BHPSNJ Creating More Road blocks to Public Information?

May 11, 2023

More evidence that the OPRA Custodian Position is more of a barrier than a help…

Update @ 5:47:

Someone asked this question and now I cant see it…”what is a false binary?”

A false binary is when a person defines the argument according to a limited reality – as if only two things are possible…he was responding to my initial email that stated:

“Other than the backlog I’m positive that’s being created so that the District can one day say “I have 50 OPRA requests to work on this month” without, of course, mentioning they include three months of requests, do you have a reasonable explanation for requesting an extension on correspondence that was reported on days before this request?

Also, can you (or anyone on this email) answer my question – has anyone on this email been advised that the District would deliberately delay responses to OPRA requests by community members- it’s a reasonable question since there is now a new position dedicated to this for a quantity of requests that is pretty low. This is the third time I am asking.”

So I don’t think he understands fully what the term means. If he is referring to the first part of my email, I simply asserted two reasons – I never said those were the only two possible reasons- I will assert my belief however that those two reasons are the only two reasons at play in this situation. Lastly my question is asking for ANOTHER reason.

He then goes on further to undermine his argument by using the very reason we gave as to why he should not be hired “i have too many jobs” as we knew this would be used as a cover to delay responses.

So while he took the time to try to sound intellectual (I guess) but completely wrong – he didn’t answer my question. Its interesting that our OPRA custodian can take the time to write faulty arguments within seconds of an article being published but needs five weeks to fulfill an OPRA request for documents discussed in a meeting a few days earlier.

Update @ 348pm: Soon after I published an article I got an email response from the OPRA Custodian on my question as to whether the delays were deliberate. Here is his email responding to my question and my reply:

Email Exchange with OPRA Custodian

Original Article:

Since the Business Administrator stopped the practice of including the list of correspondence from community members to the BOE during meetings (a practice that spanned years), BHCW has been submitting OPRA requests for this information so that families, students, and teachers could be aware of what residents’ concerns are.

This decision to stop sharing this information in meetings, relying solely on an oral report, allows the Business Administrator to spin the subject matter as it is not in writing. It also creates the need for more OPRA requests. We saw this earlier this year when the Business Administrator, during her oral report, spun our concerns about releasing the Superintendent’s opinion about an employee’s performance as a complaint that they were “under-redacting” to give – perhaps- the impression that we would complain about anything.

Really the issue is that they appear to be over-redacting on items the Public has a right to know (we still don’t know the total amount the District has spent on the Superintendent Nepotism charge or Ms. Stanleys and Mr. Cianculli’s separate attempts to use District dollars to pursue an ethics charge against Ms. Akiri that has backfired in a million costly ways). Remember, this information is under lock and key, while information involving several students was released to us by the OPRA Custodian.

Yesterday I received an email from the OPRA Custodian indicating that Correspondence to the Board will now take 5 weeks to provide – again, in the past, this was on the agenda (in detail), and copies of this material were present at BOE Meetings.

This was AFTER the OPRA Custodian responded to my earlier follow up that day with a “I’ll give you my response later in the day” which ended up being “I’ll get you the information in five weeks”.

Why?

Well, my theory is that a backlog is being manufactured. If you notice, OPRA requests are no longer being updated on the District website. Only the response from the District was provided when they were, not the materials released or requests for extensions.

The purpose of this backlog could connect to many reasons:

The discovery made on transfers and requests for increased monies on health benefits that were unraveled during the budget process along with the “miracle money” the District appears to find for things the Administration deems essential or when they want to come across as resolving some self-manufactured crisis.

To get to a high number of OPRA requests to justify the position of OPRA Custodian. Even with this backlog, the OPRA Custodian’s primary reasons for needing five weeks is that he has 15 open requests (half of what the Township receives) and other jobs. The whole purpose of this position was to unburden the Business Administrator from one more job responsibility (I think she’s at ten assistants at this point). Yet since this new dedicated position started, time frames have gotten worse, and they STILL can’t backlog enough to get to a decent number in claiming an “onslaught.”

To delay the disclosure of information they know will influence public opinion against that majority and the Administration.

It’s not just the extensions but the creative interpretations of our requests:

In this email, the OPRA Custodian now wants us to specify we want attachments- I don’t believe this is lawful. Any reasonable person would conclude that “all communication” includes attachments.

The backlog appears deliberate and public access to critical information is being sacrificed to protect public officials from having their decisions and actions scrutinized by the Public – and more money is being spent to do this. The top level leadership of our District appears to be choosing to spend time and money in protecting themselves rather than putting those resources to better use – your child’s classroom.

I asked the Administration and Board Members directly if they were informed/instructed to deliberately delay OPRA requests beyond the 7-day timeline (which would be illegal) 2-3 times.

I am still waiting for someone to answer my question.