Constitutional Law

N.J. freeholder advises officials how to skirt open-records laws

By By The Associated Press

HACKENSACK, N.J. ? A freeholder who oversees the taxpayer-financed New Jersey Association of Counties told 22 trustees ? most of them elected officials ? they could skirt public-records laws with this advice: "Keep these documents solely in your personal possession."

His letter, in an envelope marked "Personal," was mailed to the county offices of 22 government employees: 17 freeholders, two administrators, an executive, a surrogate and a clerk.

It arrived with an accounting firm's analysis that raised a number of concerns about the lobbying group and its nonprofit foundation and a related limited-liability corporation, including an executive's compensation, misstatements on IRS filings and questionable credit-card practices.

"I have been advised by my county counsel that as long (as) you keep these documents solely in your personal possession that they are not subject to (the Open Public Records Act)," wrote Peter Palmer, the Somerset County freeholder who is president of the lobbying association's board of directors. "Of course, if you distribute this information through county communication channels, it is subject to OPRA," he wrote.

Eight months earlier, the association had vowed to act more openly, after some lawmakers and Gov. Chris Christie called for reform following articles in The Record about the group's finances and its staff's membership in the New Jersey public-pension and health-benefits system.

The board passed a resolution to follow the "general terms and conditions" of the 2002 Open Public Records Act, a law that guarantees access to government documents.

Palmer now suggests that taxpayers ? who supply 20% of the Association of Counties' budget ? do not have a right to see such documents as the audit.

"I believe that board members of NJAC should be able to communicate with one another without it being subject to OPRA," Palmer said in an interview. He said he consulted with a county-paid attorney, rather than the association's lawyer, because "that's how you find out whether something is county business or not."

Somerset County Counsel Thomas C. Miller declined to say whether he was the attorney to whom Palmer referred in the letter.

"I can't tell you because I don't think it's appropriate that I tell you," Miller said. "I have no comment on a conversation that Mr. Palmer and I may have had. I don't think it's any of your business."

Miller's firm, Miller, Robertson and Rodgers, was paid $1,409,301.41 in taxpayer money for legal services in 2009, according to disclosure statements filed with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission. Of the firm's $28,310 in political contributions, $15,798 went to the county Republican Committee, which has backed the five candidates elected to the all-Republican Freeholder Board.

The New Jersey Association of Counties had 21 members until last year, when Hunterdon dropped out because the group would not disclose its salaries and other financial information.

This year the group ? whose slogan is "Good government, good business" ? billed nearly $200,000 in collective dues for lobbying services in Trenton. The group also solicits "business members," whose dues entitle them to attend annual conferences and "take advantage of the $2.5 billion of county purchasing power," according to its literature.

The Record reported last year that several trustees ? charged with overseeing the group's operation ? were not aware of the compensation for the association's executive director, Celeste Carpiano: $205,000 plus the lease of a Lexus sedan. They also did not know that the group took about $500,000 each year from its nonprofit educational foundation to cover salaries and other routine expenses, and gave comparatively little to scholarships and research.

The association staff is among the more than 140 private lobbying employees who are enrolled in the state's pension and lifetime health-benefits systems. Christie and some lawmakers have called for an amendment to the 1955 law that allowed access to such taxpayer-funded programs.

A bill was introduced to end the benefits, but it was amended by the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee this month to apply only to new hires. Carpiano, when she retires in January, will collect an annual payment of roughly $105,600, according to the state Department of Treasury.

The association board commissioned the audit that Palmer circulated through the mail.

Palmer's accompanying letter makes reference to the group's troubles as "the events of the past eight months." It also refers to the Association of Counties' four-day June conference in Atlantic City, where county officials mingle with vendors hawking goods and no-bid professional services.

"I was particularly pleased that our exhibitors seemed very satisfied," Palmer wrote.

He also wrote that within the organization, "there is much work to be done," including "implementing the necessary changes to our internal operations."

The Record obtained Palmer's letter and the audit, by Suplee, Clooney & Co. of Westfield, via Open Public Records Act requests submitted to several counties.

Morris and Gloucester counties complied with the request because, they said, they considered the documents part of the public record. Officials in Bergen, Passaic, Sussex and Warren counties were facing a deadline to respond. Monmouth, Cape May and Somerset counties said they did not have the records on file.

Ron Miskoff, president of the New Jersey Foundation for Open Government, criticized Palmer's method of distributing the audit.

"It's pretty self-evident," Miskoff said. "In my opinion, if that letter from the freeholder in Somerset County didn't technically violate OPRA, it certainly violated the spirit of OPRA."

Palmer said the Association of Counties board would discuss the audit at a closed executive meeting in September.

"We will adopt the audit and its recommendations at a public meeting," he said.

The New Jersey Association of Counties, as a private organization, has no legal obligation to release the audit publicly.

Palmer, when asked whether his home turf of Somerset County would ever make the audit available to taxpayers, said: "I don't know. Certainly you could go to Morris County and get it."

Full post as published by First Amendment Center on August 29, 2010 (boomark / email).