By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Public records watchdog John Paff filed legal suit against Manville on Nov. 21 over its refusal to release investigative reports from August arrests of two men for violating the borough ordinance against drinking alcohol in public.
His request for the August reports came as he followed the borough’s handling of an incident regarding drinking on school grounds by a borough department head during a May charity softball tournament.
Mr. Paff said the borough’s position is that the August reports are “criminal investigatory records” and thereby exempt from disclosure.
He maintains the state Open Public Records Act defines “criminal investigatory records” as those that “pertain to any criminal investigation or related civil enforcement proceeding.”
”I believe that this exemption doesn’t cover records of investigations of municipal ordinance violations,” he said.
The borough has until Dec. 31 to respond. A hearing could be set for early January before Superior Court Judge Yolanda Ciccone.
Mr. Paff said the OPRA definition excludes police records that are “required by law to be made, maintained or kept on file.” The New Jersey Destruction of Public Records Law requires police incident reports to be maintained for a specific period of time, he said he believes.
Thus, the requirement that police reports be “maintained” take those reports out of the scope of the “criminal investigatory record” definition, he maintains. The argument has been accepted by one vicinage’s Superior Court but rejected in another, he said.
”Hopefully, my lawsuit against Manville will help clarify this point of law,” he said.
Mr. Paff, a Franklin Township (Somerset) resident, is chairman of the Open Government Advocacy Project of the New Jersey Libertarian Party. He requested and received police investigative reports that identified Recreation Department Administrator Richard Armstrong as an apparent violator of the school policy.
Manville police produced a report about the May incident in an amazingly timely manner with no questions asked, he said in September.
In further investigation, Mr. Paff said he learned of charges brought Aug. 25 at 8:48 p.m., against two local men by Manville police officer Nickolas Franzoso for consumption of alcohol in public.
In a letter to the Manville News in October, Mr. Paff wrote, “The men, however, were not charged under Section 2 of Borough Ordinance No. 396. Rather they were charged under another ordinance that prohibits consumption of alcohol in non-licensed public places where live entertainment is offered. Regardless, it appears that Manville police have recently enforced alcohol consumption violations against others.”
The softball tournament issue was first addressed publicly at the Aug. 13 Borough Council meeting and was back and forth at meetings and in letters to the newspaper. After weeks of hubbub Mr. Armstrong resigned from his job in October.Mayor Angelo Corradino did not dispute the facts, but said the matter was investigated internally and Mr. Armstrong was suspended a week without pay, he said.
Mr. Paff is on the lookout, and accepts inquiries, about government agencies that try to suppress information the public has a right to have. As in his recent suit, he often challenges unclear provisions of the Open Public Records Act.
”Usually whenever it appears there is an attempt to suppress information, I think its pretty important to know the truth,” Mr. Paff said in September.
Mr. Paff said his only interest was to make information public, not to take a side. The public has the right to know whether people in charge have handled a matter appropriately, he said.
Attorney Richard Gutman of Montclair is representing Mr. Paff in the lawsuit, which is online at his website.

