News
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
In an Order distributed today, May 1, 2014, the Government Records Council (GRC) ruled that a volunteer fire department in Franklin Township (Somerset County), which is within a Fire District, is a "public agency" that must respond to Open Public Records Act (OPRA) requests.
In Robert A. Verry v. Franklin Fire District No. 1, GRC Complaint No. 2013-196 (on-line here), the GRC held:
Notwithstanding that [Millstone Valley Fire Department] was likely created by the volunteer membership, is clear that member companies within a fire district exercise a government duty and are under the supervision and control of the district, which is clearly a "public agency." In essence, although the creation of a volunteer fire company is reserved only for the membership, said company organizing within a fire district is expressly required to apply to the district. As the Court noted in [Paff v. New Jersey State Firemen's Ass'n], the relationship between the Association and its existence are owed to state law, as is the relationship between the creation and function of a volunteer fire company within a fire district. Thus, in applying the Court's decision in Firemen's Ass'n, to the facts of this complaint, the GRC is satisfied that [Millstone Valley Fire Department] is a "public agency" for purposes of OPRA.
Therefore, because [Millstone Valley Fire Department] is a member of the [Franklin Fire District] per N.J.S.A. 40A:14-70.1 and thus serves a governmental function under the supervision and control of the [Franklin Fire District], it is a public agency for purposes of OPRA.
This is the first decision of its kind that I am aware of in New Jersey.
Verry's attorney in the matter is John A. Bermingham, Jr., Esq. and the Fire District was represented by Dominic DiYanni . The Fire District has 45 days within which to appeal the ruling.
- Details
- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Police Accountability Project
Russell W. Leffert, Chief
Warren Township Police Department
44 Mountain Boulevard
Warren, NJ 07059
via e-mail only to
Dear Chief Leffert:
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.
We would like your agency to investigate whether Officer Robert Ferreiro (as well as any other officers and personnel employed by your agency) acted in accordance with department policy and the law regarding a June 10, 2010 motor vehicle stop and subsequent warrantless search of a vehicle driven by Troy Henderson.
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- Written by: Matthew Boyer
- Category: Letters to Editor
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By Matthew Boyer. Matthew Boyer is a School of Arts and Science sophomore with a major in political science and a minor in German. His column, “Legalizing Life,” runs in The Daily Targum on alternate Wednesdays. |
Every election, America faces a battle between two dominant political parties, which in turn divides America. We bicker about the opposing party’s policies and are distracted by trivial matters. We then elect a new president who typically behaves similarly to the one prior. Four or eight years down the road, half the country regrets who they cast their vote for. This scenario has essentially been an ongoing ordeal for decades. The American people have let the establishment of the two dominating parties overshadow the possibility of new voices in American politics. But there is a fresh alternative to the Democrats and Republicans we have all come to love and hate: Libertarians.
Putting aside talking points from watching an hour of MSNBC or Fox News, what are the legitimate differences between Democrats and Republicans? Well, let’s start with America’s history of military interventionism. Many people consider Democrats to be anti-war, whereas Republicans are considered warmongers — hence the anti-Condoleezza Rice sentiment among the University faculty. However, since World War II, history in the White House has shown an overwhelming pursuit of war, regardless of which party held office.For example, our current president continues Middle Eastern interventionism, global spying programs and unrestricted drone use, and he is a Democrat. Somalia intervention was under Bill Clinton, a Democrat. The Iraq and Afghanistan wars were under George W. Bush, a Republican. The Gulf War was under the President Bush senior, also a Republican. The Vietnam War was started under John F. Kennedy and continued through Johnson’s administration. Both were Democrats. It was Franklin D. Roosevelt who established the Japanese internment camps across the United States through executive order. The striking similarity in both parties’ foreign policy suggests the need for a new party that would boldly proclaim their pro-diplomacy, pro-peace and anti-war policies.
- Details
- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Police Accountability Project
Thomas J. Chirichella, First Assistant Prosecutor
Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office
40 North Bridge Street
Somerville, NJ 08876
via e-mail only to
Dear Mr. Chirichella:
I chair the New Jersey Libertarian Party's Police Accountability Project and have some concerns that the instructions on the Warren Township Police Department's web site regarding filing of an Internal Affairs complaint are too onerous and may dissuade some people from filing. I am directing this e-mail to your attention (with a copy to Freeholder Director Scaglione, who is the liaison to the Prosecutor's Office) because you are listed on the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office website as the legal director to the SCPO's Internal Affairs Unit.
I invite your attention to the page (on-line here) on Warren's site that instructs potential IA complainants to complete the Complaint Form (on-line here) and "bring this completed form to Warren Police headquarters."
