Cara Latham
An open government advocate has filed a lawsuit in state Superior Court in Trenton against Washington, claiming the township has violated the Open Public Records Act.
John Paff, chairman of the state Libertarian Party’s Open Government Task Force, filed the lawsuit Aug. 28, claiming that minutes he requested from the Oct. 26, 2006 executive session meeting held by the Township Council were, at first, “redacted too heavily.”
He also claimed that upon seeing the unredacted minutes of that meeting, that the discussion held in private should have been held publicly.
During the executive session meeting, the township met with Joseph DiBella of Commerce Insurance and mayor in Howell where Mr. DiBella spoke about his company’s insurance services and what could be provided to the township if it were to sign a contract with the company.
According to the lawsuit, Mr. Paff claims that the Open Public Meetings Act’s “pending or anticipated litigation or contract negotiation” exception “does not allow for a public body to discuss contractual or litigation matters behind closed doors when the adverse party to the contract or litigation is also present at the meeting.”
Further, he claims that township officials should have only met regarding the litigation or contractual matter for the purposes of developing a negotiation or litigation strategy and Mr. DiBella’s proposal should have been made in public.
”It’s totally opposite of what the Open Public Meetings Act intends,” Mr. Paff said in a phone interview last week. “Both sides … know what’s going on and the only people being left in the dark is the public. It’s almost a perversion of the OPRA exception.”
He also claimed the resolution the council passed to go into that executive session did not give sufficient explanation as to what topics were going to be discussed privately in that meeting.
Mr. Paff said that he first requested the executive session meeting minutes in April and received a copy of those minutes with much of the information obscured.
In a letter to Mr. Paff in April, Township Clerk Michele Auletta explained that “since a party involved in the contract negotiations is the subject of potential litigation with the township and includes matters discussed with the municipal attorney constituting attorney client privilege” pursuant to state law, the minutes she sent him for the meeting were redacted.
But Mr. Paff said he pushed for the unredacted version of the meeting and an explanation for the redactions.
According to documentation provided by Mr. Paff, Ms. Auletta wrote that they were redacted because the township had not made a decision regarding the health benefits broker at that time. However, since the matter had been resolved, she sent a copy of the unredacted minutes to him in July.
Township Attorney Mark Roselli said last week that the township had not yet been served with the lawsuit papers, but that he expected them soon.
He said he disagrees with Mr. Paff’s claims.
”(There were) contract negotiations going on, and the idea was that they were listening to a vendor, and the reason why you do that in closed session is so that you don’t allow other vendors to know what this other vendor’s giving because that gives them an unfair competition,” Mr. Roselli said. “I liken it to a public bid. When you solicit bids, they’re sealed bids and nobody knows what the other person’s doing, an that’s how they get the best competition.”
Further, Mr. Roselli said that at the appropriate time, the municipality discloses the name of the successful bidder. In this case, the vendor in the closed session didn’t even get the contract, he added.
He said the township will be filing an answer as soon as it is served with the lawsuit.
Mr. Paff said he filed the lawsuit because there is widespread noncompliance with the Open Public Meetings Act.
”Corruption is more likely to occur behind closed doors and that’s why it’s important all this stuff should be done in public,” he said.
However, while Mr. Roselli said he can appreciate what he is trying to accomplish, “I don’t know this is the best method in doing it when you’re utilizing precious resources for the municipality, especially in this one where we try to be as open as possible.”

