Our Township continues to skirt the law and government Best
Practices when it comes to transparency.
Specifically, our Township has not adhered to the
recommendations and principles of:
1) The Open Public Records Act
(OPRA) which requires that municipalities keep reasonably comprehensible minutes
of all its meetings and that these minutes are promptly made available to the
public; and
2) The Governor's Best Practices which
recommend that each municipality maintain an up-to-date
municipal web site containing Governing Body's Minutes and Agendas.
In what appears to be an attempt to obscure the fact that it
has taken over a year to approve and post Council meeting minutes, there has
been a change in how the information is posted on the town web
site.
In the past, when approved Council meeting minutes were posted
on the town's web site one column indicated the date of the council meeting and
the second column indicated the actual date that the approved minutes were
posted.
This method of posting was recently changed to obscure the
delays in the approval process.
For example, the Council at its January 25, 2016 meeting approved the minutes from the regular meetings of September 22,
2014 and November 23, 2015, as well as the workshop meeting of October 6, 2014;
and at its July 11, 2016 meeting the
Council approved the minutes from the regular meetings of October 20, 2014,
November 24, 2014 and December 29, 2014; as well as the minutes from the
workshop meetings of November 10, 2014, December 8, 2014 and January 12,
2015.
Here is how the minutes are now being posted on the towns' web site:
| Title | Date |
|---|---|
| Minutes from November 23, 2015 Regular Meeting | 11/23/2015 |
| Minutes from November 9, 2015 Workshop Meeting | 11/9/2015 |
| Minutes from January 12, 2015 Workshop Meeting | 1/12/2015 |
| Minutes from December 29, 2014 Regular Meeting | 12/19/2014 |
| Minutes from December 8, 2014 Workshop Meeting | 12/8/2014 |
| Minutes from November 24, 2014 Regular Meeting | 11/24/2014 |
| Minutes from November 10, 2014 Workshop Meeting | 11/10/2014 |
| Minutes from October 20, 2014 Regular Meeting | 10/20/2014 |
| Minutes from October 6, 2014 Workshop Meeting | 10/6/2014 |
| Minutes from September 22, 2014 Regular Meeting | 9/22/2014 |
| Minutes from September 8, 2014 Regular Meeting | 9/8/2014 |
The dates in both columns are identical, thus concealing the year plus
delay between the Council meeting and the approval date of each set of
minutes.
This failure to comply the OPRA and Best Practices recommendations is not
in the best interest of open government and transparency.
It is a disservice to Little Falls residents as it hampers our ability to know what is happening within Township government in a timely manner.
It is a disservice to Little Falls residents as it hampers our ability to know what is happening within Township government in a timely manner.
Arnie, neither the township administration nor council had anything to do with the updates to the dates. They were changed to (a) make sure the minutes were sorted in the proper order and (b) make the more recent entries consistent with the historical ones.
ReplyDeleteNo obfuscation intended, implied or implemented.
Scott Miller
Website Administrator
Township of Little Falls, NJ
Have you found a copy of the list with the original dates as you stated in our correspondence on this matter? As stated above, no obfuscation was intended, and I'm more than willing to restore the original posting dates. Yet you persist in saying that this was a deliberate attempt to fool the public, this time in a letter to the editor of Passaic Valley Today.
ReplyDeleteTrying to work cooperatively with you, but you're making it harder.
With reference to the transcribing and posting of Council minutes there are broader ramifications as noted in this article from today's edition of the Passaic Valley Today: "LF township officials addressing untimely meeting minute posts."
Deletehttp://www.northjersey.com/community-news/town-government/lf-township-officials-addressing-untimely-meeting-minute-posts-1.1649836
In this article, with reference to the posting of Council minutes, Councilman James Damiano noted that "....the issue concerning meeting dates appears to be a technical glitch on the web site..."
To obtain the original posting dates would be an arduous task. It would involve going through each of the Council's agendas to ascertain when each set of Council minutes were actually approved.
Perhaps the township has a record of the original posting dates?
In the meantime, The Gadfly, as a public service, will review its archives to assist in the restoration of the original posting dates
The dates have been restored from a backup copy of the database. Now please stop blaming township officials.
ReplyDelete