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Student Rights
In apparent display of social correctness and lack of understanding of social media and free speech rights, Executive Director of HR, James Miller has suspended Associate Professor Francis Schmidt over a picture Schmidt had uploaded to his Google+ account.
Our schools and universities should be a place of open discussion, discovery, and analysis of all thoughts. By limiting what can be discussed, the bureaucrats who run our higher education institutions are limiting the ability of young people to learn and develop. Instead of banishing anything that may be deemed offensive, schools should be encouraging students to have their views challenged, discussed, and analyzed.
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) summarizes the censorship:
Displaying a lack of both pop culture and First Amendment awareness, administrators at Bergen Community College in New Jersey placed Professor Francis Schmidt on leave this past January, requiring him to meet with a psychiatrist before returning to campus—just for posting a picture of his daughter in a T-shirt quoting the popular HBO television show Game of Thrones.
- Details
- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
Wayne D. Pelura, Committeeman
Township of Carneys Point
(via e-mail)
Dear Committeeman Pelura:
I note from your 2013 Financial Disclosure Statement (on-line here) that you listed no source of income for either you or your wife Patricia. Given that your home on Johnson Avenue is assessed at $290,800 and has taxes levied against in in the amount of $7,287.45 (property detail sheet on-line here), it seems very unlikely that neither you nor your wife have a source of income greater than $2,000.
The entire point of the Financial Disclosure Statement filing is to help citizens learn whether public officials have conflicts of interest. Suppose for example, the Township Committee was considering whether to award a contract to a company that employed your wife Patricia. Clearly, it would be violation of the Local Government Ethics Law (LGEL) for you to vote on or participate in the discussion regarding that contract. Yet, absent your wife's employer being listed as a source of income on your Financial Disclosure Form, a member of the public (unless he or she knew or was familiar with you and your family) would likely not be aware that you would be conflicted from voting on that contract. Thus, when public officials decline or refuse to identify the sources of income for them and their family members, they are frustrating citizens' ability to detect violations of the LGEL.
- Details
- Written by: Geoffrey J. Neale
- Category: Latest News
NOTE: to attend as a NJ Delegate you must be approved by the NJLP State Board and be a current Libertarian Party member.
Last November, I traveled and spoke to European Libertarian groups in Moscow and in Madrid. The latest additions to our speaker lineup come from contacts I made during his trip.
Vera Kichanova is a libertarian elected official and activist who has been described as one of "Putin's Unruly Children." In 2012, she was elected as a municipal deputy in Moscow's Yuzhnoye Tushino district. In 2013, she received a Democracy Award from the National Endowment for Democracy. While in Washington, D.C., to receive the award, she met with National Security Adviser Susan Rice in the White House. Back in Moscow, she works as a journalist and is a frequent and vocal advocate for liberty who has been detained or arrested many times for her activities. She has become one of the most visible and internationally known faces of the Russian opposition, and has been featured in articles in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Der Spiegel, and more. Vera is 22 years old.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
On April 2, 2014, Administrative Law Judge Susan M. Scarola recommended acceptance of a settlement of an Open Public Record Act (OPRA) case filed with the Government Records Council. Judge Scarola's recommendation and the Settlement Agreement in the case of George F. Burdick, Jr. v. Township of Franklin (Hunterdon County) are on-line here.
According to the agreement, Franklin Township Clerk Ursula Stryker agreed to "personally pay a fine of $1,000 to the Government Records Council" within 60 days of Scarola's order. The agreement recites that the Township acknowledged that it was able to comply with an Interim Order of the GRC, but attributed its failure to do so to "the intentional acts of at least one of its professionals which directly affected [Stryker's] ability to comply with the Interim Order." The agreement also recites that the Township "has already made adjustments to its Open Public Records protocol to ensure continual compliance with the GRC's ruling" and that the Township "wishes to resolve this matter without having to expend additional counsel fees for one or more days of hearings."
- Details
- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
On January 27, 2014, the Town Council of Hammonton, an Atlantic County community with a 2010 population 14,791, resolved to appoint a separate deputy records custodian for each of ten principal departments in the municipality. The same resolution also appointed nine "Alternate Records Custodians"--one for each of the ten departments except for the Recreation Department.
According to Resolution 023-2014, which is on-line here, "the Open Public Records Act does not preclude the Municipality from developing reasonable and practical measures for responding to OPRA requests which may include the designation of deputy custodians for particular types of records."
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- Written by: Mark Richards
- Category: Letters to Editor
Published in Suburban Trends
Dear Editor:
Please let me be one of the first to commend you folks at the Suburban Trends for your editorial today (April 2, 2014) calling for the end of marijuana prohibition.
