News
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
An editorial was written in support of our efforts in Bloomfield. It is regrettable that this situation ended up costing the taxpayers. More information is on my blog.
Editorial: 'Bottomless well' of money to suppress documents
Bloomfield LifeWell, that wasn't so hard was it? Actually it was.
The township has finally relented and settled out of court with an open public records advocate who sued to have letters and e-mails released between a detective from the Essex County Prosecutor's Office, Councilwoman Patricia Spychala, and Spychala's attorney, Ed Kologi, and Township Attorney Brian Aloia.
That only took months of badgering, critical newspaper articles and a lawsuit. Close to $5,000 later, John Paff, chairman of the Libertarian Party's Open Government Advocacy Project, who sued the town, got his answer. And that was? Nothing we already didn't know.
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- Written by: Pat Dixon
- Category: Selected Blogs
I remember when the Iraq war protests began. Protesters would march up Congress Avenue and surround the Capitol announcing their opposition to this war.
As time went on, I noticed how the protests evolved. I would start to see people joining these protests carrying signs opposing capitalism, environmental policy, global trade and all manner of policies that had little to do with the war. I also noticed how angry these people were, and the display of signs that showed President George W. Bush depicted as a Nazi.
When the Libertarian Party of Illinois lit the match that became the tea party bonfire, the idea was to promote the principles of the Libertarian Party in protest of continued growth of government, bailouts, a nightmarish taxation system and other policies promoted by Republicans and Democrats.
It now has evolved to include protesters on immigration policy, gay marriage, foreign policy, abortion and all manner of policies that do not match those of the Libertarian Party. We also see angry signs depicting President Barack Obama as a Nazi.
Movements like these are not easily controlled. They can evolve and splinter such that they no longer reflect their origins. This is also true of the tea party.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
READINGTON TWP. — Although a search of a vehicle that yielded a backpack full of cash that smelled like marijuana was ruled invalid, the money was never returned to the vehicle’s occupants.
In June the appellate division of the state Superior Court ruled the search was invalid but many readers — including John Paff, who is chairman of the New Jersey Libertarian Party’s Open Government Advocacy Project — were curious as to what happened to the smelly money.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
I attended a meeting of the Bridgeton Board of Education (Cumberland County) on August 10, 2010 to address two concerns: a) executive session minutes that are not "reasonably comprehensible" and b) meeting agendas not being given to the public until the beginning of the meeting.
I arrived for the 6 p.m. meeting at 5:45 p.m. and found the building to be locked. I rang the bell and knocked on the door and in a few minutes a man came and pushed a latch to let me in, but he didn't unlock the doors for any other members of the public who might later arrive. This gave me an initial indication that openness and transparency were not among the Board's strong suits.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Latest News
Liberty On Tour recently passed through NJ. While in Edgewater, Officer William J. Wallach aggressively approached Adam Mueller demanding identification and paperwork. Officer Wallach is paid a salary of just over $111,000 by the township.
by Pete Eyre on 09. Aug, 2010
EDGEWATER, NJ – Since it’s close to impossible to park MARV in Manhattan we’ve spent some time just across the Hudson in Edgewater, NJ working from a shopping center that includes a 24hr Starbucks – the first we’ve seen. Unlike other ‘bucks we’ve worked from, the rush isn’t in the morning from commuters on their way to work but late at night when there are literally hundreds hanging out and riding around on their motorcycles and suped-up cars. Unsurprisingly, such a crowd tends to attract the police.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Latest News
NJLP member and activist Julian Heicklen was harassed and detained again for handing out Fully Informed Jury Association (FIJA) flyers. The event was attended by the Liberty On Tour project. For more articles on Julian's outreach events see this link.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
An open letter to Brigantine from open public records advocate John Paff — in which Paff criticizes the city for denying almost all of a recent Open Public Records Act request — was discussed by the Brigantine City Council on Wednesday in executive session, city attorney Tim Maguire said.
Paff — a state Libertarian Party official from Somerset County who sued 17 municipalities in 2008 over public records — in July sought information about a city investigation into former Police Chief Jim Frugoli conducted in March by the law firm of Archer and Greiner.
