The Borough of Prospect Park hereby creates
a Borough public records policy governing public records and requests
therefore under:
A. N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq. ("Right to Know" Law);
B. Records that are considered public records in accordance
with common law; and
C. Records that are subpoenaed pursuant to pending litigation
and/or court order, which may be subject to judicial review.
All requests for public records shall, whenever
possible, be as specific as possible in seeking such records, and
the Borough reserves the right to reject a public records request
when it is random in nature or when it will involve the extensive
use of Borough employee time and/or presence of a Borough employee
to ensure security of the records in question.
[Amended 8-21-2006 by Ord. No. 2006-16]
A. All requests for public records shall, except for
requests by Borough employees/officials acting in their official capacity
and nonprofit organizations, be subject to the Borough's policy as
to copying costs. For records provided on computer disks or other
related media, such records shall be provided upon the payment of
a fee equal to the costs to the Borough for such disks or other media.
B. Where the nature, format, manner of collation, or
volume of a government record is such that the record cannot be reproduced
or copied by ordinary document-copying equipment and/or an extraordinary
expenditure of time and effort is involved in accommodating the request,
such records shall be provided upon the payment of a special service
charge equal to the actual costs of copying the document(s) plus $15
per hour of time expended by Borough personnel in responding to the
request.
The following records, or types of records,
which are not public and shall not be made available to the public
are, but not limited to, the following:
A. Records of a personal nature regarding Borough officials,
employees and/or other applicable individuals.
B. Medical records of Borough officials, employees and/or
other applicable individuals.
C. All records exempted by state and/or federal statutes,
rules and/or regulations.
D. All records exempted by presidential and/or gubernatorial
executive order.
E. All records which are not included in the definition
of "public records" pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq., where applicable.
F. Confidential police investigation reports.
G. Work product or notes of Borough officials/employees.
H. Council closed session minutes involving personnel
matters. Council open session minutes shall not be considered public
records until such time as they are approved by the Borough Council.
Council closed session minutes, other than involving personnel matters,
shall not be considered public records until such time as they are
approved by the Borough Council and the matter(s) in question have
been concluded pursuant to the provisions of N.J.S.A. 10:4-6 et seq.
A report prepared for review by the Mayor and Borough Council shall
not be deemed a public record until at least seven calendar days after
disbursement of the report by the Borough Clerk to the Mayor and Council
or the next Council meeting, whichever is later.
Not all requests for public records do, in fact,
lead to the copying, review and/or release of such records. A public
record may be a public record under common law, but may not be a public
record under the "Right to Know" Law (N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq.), or
vice versa, or it may be or may not be a public record under any other
legal statute, rules, regulation and/or court decision. The Borough
Clerk shall seek the opinion of the designated Borough attorney as
to whether or not a record is public if there is any question as to
its potential copying, review and/or release. The Borough Clerk's
actions on this type of matter shall be guided by such legal opinion.