I chair the New Jersey Libertarian Party's Open Government Advocacy Project which seeks more openness and accountability from government, especially at the local level.
I submitted an OPRA request to Pilesgrove Township for some of the Township Committee's resolutions that authorize the exclusion of the public from Committee meetings (i.e. to go into closed or executive session) and for some of the Committee's recent closed or executive meeting minutes. As a public service, I've put those resolutions and minutes on-line here.
In my view, citizens shouldn't have to submit OPRA requests for their Township Committee's closed or executive resolutions or meeting minutes. Rather, since this is quintessential public information, the Mayor and Committee ought to putting this information on the Township's Internet site as a matter of course.
But, the Township's on-line minutes library, which is available here is woefully out of date as of the date of this posting--February 8, 2009. The most recent set of minutes available on that site are from March 25, 2008--which is nearly a year ago. And, even if one looks in the "archived" minutes here there are no closed or executive minutes at all. Rather, only public meeting minutes are posted.
I have brought these deficiencies to Mayor Miller's and Deputy Mayor Kille's attention (Committeewoman Reardon's e-mail address is not listed on the Township's Internet site) and have sent each of them an e-mail advising them of the location of a similar posting I put on the Penn Jersey forum and inviting them to publicly respond to it.
Very truly yours,
John Paff, Chair
New Jersey Libertarian Party's
Open Government Advocacy Project