NJ Department of Health 2013 OPRA Log

Beryl Lipton filed this request with the Department of Health of New Jersey.
Submitted May 5, 2014
Status
Rejected

Communications

From: Beryl C.D. Lipton

Subject: None

Email

A request for:

A list of all requests filed with the Department of Health under New Jersey's Open Public Records Act (OPRA) during the year 2013. For each request, the list should contain the identity of the requester, the date of the request, a description of the requested records, and the status of the request.

From: Genevieve Raganelli

Subject: None

Email

Dear Ms Lipton:

This will respond to the referenced request for government records.
I am required to deny your request in accordance with the following:

Other entities’ requests for government records are exempt from
disclosure under the government records law, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq., as
are the responses of government agencies to those requests. The New Jersey
Superior Court, Appellate Division, recognizes the “interest of third
parties in protecting the confidentiality of their requests for access to
public documents” under the government records law. Gannett N.J. Partners,
LP v. Cnty. of Middlesex, 379 N.J. Super. 205, 212 (App. Div. 2005). For
that reason, the government records law "does not authorize a party to make
a blanket request for every document a public agency has provided another
party in response to [a] request [for government records],” nor does it
permit requests that would reveal “the nature and scope of a third party's
inquiry to a government agency.” Ibid. Further, the government records
law exempts from disclosure “information which, if disclosed, would give an
advantage to competitors,” N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1.1 and Gannett, supra.

You have the right to appeal this determination in accordance with
applicable law.

Sincerely,

Genevieve Raganelli, Regulatory Officer
Custodian of Records for the Office of the Commissioner
Office of Legal and Regulatory Compliance
New Jersey Department of Health
(609) 943-3385

Confidentiality Notice: The information contained in this message may be
privileged and confidential information intended only for the use of the
individual or entity named above. If the reader of this message is not the
intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible to deliver it to
the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any release,
dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication is strictly
prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please
notify the author immediately by replying to this message and delete the
original message. Thank you.

From:

Subject: Fw: Government Records Request W86295

None

Dear Ms Lipton:

This will respond to the referenced request for government records.
I am required to deny your request in accordance with the following:

Other entities’ requests for government records are exempt from
disclosure under the government records law, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq., as
are the responses of government agencies to those requests. The New Jersey
Superior Court, Appellate Division, recognizes the “interest of third
parties in protecting the confidentiality of their requests for access to
public documents” under the government records law. Gannett N.J. Partners,
LP v. Cnty. of Middlesex, 379 N.J. Super. 205, 212 (App. Div. 2005). For
that reason, the government records law "does not authorize a party to make
a blanket request for every document a public agency has provided another
party in response to [a] request [for government records],” nor does it
permit requests that would reveal “the nature and scope of a third party's
inquiry to a government agency.” Ibid. Further, the government records
law exempts from disclosure “information which, if disclosed, would give an
advantage to competitors,” N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1.1 and Gannett, supra.

You have the right to appeal this determination in accordance with
applicable law.

Sincerely,

Genevieve Raganelli, Regulatory Officer
Custodian of Records for the Office of the Commissioner
Office of Legal and Regulatory Compliance
New Jersey Department of Health
(609) 943-3385

Confidentiality Notice: The information contained in this message may be
privileged and confidential information intended only for the use of the
individual or entity named above. If the reader of this message is not the
intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible to deliver it to
the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any release,
dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication is strictly
prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please
notify the author immediately by replying to this message and delete the
original message. Thank you.
----- Forwarded by dhsscustodian/NJDHSS on 05/13/2014 05:12 PM -----
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|05/05/2014 12:06 AM |
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|Government Records Request W86295 |
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********************************************************************************************

Below is the information submitted by the OPRA requestor for Govt. Records
Request # W86295.
Please use the OPRA Tracking System to process Govt.Records Request #
W86295.

********************************************************************************************

State Agency: Health, Office of the Commissioner

Requestor Name: Beryl Lipton
Company: MuckRock News
Address: PO Box 55819
Boston MA 02205 5819
Email: beryl@muckrock.com
Telephone: 207 418 6017

Convicted of indictable offense: NO

Preferred Delivery: E-Mail
Maximum Authorized Cost: $1
Payment Method: None Selected

Requested Information: A list of all requests filed with the Department of
Health under New Jersey's Open Public Records Act (OPRA) during the year
2013. For each request, the list should contain the identity of the
requester, the date of the request, a description of the requested records,
and the status of the request.

