News
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Police Accountability Project
On July 25, 2014, Hudson County Superior Court Judge Mary K. Costello confirmed an agreement under which the Borough of East Newark (Hudson County) agreed to pay a Borough former police dispatcher and volunteer firefighter $101,000 in damages, plus attorney fees to be established by the court, to settle her lawsuit which claimed that she was repeated assaulted sexually by a Borough police sergeant. In an October 8, 2014 application to the court, the woman's attorney applied for attorney fees of $786,247.50, costs of $36,563.90 and a "contingency enhancement" of $393,123.75 for a total award of $1,215,935.15. Judge Kimberly Espinales-Maloney is scheduled to hear the attorney's application on Friday, November 7, 2014, 9 a.m. in Courtroom 807, 595 Newark Avenue, Jersey City.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
Today, I had a records custodian claim that she was not obligated to search beyond the walls of her office for records responsive to my Open Public Records Act request.
Since it is fairly common for custodians to take this position, I have publicly posted my response to her. I hope that this might be helpful for other requestors who encounter similar situations.
Dear Records Custodian:
As you know, I submitted an Open Public Records Act request for a settlement agreement that resolved a civil lawsuit against the municipality. You had initially responded that "no settlement [is] available for this case."
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Candidates and Elections
Press Release
Why your Libertarian vote on Tuesday, Nov. 4, is worth 100 times the other guy's vote
Political leverage! Libertarian Party candidates have it in 2014 — IF YOU VOTE Libertarian.
Why? Unlike the Democratic and Republican candidates, our Libertarian Party candidates for public office have one rock-solid issue — and a clear, powerful message.
Our rock-solid issue: To dramatically expand and advance individual liberty in America.
Our clear, powerful message: Vote for us, elect us, and we will do everything we can to dramatically roll back today's Big Government. To dramatically shrink the size, power, authority, responsibility, taxes, and spending of federal, state, and local Big Government.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Police Accountability Project
On September 18, 2013, the City of Bridgeton (Cumberland County) agreed to pay $19,500 to a local woman who sued the City's police department and municipal court for failing to note in their computer systems that she had already posted bail, causing her to be arrested and processed twice for the same offense. The Cumberland County Prosecutor's Office, which was also named in the lawsuit, separately paid $3,000 to the woman.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Latest News
There are many economic theories that are debatable. The Law of Supply and Demand is not one of them. All reputable economists from all schools of economic thought agree - a high supply of a product results in lower prices. This is true of all goods that can be bought and sold - gasoline, food, labor, home services, and medical care. When there are more hospitals, hospital beds, medical services, and doctors that are willing to compete for your health care dollars there will be lower prices and better service. In a competitive market the consumer wins. When the supply is constrained the consumer loses.
New Jersey is one of 36 states that provides protectionism to existing medical suppliers by restricting capital improvements in health care by requiring all new facilities to obtain approval from a state board.
CATO Institute: The Cronyism of ‘Certificate of Need’ Laws
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Latest News
Once again the Tax Foundation has ranked NJ dead last among the 50 states for business climate. Contributing to NJ's awful business climate were our high property taxes (50th), high income taxes (48th), high sales taxes (48th), high corporate taxes (41st) and our high levels of regulation.
Tax Freedom Day Arrives on May 9th in New JerseyTax Freedom Day is the day when Americans finally have earned enough money to pay off their total tax bill for the year. In 2014, New Jersey taxpayers worked until May 9th (latest nationally) to pay their total tax bill. The Tax Freedom Days of neighboring states are: New York, May 4th (ranked 3rd latest nationally); Pennsylvania, April 21st (ranked 15th latest nationally); and Delaware, April 18th (ranked 19th latest nationally). |
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
By way of background, Atlantic County Judge Nelson C. Johnson, on June 10, 2014, required Galloway Township to disclose e-mail logs showing the sender, recipient, date and subject line of each e-mail sent by a specific government employee during a specified period of time. On September 4, 2014, Galloway appealed from that ruling. More information and case documents are on-line here.
The NJLP is proud to announce a forum on urban issues. Join us for a discussion of issues including education, the war on drugs, and corruption. The event will be held at the Trenton Public Library beginning at 1:00 PM on October 25th 2014.
More information is on our meetup page. All are encouraged to attend. The event will also be streamed live below.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Police Accountability Project
On November 19, 2010, the City of Bridgeton (Cumberland County) agreed to pay $442,500 to a local man who sued members of the Bridgeton Police Department for allegedly beating him and fabricating charges against him. In addition, the city also paid $87,500 to the man's two co-plaintiffs.
