HILLSDALE—Mayor John Ruocco and Councilman Zoltán Horváth are calling for increased transparency on the all-Republican Borough Council, urging the five-member majority essentially to get ahead of state law and agree on a new policy favoring the release of draft documents the governing body is poised to vote on.
Horváth, a reliable Ruocco ally, says he will offer a resolution July 11 stipulating “that it shall be the policy of the [mayor and council] to make available to the public via links embedded in … agendas all agreements, exhibits and attachments referenced in a resolution up for consideration unless the borough’s general counsel, labor counsel, chief municipal financial officer, or borough administrator advises the [governing body] that such disclosure prior to a vote at a public meeting would expose the borough to legal, financial, or operational harm.”
In contrast, the borough clerk has maintained advisory, consultative or deliberative documents should be released only following a formal council vote, per state law, and signed off by all required parties, often including the mayor.
Meanwhile, the rest of the council — president Anthony DeRosa and regular members Justin Fox, Janetta Trochimiuk, Abby Lundy, and John Escobar — say they are operating above-board, follow state law pertaining to transparency, and disclose advisory, consultative or deliberative documents following official votes, as required under the state’s Open Public Records Act (OPRA).
That position is supported by the borough attorney, who has noted that not releasing such documents perfectly conforms to the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA).
Ruocco takes issue with this, and has argued that both OPRA and OPMA are decades old and not updated to utilize modern computer and web capabilities. He has called for advanced release of draft documents such as over proposed improvements to Centennial Field, a proposed redevelopment plan for Patterson Street redevelopment zone, and a cost estimate/design for a second community center.
He has wanted the clerk to release specific documents in recent years: September 2021: employment agreement for borough administrator; April 2021: DMR proposal for train station feasibility study; December 2020: employment agreement for DPW superintendent; July 2020: collective bargaining agreement with Teamsters; November 2019: borough engineer feasibility study of Centennial Field; and October 2019: employment agreement for police captain.
Thus far council majority members have shown little interest in providing such documents in advance. And generally, the council 5-1 majority votes against such resolutions as Horváth intends, or fails to second a motion to introduce.
For several years, Ruocco has been pressing local and state officials, including lately officials of the Municipal Clerks’ Association of New Jersey, to find out when certain documents classified as ACD can be released to the public in order to increase government transparency.
He listed others in letters to the Government Records Council, a quasi-government state agency that provides guidance on public records requests and related issues.
Some governments do release ACD documents, often marked as drafts, and include them as a link on an agenda or provide a hard copy at the meeting. Overall, most area municipalities do not provide draft documents, and similar to Hillsdale, require residents to make Open Public Records Act (OPRA) requests for the documents after an official vote.
Ruocco, stung by a change to the council rules that restricts the mayor’s role somewhat, plans to run this November as a Republican council candidate. He is joined by Republican newcomer Clemente Osso. They are opposed by Democrats Meredith J. Kates and Steven M. Segalas, both write-in candidates.
Horváth, whose council term ends this year, was prohibited recently from running on the Independent line in November’s election after losing the primary election as a Republican write-in candidate for mayor. He told Pascack Press in mid-June he would continue to campaign for mayor as a write-in and people’s choice candidate. He told us in early July that his plans for the future were uncertain.
Update: July 10:
Mayor John Ruocco writes, Thank you for the above-mentioned article. There are several points that I wish had been included in the article:
- State law does not compel the use of the “ACD exemption” for any purpose. As it has been explained to me, it is an option available to the municipality to protect the release of draft material to the public when an OPRA request is made.
- While it is true, as pointed out by our borough attorney, that Hillsdale’s use of the ACD exemption for the purpose of a screen in deciding what links are included in the public agenda has been found to be in conformance with the law as it is written, specifically the Open Public Meetings Act, the courts have indicated that its use for that purpose in today’s internet world very likely would conflict with the original intent of the legislators who wrote that law.
- Moreover, the GRC has cast doubt on the use of the ACD exemption for the purpose that Hillsdale is using it. The executive director wrote to me that OPRA does not apply to internal agency decisions on what attachments should be included with a meeting agenda absent an OPRA request.
- In any event, if the council wanted to be more transparent than it currently is, it has the freedom under the law to adopt a different standard, such as the one being proposed by Councilman Horváth in R23183. It has declined to do so, hiding behind the ACD exemption. Why would any elected official want to do this as a matter of regular policy to its residents?