Tanya Torres [email protected] (908) 477-6412
4th Ward Council Modesto Miranda [email protected] (908) 247-8384
Council-At-Large Carl Hokanson [email protected]