From: Beryl Lipton

Subject: None

Email

Hello Ms. Raganelli,

Thank you for your response to my request for the Department of Health's log of 2013 OPRA requests. I hope that you can please clarify the reasons for which the request has been rejected.

It seems as though the list of requests, their statuses, and the other basic data necessary for inventory and organizational purposes (the agency’s OPRA log) is a standard government public record. As such it should be available under OPRA. As indicated on page 7 of the New Jersey Open Public Records Act Handbook for Records Custodians, “All government records are subject to public access unless specifically exempt under OPRA or any other law.” I don’t see the record in question as being specifically exempted by the case to which you referred nor was it covered by the specific exemptions contained in OPRA; the exemption for “information which, if disclosed would give an advantage to competitors” does not seem to apply in this case.

Page six of the attached version of the case referred to in your response (Gannett N.J. Partners, LP v. Cnty. of Middlesex, 379 N.J. Super. 205, 212 (App. Div 2005)) includes the reasoning mentioned in your rejection, specifically that “‘OPRA does not authorize a party to make a blanket request for every document a public agency has provided another party in response to an OPRA request,’ nor does it permit requests that would reveal ‘the nature and scope of a third party’s inquiry to a government agency.’” My request for the OPRA log does not ask for the documents provided to another agency. It would not be reasonable to assume that by obtaining a list of requests one would be able to determine the nature of another party’s interest and purpose in requesting particular documents. The idea, it seems to me, is that by obtaining all of the primary documents requested by a third party, one could then determine the nature and scope, which may also be unreasonable attitude, though is not relevant in this matter. I think along those lines, the idea of “advantage to competitors” based on the release of the OPRA log is a stretch, particularly considering that the log should be publicly available to all.

If you could clarify these points, I would appreciate it. I understand that the appropriate channel of appeal would be the Government Records Council, but the chance to understand the reasoning for denial would be helpful for all.

Sincerely,

Beryl C.D. Lipton

From: MuckRock.com

Subject: None

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on May 5, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

From: Beryl Lipton

Subject: None

Email

Hello,

Yesterday, the case Scheeler v. Office of the Governor, et. al. was settled in Mercer County Superior Court. The case was in regards to the denials of release of OPRA logs by New Jersey state agencies (as occurred with this request), and the court ruled in favor of the release of the records. (For reports regarding this ruling please see: https://www.aclu-nj.org/news/2014/07/21/judge-orders-christie-administration-release-records ; http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/ap/new-jersey-judge-to-decide-if-opra-requests-are-public/article_e155754c-10c0-11e4-955f-001a4bcf887a.html?utm_content=buffer157e5&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer).

As indicated by this ruling, the denial that your agency provided me was unwarranted and I would appreciate the release of the requested material before any further undue inconvenience is incurred.

Thank you so much for your time and help,

Beryl C.D. Lipton

From: MuckRock.com

Subject: None

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on May 5, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

From: MuckRock.com

Subject: None

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on May 5, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

From: MuckRock.com

Subject: None

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on May 5, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

From: MuckRock.com

Subject: None

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on May 5, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

From: MuckRock.com

Subject: None

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on May 5, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

From: MuckRock.com

Subject: None

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on May 5, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

From: MuckRock.com

Subject: None

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on May 5, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

From: MuckRock.com

Subject: None

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on May 5, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

From: MuckRock.com

Subject: None

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on May 5, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

From: MuckRock.com

Subject: None

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on May 5, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

From: MuckRock.com

Subject: None

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on May 5, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

From: MuckRock.com

Subject: None

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on May 5, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

From: MuckRock.com

Subject: None

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on May 5, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

From: MuckRock.com

Subject: None

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on May 5, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

From: MuckRock.com

Subject: None

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on May 5, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

From: MuckRock.com

Subject: None

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on May 5, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

From: MuckRock.com

Subject: None

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on May 5, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

From: MuckRock.com

Subject: None

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on May 5, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

From: MuckRock.com

Subject: None

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on May 5, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

From: MuckRock.com

Subject: None

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on May 5, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.

From: MuckRock.com

Subject: None

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on May 5, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.

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