As we all know, alcohol prohibition didn’t work in the 1920s (and created all kinds of crime problems) and the so-called "War on Drugs" isn’t working either. Ninety years may have passed since the first "prohibition" but economic laws never change and certain substances will always be available.
The late free-market economist Milton Friedman called for the repeal of drug laws decades ago, and he was ridiculed for his Libertarian pro-individual choice views; time has, however, shown him to be correct.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Letters to Editor
To the editor:
I am not a career politician. I am not a wealthy or well-connected member of the elite. I am a regular person standing up for the Constitution.
Last year at age 28 I was the most successful Libertarian candidate in New Jersey for a second year. But my real goal is to recruit other young people to run for office as Libertarians. Freedom is the future and we’re the generation we’ve been waiting for.
- Details
- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Police Accountability Project
March 21, 2014
Internal Affairs Unit
Burlington Township Police Department
851 Old York Rd
Burlington, NJ 08016
via e-mail only to
Dear Sir or Madam:
I chair the New Jersey Libertarian Party's Police Accountability Project and ask that you accept this letter as our Internal Affairs complaint. We would like your agency to investigate whether Sergeant David Brintzinghoffer (as well as any other officers and personnel employed by your agency) acted in accordance with department policy and the law regarding a July 5, 2006 incident involving Demetrius Cope.
According to the Appellate Division's March 21, 2014 decision in State v. Demetrius C. Cope, Docket No. A-2165-11T3 (on-line here), Sergeant Brintzinghoffer conducted an unconstitutional "protective sweep" of Cope's apartment that resulted in him finding a firearm in "plain view." The Appellate Division ultimately ruled that the firearm is inadmissible because it was "discovered and seized as a result of a warrantless search that did not fall into any of the recognized exceptions to the warrant requirement."
- Details
- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
On July 12, 2011, Glenn A. Grant, Director of the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) issued Directive #03-11 which states in its preamble that:
An open and transparent court system is an integral part of our democratic government. The public has a right of access not only to our courts, but also to court records. Public access to court records allows citizens to understand the system and to judge its effectiveness.
This lofty goal, however, does not actually play out in practice.
On September 6, 2013, New Jersey enacted L.2013, Chapter 158 which established a conditional discharge program for municipal courts that allows first time offenders to avoid prosecution for a large variety of disorderly and petty disorderly offenses if they enter into a supervisory program. The new law, which became effective on January 4, 2014, requires applicants to pay $75 into a "non-lapsing fund to be known as the 'Municipal Court Diversion Fund,' which shall be administered by the Administrative Office of the Courts."
- Details
- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Police Accountability Project
March 19, 2014
Internal Affairs Unit
Little Egg Harbor Police Department
Attn: Detective Kenneth Schilling
665 Radio Rd
Little Egg Harbor, NJ 08087
via e-mail only to
Internal Affairs Unit
Ocean County Prosecutor's Office
Attn: Detective I.N. Bauman
119 Hooper Ave
Toms River, NJ, 08754
via e-mail to
Dear Detectives Schilling and Bauman:
As you are aware, I serve as the Chairman of the New Jersey Libertarian Party's Police Accountability Project and had filed a February 18, 2014 Internal Affairs (IA) Complaint (on-line here) against Little Egg Harbor Police Officer Christopher G. Costa regarding a February 18, 2014 incident involving Ricky Brown of 114 Jefferson Lane, Little Egg Harbor. As you are also aware, I filed a subsequent, February 28, 2014 inquiry with the Ocean County Prosecutor (on-line here) after Mr. Brown told me that he had been stopped and ticketed by Little Egg Harbor Police immediately after he left the police station to follow up with Lieutenant Troy A. Bezak, to whom my IA complaint had been assigned. A copy of the summons issued to Mr. Brown is on-line here.
In my February 28, 2014 letter, I expressed concern to the Prosecutor's Office about the timing of the traffic stop and suggested that it may have been in retaliation against Mr. Brown for reporting the February 18, 2014 incident to me. In its March 7, 2014 letter (on-line here), the Prosecutor's Office acknowledged my letter and advised me that the Little Egg Harbor Police Department would continue to handle the IA investigation.
Unbeknownst to the officer who issued Mr. Brown the summons on February 28, 2014 is that Brown had audio-recorded his conversation with that officer during the traffic stop. A .wav file of the relevant portion of that conversation is on-line here. About fifteen seconds into the recording, the officer disclosed that he knew that the purpose of Mr. Brown's visit to the police station was to "talk to Lieutenant Bezak."