Read the full article on the Press of Atlantic City website, more is on John Paff's blog.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
In response to an appellate court ruling, a number of towns in New Jersey have lowered fees for copying open public records. Others are waiting for Gov. Chris Christie to weigh in on the matter.
The Appellate Division of Superior Court ruled in February that beginning July 1 public entities could only charge the actual costs of making copies, including paper and toner.
John Paff, chairman of the Libertarian Party’s Open Government Advocacy Project, called the change a “major victory.” The public records activist has filed countless requests that have brought about investigations of schools and municipalities and stirred up controversy on behalf of open government.
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- Written by: Guest Author
- Category: Selected Blogs
Last week New Jersey Governor Chris Christie endorsed providing $875 million in state financial aid for the Xanadu entertainment and retail complex in the Meadowlands.
For those unfamiliar with Xanadu, Wikipedia has a representative picture of its ugly gigantism. The complex rises from the horizon appearing to be the result of a giant child who threw something together using mismatched Lego blocks. The gigantism is reminiscent of Marxist regimes trying to show off their grandeur in ways they don’t realize are ironic. If the project is ever completed, it will be one of the largest malls in the world.
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- Written by: Guest Author
- Category: Latest News
Dear Friend of Liberty,
The War in Afghanistan has dragged on for almost nine years. According to the Washington Post, there have been 1,189 American military deaths, which is more than two per week.
And of course, today's big news about WikiLeaks raises a lot of questions about whether we've been honestly told how badly the war is going.
I'm often asked how Libertarian candidates make a difference in cases where they don't win their election. We have over 150 candidates running for U.S. Representative, and over 20 for U.S. Senator.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
A worthwhile exercise for citizen activists is to request their municipality's, school board's or other agency's legal services bills. These records permit citizens to know a) how much money the agency is spending on lawyers and b) a general idea of what the money is being spent on.
As an illustration, I submitted an OPRA request for invoices for legal services provided to the Plainfield (Union County) Board of Education for a three month period. I have placed those invoices, which span nearly forty pages, on the Internet here.
Here are some things that a citizen can learn from the invoices:
- That the Plainfield Board of Education paid a single law firm approximately $77,500 during a three month period in 2010. (Annualized, this calculates to approximately $310,000 per year).
Subcategories
NJ Libertarian Blog
Imported from NJ Libertarian News from the published feed
Videos
This is a page of various videos that we have either created or found interesting. Be sure to check out and follow our YouTube page.
Open Government Advocacy Project
The Open Government Advocacy Project is a committee of the NJ Libertarian Party. Its goal is to ensure transparency and accountability at all levels of government. Articles posted here are a subset of the work of the committee. For more information visit the Open Government Advocacy Project blog.
If you would like to demand accountability and ensure that your local governing body or school board adheres to the Open Public Records Act we can help you request information from them. Contact John Paff, the project chair here.
Insight New Jersey
NJ government is huge and complex. Private industry is shrinking while the size and cost of government bureacracy continues to grow. The articles posted here provide a guide of the NJ State Government and can be used by citizens and candidates for office to evaluate what departments can be reduced drastically in size.
We'll start with just some of the departments and provide a breakdown on what they do (or purport to do), how many employees they have and how big their budget is.
Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project
The New Jersey Libertarian Party's Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project (“the Project”) seeks to get New Jersey municipalities to repeal loitering ordinances that should have been -- but were not -- repealed when the New Jersey Code of Criminal Justice was enacted in 1979. The Project has successfully had loitering ordinances repealed in over 30 towns. For a summary listing of all the towns see Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project page.
Police Accountability Project
The Police Accountability Project is a committee of the NJ Libertarian Party. Its goal is to search out cases of police misconduct, file former Internal Affairs (IA) complaints when appropriate, and to publicize violations of rules and laws by the police. There may be other stories posted on the NJLP Police Internal Affairs Complaint Blog page.
If you would like to help or know of a case we should be looking at, contact the committee at
Legislative Affairs Committee
The Legislative Affairs Committee was created to allow a select core of Volunteers to take action on legislation and policies which directly affects the people of New Jersey.
[INTRO VIDEO - HOSTED ON NJLP STATE YOUTUBE AND EMBEDED HERE]
Staff
Legislative Director and Committee Chair
Volunteers: