After listening to the BOE meetings in the first quarter of 2022, I was curious to learn more about the discussions in the Board’s Executive Sessions. So I sent an OPRA request for the Executive Session minutes from Nov 2021 to March 2022.
The documented minutes from January to March 2022 are virtually identical and without any detail of the discussion items or resolutions. Having worked in a professional organization where minutes are meticulously documented and maintained, I was surprised to see how our district functions.
The Board members vote to release the minutes of prior Executive Sessions in meetings. I questioned how the Board members could approve vague meeting minutes and what value they offer to town residents if they were to read them.
Later that month, a Board member (Sai Akiri) was served with an ethics complaint by a group of her colleagues on the BOE, for questioning the detail documented in the minutes of meetings. That act of filing an ethics complaint has resulted in an ethics complaint by itself and now headed to a judge for further action.
As witnessed in the last Board meeting, the only “standard” met by the documented minutes of Berkeley Heights BOE and committee meetings is the one set by the Business Administrator, the person responsible for documenting them.
A quick history lesson – In August 2021, the Berkeley Heights Board of Education agreed to amend the number of committee members to comply with OPMA.
In a letter dated April 4, 2019, the then Union County Prosecutor reviewed the minutes of the executive sessions of the Berkeley Heights Board of Education and concluded that there was room for improvement, including:
1. More detail in the content of the executive session meeting minutes, including providing the public with information about the circumstances under which attendees discussed matters in the executive session.
2. More detail and consistency concerning the resolution language in setting forth the general nature of the subject to be discussed, the reason why an executive session is necessary, and an anticipated agenda regarding what will be discussed in the executive session, including when any related public action will likely occur.
The minutes of meetings documented in early 2022 did not appear to follow the suggested improvements from the April 2019 review from the Union County Prosecutor.
In June 2022, I reached out to the Union County Prosecutor to request a review for possible violations of OPMA.
Let’s take a moment to understand the spirit and intent of OPMA.
The Open Public Meetings Act espouses transparency to the deliberation, policy formulation, and decision-making of government and public bodies, including school boards.
The spirit of OPMA is for the public to be informed of the actions.
In August 2022, the Union County Prosecutor responded with their review and concluded that while the January and March 2022 minutes were narrowly limited to subjects considered, the minutes from April to June 2022 were documented in much greater detail.
I am glad our District is improving its meeting minutes documentation to be more transparent and I hope they continue in the future.
There has been much conversation in one of our town’s many social media groups on using OPRA to get data from our District. The few engaged in the conversation lament how the District is burdened with OPRA requests from parents and residents and the strain it puts on our District.
In the quest of researching me, my email exchange with the Union County Prosecutor is in the spotlight – not surprisingly, this was one of the OPRA requests submitted by a former BOE member.
The irony that shouldn’t escape us here is that the very law (OPRA) that many in the discussion are lamenting is what they used to “waste the Districts time and money” to obtain my letter to the Union County Prosecutor. I will not judge them for this, and I celebrate any resident’s right to obtain documents via OPRA.
Leading up to August 2021, Berkeley Heights parents and residents used OPRA to understand what is going on, reached out to the Union County Prosecutor and finally our District agreed to change the quorum requirements for meetings in order to stay compliant with OPMA.
Our school district can partner with the residents and parents by making the content of these OPRA requests available on the district website once they have been fulfilled. Another method to reduce requests is to provide documents reasonably considered to be of public interest on the District website immediately and lastly, to discuss most matters in public during meetings – reduce the “behind the scenes” work that everyone appears to be talking about. With all this work being done “behind the scenes,” one would think that the District would be more than happy to comply with OPRA requests.
Lastly, there is nothing in the law concerning an “abuse of OPRA”. No such term exists – residents can and are encouraged to OPRA documents.
What should concern residents is that our District has already settled on one OPRA case this year, has demonstrated an excessive and inappropriate use of extensions, and does not appear to follow best practices consistently. Residents who make OPRA requests, a lawful and encouraged practice, should not be shamed or intimidated by elected officials, public employees….or anyone.
I firmly believe we should fearlessly demand transparency from our government and public bodies to keep them accountable. It is that simple.
Reference Material:
Related Articles:
THE DISTRICT PUBLISHES OPRA REQUESTS ON WEBSITE
OPRA, ATTORNEYS AND AWARDS CEREMONIES
UNION COUNTY PROSECUTOR INVESTIGATIONS OF THE BOE: ALL THE LETTERS
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