I received a response dated September 5, 2007 from Burlington County Prosecutor Robert D. Bernardi regarding my request that he be more proactive in enforcing the Senator Byron M. Baer Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA). My request and his response are on-line at the following link:

http://www.lpcnj.org/OGTF/BurlingtonProsecutor.pdf

He is willing to investigate OPMA complaints provided that they contain "specific allegations of willful noncompliance." Upon receipt of such a complaint, his office will contact the public agency's attorney "requesting an explanation" of the activity upon which the complaint was based.

I think that the Prosecutor's letter is a positive development. I disagree, however, that the fact that his office rarely receives OPMA complaints forces a conclusion that more proactive enforcement of the statute isn’t needed. It could very well be (and my limited sampling of public agencies supports this) that noncompliance is common in Burlington County but that citizens, for whatever reason, do not complain to the Prosecutor’s office.

My practice, going forward, will be to submit records requests to public agencies within Burlington County and report any noncompliance issues to Prosecutor Bernardi. If the resulting records makes it apparent that Open Public Meetings Act noncompliance is prevalent in Burlington County, perhaps Prosecutor Bernardi will agree that his office should become more proactive in enforcing the Act.

John Paff

Somerset, New Jersey