​The Following was an email sent by NJ 21st to the Berkeley Heights BOE on the Business Administrators Inaccurate Public Comments on OPRA Requests (typos corrected):

“We have already written about the Business Administrators inaccurate accusation concerning the OPRA log and our concerns that what ought to be a standard baseline job requirement is being outsourced to attorneys.

This email pertains to a report received by the Business Administrator in connection to what appears to be a gross misrepresentation of the numbers and missing context.

In relation to NJ21st OPRA requests- the Business Administrator, as he indicated during the meeting, takes OPRA requests and if there is more than one item on that request he treats it as separate.

I know of no other government agency that does this.

Naturally, this is a false inflation of the numbers.

In a quick review of the 38 Requests (which weren’t really 38 requests ) submitted by NJ21st, 28 requests would be unnecessary if the District had posted Meeting Minutes, OPRA Logs, Board Correspondence and Reports that it referenced in public (for example the transportation report from Ms. Stanley’s Policy committee).

Two Requests connected to the Audit last year that the Business Administrator provided to the State without any presentation to the BOE or public, a tradition he is continuing this year – weeks beyond deadline.

Two of the items listed were duplicates

One item was not an OPRA request but a follow up on prior OPRA requests

OPRA requests connected to emails centered on the Lease Agreement involving the Municipal Governments obsession with getting free property from the school with no revenue sharing while they collect PILOT dollars from rich developers that do not support our classrooms.

What we also find interesting, outside of our requests, is that BOE Members had to actually submit OPRA requests to obtain information on the very things they were voting on- for example transportation as well as highly inaccurate statements by Ms. Bradford on Bills Lists- why were OPRA requests necessary for these items?

I attached the report for your review.”

Additional Notes:

All of the OPRA requests submitted by NJ21st were used to inform families in Berkeley Heights and Mountainside on significant matters of public interest.

According to the report NO other local media outlet submitted an OPRA Request from 12/2023 through 12/2024 – no media outlet, other than NJ21st, took the step of vetting what BOE Members or Administration said in public with actual records.  Not a single one.

In this one year time frame a total of 113 requests were made – this amounts to 9 requests a month. We imagine the total and average are even lower as requests were from other individuals likely broken up as well.

Twenty four requests were from three former BOE members/candidates (one of whom often criticized the volume of OPRA requests the District received). The vast majority of these being requests for emails.

The majority of NJ21st’s requests centered on reports, documents, minutes and correspondence that had historically been made available to the public and are readily available for distribution.

Two Requests are from CURRENT BOE Members trying to get information the District should have provided them but refused. One request involved Transportation – an issue they were being asked to vote on.

And lastly…..

As our Business Manager continues to spend time spinning stories and creating misleading reports on OPRA our Audit report is still not on the State Website.  Just like last year, the audit is being submitted to the State with no presentation to the public, no presentation to the Board and weeks late.

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