Berkeley Heights Resident Takes on State DOE to Unpeel BHPSNJ Busing Controversy….and Wins
Another Win for Transparency In Court Cases Demanding information about BHPSNJ Practices In a massive win for transparency, Attorney Walter Luers represented a Berkeley Heights resident in an OPRA case connected to a request for information surrounding Berkeley Heights Public School Transportation services. School busing has been controversial in Berkeley Heights as residents discovered some parents were required to pay...
Game Play is the New Normal
The Berkeley Heights Public School District’s Issues with Releasing Public Records Continues… A while back I wrote a rather difficult-to-follow article that attempted to outline the games being played with OPRA requests (and agendas, and determining which policies need to be followed, and creatively applying how board meetings are run) by our new Business Administrator, Anthony Juskiewicz. I (and others)...
BHCW NightWatch Episode 24: Attorney Walter M. Luers Accepts BHCW Open Government Award, Discusses OPRA and OPMA
Walter Luers Bio Copy of Award See All Night Watch Episodes
Berkeley Heights BOE Document Drop – September 2023
Committee Meeting Minutes, Executive Session Minutes and Board Correspondence for September 2023 Here are the Committee Meeting minutes for September 2023 that we asked for on October 13, 2023. The time frame for OPRA is seven business days. It took two months for BHCW to receive these documents. Of note were the RFP’s approved by the Finance Committee that we...
Transparency in NJ Had a Near Death Experience – What Now?
Now that there has been a pause to overhauling OPRA and OPMA – let’s take the opportunity to make both laws better. I would argue that one of BHCW’s most significant accomplishments is the normalization of OPRA requests in our community. It wasn’t too long ago that neighbors would post the OPRA requests of other neighbors in some weird attempt...
Ho, Ho, Ho: Laughing All the Way
The Rules Surrounding Transparency Continue to Not Matter…. I recently wrote about an exchange involving my own OPRA request, and I have received more information about how OPRA requests have been handled by our District from other residents. In short, residents are at the mercy of the Custodian of Records and/or the Business Administrator, and they have little recourse with...
Board Games: Not What We Had on our Holiday Wish List
Questions surround recent board decisions and superintendent recommendations… The Berkeley Heights BOE may be taking advantage of having a new Business Administrator in place, who has not yet had time to review past BOE actions, or they may merely be doing what they do, which is ignoring any and all policy, law, guidance and public comment with which they disagree....
What It’s Like to Ask For Basic Documents from the Berkeley Heights School District
A recent example Illustrating why OPRA Laws Cannot be Weakened I am posting this conversation to illustrate how the District responds to basic requests for information. My email starts with a request I have made regularly after every BOE Meeting over the past few months. Here is my original email: Ms. Bradford forwarded the email to Mr. Cianculli (I...
Mayor Devanney Writes to Senator Scutari | Defends Key Aspects of OPRA
A significant and welcome update on our efforts in asking state representatives to pause any effort for OPRA reform to the next legislative session. BHCW was copied on an email from Mayor Devanney to Senator Scutari. This email addressed three of our primary concerns with the reforms that have been proposed: First, moving disputes over cases away from the Superior...
Responses from Mayor Devanney and Members of the Town Council on Concerns Surrounding OPRA and OPMA Reform
Since learning about potential changes to OPRA in June of this year, we have been reaching out to the Mayor and members of the Town Council in connection to concerns we have about harmful changes to the NJ Open Public Records Act and (more recently) the Open Meetings Act. Here are the responses we received from Mayor Devanney, Councilman Couto,...
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