PUBLIC RECORDS
52-3-5283 Berzinski v. Ocean County College, Law Div.-Ocean Cy. (Grasso, J.S.C.) (13 pp.) Defendant Ocean County College filed a motion to dismiss plaintiff Chris Berzinski’s complaint alleging that the college violated the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) by denying plaintiff’s access to copies of documents. The OPRA requests related to John C. Barlett, a faculty member of the college, his functional responsibilities as the director of the Public Service Institute (PSI) and the PSI’s programs and activities, including names and compensation of all employees assigned to the PSI, grant applications and written work product prepared and produced by the PSI. The court found that the documents are public records subject to OPRA. Because the college claimed no statutory exemption, the issue became whether the requests failed to identify with reasonable clarity any specific government record and were overly broad. The court found that the documents sought by requests No. 4, 7 on December 12, 2013 and requests No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 on December 23, 2013 are not readily identifiable and therefore these requests are invalid under OPRA. The court dismissed the action with prejudice for these requests. The court, however, found that requests No. 5 and 8 on December 12, 2013 are valid requests and that the college did not comply with OPRA by denying plaintiff’s access to these requests. Additionally, the court dismissed plaintiff’s request to impose civil penalties for such violation.