In his suit, Thomas Bard, along with co-plaintiff's Donald Thomas and Jay Hall, all of whom are African-American, alleged generally that the Bridgeton Police Department "entered into a conspiracy to deprive minority residents of the City of Bridgeton of their civil rights under a pretext of combating drug trafficking and 'gang activity.'" According to the lawsuit, Bridgeton Police had a long history of routinely profiling racial minorities and targeting them for motor vehicle stops, arrests without probable cause and physical assaults. $442,500 was paid to Plaintiff Thomas Bard. and the city's insurer confirmed that co-plaintiffs Donald Thomas and Jay Hall, Jr were paid $7,500 and $80,000 respectively.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
NJ Television also covered the issue in an article here.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project
As a result of a request from the NJ Libertarian Party, the Borough of Paulsboro has repealed Chapter 28, Curfew of the Code of the Borough of Paulsboro.
The repeal passed 5 to 1. Several councilmen stated objections. Councilman Corradetti expressed concern that police wouldn't be able to stop people from congregating on the streets. Councilman Stevenson, the lone no vote, blamed the illegality of loitering ordinances on the ACLU.
The NJ Libertarian Party strongly believes that the police should not have the power to stop people from congregating on the streets at all. All local loitering ordinances in New Jersey are invalid and unenforceable.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
In 2007, the New Jersey Legislature enacted N.J.S.A. 43:15A-7.2, which was intended to curtail the participation of professional service providers such as attorneys and engineers in the New Jersey Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS). The law, which became effective on January 1, 2008, made these professionals ineligible for PERS participation as of the expiration date of their existing contract or annual appointment.
Despite this mandate, the New Jersey's Office of the State Comptroller (OSC), in a July 17, 2012 report entitled "Improper Participation By Professional Service Providers In The State Pension System," (on-line here) found that "an overwhelming majority" the municipalities and school districts it surveyed had "failed to comply with the statutory requirement to remove independent contractors from PERS." This failure, the OSC report noted, has the potential to cost the state millions of dollars in inappropriate future pension benefits."
According to the report, the OSC developed a list of 332 professionals, retained by 228 municipalities and school districts, who remained in the PERS system after the law took effect. The OSC then conducted a survey of 58 of the 228 local units and several of those municipalities surveyed are mentioned in the report.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Police Accountability Project
On July 16, 2014, the Township of Lacey (Ocean County) agreed to pay $10,000 to three brothers who sued members of the Lacey Police Department for allegedly applying excessive force, falsely arresting them and searching their premises without a warrant.
In their suit, Daniel, John and Joseph Samoles said that on May 27, 2010, police were called after Bessie A. Patten "attempted to extort money from Plaintiff Daniel Samoles at gunpoint." Daniel said that he called police after disarming Patten and that Officers Brian Flynn, Adam Ewart, Gerald Noda, Paul Sullivan, Thomas Bruce, James Veltri and James Wood arrived at the residence. The officers, with guns drawn, ordered the brothers out of the house and told them to get on their knees and raise their hands. The men, who claimed that their home security camera recorded the event, said that the officers arrested them and applied excessive force even though the brothers complied with all police commands. The brothers said that the officers then went into the house without a warrant and searched the family's personal belongings. They also claimed that $2,000 was stolen.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Police Accountability Project
Police Accountability Project of the New Jersey Libertarian Party
Paul Morrison, Chief
Roselle Park Police Department
110 East Westfield Avenue
Roselle Park, NJ 07204
via e-mail only to
Dear Chief Morrison:
I chair the New Jersey Libertarian Party's Police Accountability Project and ask that you accept this e-mail as our Internal Affairs complaint. I am forwarding this complaint to you, as Chief of Police, because there is nothing on your web site identifying the person within your Department to whom an Internal Affairs complaint should be directed.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project
See the editorial written in support of repealing outdated loitering laws on The Press of Atlantic City website.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Latest News
Today the Reason Foundation released their 21st Annual Report on the Performance of the State Highway System. This report ranks the quality and spending on the state highways based on data reported by each state for 2012 and part of 2011. Our legislators should be hanging their heads in shame while the taxpayers should be sharpening their pitchforks.
The condition of New Jersey highways ranks very low while spending per mile far outpaces the rest of the nation. New Jersey spends 12.5 times more than the national average per mile. This is over 3 times more than Massachusetts, the next lowest spender.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project
As a result of pressure from the NJ Libertarian Party's Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project, Manville has repealed three loitering and curfew ordinances.
An article announcing the repeal has been published by The Manville news. A recent letter sent by by committee chair, John Paff to the Borough of Manville is below.
Manville was originally scheduled to repeal this ordinance one year ago.
Does your town have an outdated ordinance? If so contact us and we will see what we can do.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
Asserting that "the criminal investigation has concluded," Gloucester Township (Camden County) municipal attorney David F. Carlamere has disclosed police reports of a "theft of services" allegedly committed by former Township Public Works Director Len Moffa. I have previously blogged about this lawsuit here.