The purpose of this chapter is to provide a procedure for the disclosure
to the public of copies of public documents on a timely basis, while protecting
from public disclosure the public documents that the borough is required by
law to maintain confidential.
The following definitions shall apply in this chapter:
A. COMMON LAW PUBLIC DOCUMENT — A document required
by law to be kept, or necessary to be kept, in the discharge of a duty imposed
by law, or directed by law to serve as a memorial and evidence of something
written, said or done, or a written memorial made by a public officer authorized
to perform that function or a writing filed in a public office.
B. PUBLIC RECORDS — Common law public documents and
right-to-know documents.
C. RIGHT-TO-KNOW DOCUMENT — A document required by
law to be made, maintained or kept on file by the borough or any public board,
body, commission or authority created by law or by ordinance in the Borough
of Maywood, as defined by the Right to Know Law, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-2.
Minutes of closed session meetings of the Mayor and Council and any
other public body shall be disclosed to the public as follows:
A. All closed session minutes shall be maintained by the
clerk or secretary of the public body in a confidential folder or binder until
the release of same is approved as set forth herein.
B. Once per year, the Borough Attorney or the attorney for
the public body, shall review the closed session minutes that are on file
with the clerk or secretary of the public body. Minutes of meetings at which
all matters that are resolved shall be approved for disclosure to the public,
except that matters that cannot be disclosed without injury to the public
interest and/or the privacy rights of any individual shall be redacted. The
approved and redacted version shall be maintained by the clerk or secretary
in a binder of closed session minutes approved for public disclosure.
C. If a member of the public has a legitimate need to review
portions of closed session minutes that have not yet been approved for public
disclosure, then, upon receipt of a request for the minutes, the clerk or
secretary shall forward the minutes to the Borough Attorney or the attorney
for the body. The attorney shall determine what, if any, portions of the minutes
may be disclosed to the public, and redacted versions of the minutes may then
be disclosed to the person requesting same.
The Borough Clerk is hereby authorized and directed to make copies of the following borough records and to charge the applicant for said copies as set forth in Chapter
169, Fees.