SUMMIT — Union County Superior Court Judge James Hely issued an opinion on Monday, July 13 that the Summit Housing Authority failed to properly reply to an Open Public Records Act request for minutes of the non-public (executive or closed session) meetings of its Board of Commissioners.
The ruling followed oral argument on July 10. The court date was announced along with details of the case last week (click here to read article).
The Judge opined that the request for the last three sets of closed session minutes was unambiguous and found fault with the Authority’s attempt to narrow the search window to only the tenure of its current Executive Director / Custodian of Records. The request included no such limitation, nor does the law authorize that interpretation, the court ruled.
Per its own admission, the agency hasn’t kept minutes for closed session meetings held since its current Director, Joseph M. Billy, Jr., began on April 1, 2013. The agency didn’t contest that minutes exist for closed sessions held in earlier years but failed to provide copies of those minutes in its response to the OPRA request.
Decision is still pending with regard to Open Public Meetings Act violations, which include the agency’s failure to keep minutes for its non-public meetings.
