[Ord. #1195, S1]
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.
[Ord. #1195, S1]
The following definitions shall apply in this section:
a. Common law public document shall mean 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 body shall mean and include the mayor and council, library
board of trustees, Planning Board/Zoning Board of Adjustment, board
of health, recreation commission, environmental commission, and all
other public bodies, agencies, departments, and offices of the borough,
except the board of education.
[Amended by Ord. No. 11-2]
c. Public records shall mean common law public documents and right to
know documents.
d. Right-to-know document shall mean 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 Bogota, as defined by the Right-to-Know Law, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-2.
[Ord. #1195, S1]
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.