Audit finds UMDNJ spent big on cell phone service for terminated employees
May 3, 2009: "The state's medical university, which spends more than $1 million a year for pagers and cellular phones, cannot account for many of them, according to a confidential internal audit.
The auditors, whose report was obtained by The Star-Ledger, found the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey was paying for cell phones still held by terminated employees, and also was paying for expanded services -- such as cell phone picture messaging -- that the auditors questioned. Their report also said the university is not tracking personal phone usage by its employees -- a violation of Internal Revenue Service regulations." Read the full article here.
In the end, high court prefers more secrecy
May 3, 2009: "The state Supreme Court last week struck another blow against open government in New Jersey. That should hardly surprise us in a political environment that so greatly favors secrecy.
At issue was the request in Bergen County of nearly 8 million pages in land title records dating to 1984 by a company that creates electronic databases for the information. The cost of providing all the requested copies would have been about $19,000. But the high court gave permission to the clerk to charge more than $460,000 to block out Social Security numbers on the documents." Read the full editorial here.
Court rules for county clerk in records case
April 28, 2009: "A North Jersey county clerk is allowed to charge a company more than $460,000 to block out Social Security numbers on 22 years of land transaction records, the state Supreme Court ruled Monday.
At issue is a request to the Bergen County clerk for 8 million pages of land title records dating to 1984 by Data Trace Services, a technology company that operates land record databases in 25 states and sells electronic access to the data it gathers." Read the full article here.
Firm wins fight for real estate data
April 28, 2009: "The state's highest court told Bergen County yesterday to release 8 million pages of real estate documents -- including mortgage information -- to fulfill a request filed under the state's public records law, but that Social Security numbers included in them must be kept private.
The justices also said the company requesting the information should pay the $460,000 it will cost the county to remove the Social Security numbers from records spanning more than two decades." Read the full article here.
| 
