New Jersey transparency headlines
From Sunshine Review
This article is a list of transparency related news from New Jersey.
 | ||||
| Report It • | The Good • | The Bad • | The Ugly | |
Bryant was a Camden County Democrat senator who served for 25 years. He was convicted of fraud and bribery for taking a low-work job at the School of Osteopathic Medicine at UMDNJ in exchange for siphoning $10.5 million in state funding toward the Stratford school as head of the Senate Budget Committee.
The former senator was also convicted of pension fraud for sending law firm associates to work as a solicitor in his stead for the Gloucester County Board of Social Services. He acquired about $50,000 a year for this function, done by these lawyers.[1]
Tina Renna of Cranford, NJ was refused information by Union County because they would not recognize her March 13, 2006 e-mail as a valid means of asking for the public information. Renna sought a copy of a government resolution, Union County Resolution No. 42- 2005.[2]
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"Release the documents.
That was the order from a judge to township officials who denied a public records request filed by a resident who is a frequent critic of local officials.
The resident, Larry Loigman, had asked for a list of documents relating to financial transactions between the town and former township manager David R. Kochel. When Ocean Township refused to provide most of those documents, Loigman, a general-practice attorney, filed suit Feb. 25 in state Superior Court, Monmouth County."
"The City Clerk's Office is a sort of library for local government records.
But City Council on Thursday considered whether its employees must serve as unpaid librarians for members of the public who launch a fishing expedition.
Council debated enacting a new hourly fee for public-records requests that require time-consuming research by city employees. The city proposed charging $20 per hour for the first five hours of research."
"The town is withholding public records to hide evidence of "unlawful" payments made to the former township manager, a local resident has charged.
The charge stems from a public-records request that Larry Loigman, a resident and frequent critic of township officials, submitted in January. In the request, Loigman asked for a list of documents relating to financial transactions between the town and former manager David R. Kochel.
Ocean Township declined to provide most of those documents. So Loigman, a general-practice attorney, has filed suit in Superior Court in Monmouth County. The case is scheduled to be heard March 31."
"Republican Party officials in New Jersey have asked the state's highest court to consider whether Gov. Jon Corzine should be forced to release e-mails he exchanged with the union leader he once dated.
Party spokesman Todd Riffle said papers were filed late Wednesday asking the state Supreme Court to hear the case.
GOP leader Tom Wilson hopes to get the court to order the Democratic governor to release the e-mails he and his staff exchanged with Carla Katz."
