MINUTES
New Jersey Foundation for Open Government
Meeting of October 30, 2013
Location : Bound Brook Public Library, 402 E. High Street, Bound Brook, NJ 08805
Board Members In Attendance:
Linda Baum / Fran Brooks / Don Baldwin / Tom WykaRon Miskoff / Walter Luers / Maureen Nevin (SPJ) / John Paff
Cindy McBride (via conference call, part of meeting only)
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Board Members absent:
Michelle Arminio / Robert Edwards / Lew Wheaton / Beth MasonChris Rogers / Bob Grant / Saul Qersdyn / John Schmidt
Others In Attendance: Joe Tyrrell
The meeting convened at 7:05 pm and concluded at 8:50 pm. There was a quorum.
APPROVAL OF MEETING MINUTES
Sept 25, 2013 regular meeting - minutes not yet available.
PRESIDENT’S REPORT
There was agreement to have our next meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 11. There is no other meeting in November or December. Walter confirmed that the library meeting room is available Dec. 11 at 7 pm.
TREASURER’S REPORT
The treasurer’s report summary is included with these minutes. NJFOG’s ledger balance on Oct. 30, 2013 is $16,093.58. No activity since last report. No outstanding liabilities. A folder with complete materials reported on by the treasurer was provided to the secretary for record-keeping. The board discussed whether the full materials would be made public. The secretary includes only the summary page with the minutes, which are posted on FOG’s website. Most felt there was not a need to post the complete materials online, but that the secretary should house the records for review upon request, where requests will be handled on a case by case basis.
The board discussed changing NJFOG’s post office box to a more accessible location. It was decided that Walter will get a post office box in Clinton, will close the Jamesburg PO box (will fill out specific form) and will have mail forwarded. Walter said that the new Clinton PO box would be checked daily. John Paff made a motion to change the PO box address and to expend up to $100 on the new post office box; Fran seconded, and the motion passed with none opposed. Tom Wyka will update our websites and letterhead for the new PO box. John Paff will notify our insurance agent/carrier, bank, and accountant. There may be a need to change FOG’s address with the IRS as well, which we may be able to do online. Walter will handle filing an address change with the IRS.
REPORT ON PROJECT TO TRACK LOCAL LEVEL POLITICAL CANDIDATES’ STANCE ON OPEN GOVERNMENT ISSUES - John Paff, John Schmidt
John Paff said this project was not done. There will be no further work on it for this election cycle.
CASES / DECISIONS
John Paff and Walter discussed a recent press interview regarding Christie’s / Shostack’s lawsuit with respect to the Port Authority of NY and NJ. Walter is representing John Paff as the plaintiff. John said he posted a link to the interview on his facebook page and that it can be accessed directly at facebook site “Chasing New Jersey”.
CONTENT COMMITTEE REPORT - Tom Wyka (chair), Ron Miskoff, Walter Luers
Tom Wyka said that the new website has not gone live yet, but he expects it will by the close of 2013. He has questions for Saul as to how some current processes work.
Tom asked the board to address online communication. Here are the 4 identified categories of online communication and agreed upon action items for each:
1. Public Inquiry - Use or a website form that will forward a citizen's inquiry or complaint about open government. Walter asked that inquiries go to him for evaluation and response and to Linda for recording. Tom will look into either keeping the current mechanism (Mailman) and reducing the cc list to just Walter Linda, or creating this in a new service provided by NFOIC (Mail Chimp?).
2. Board Internal Communication – is used now. Tom will look into a message board facility for the purpose of board-only discussion. This could be as simple as a Google group.
3. Public Message Board - A moderated public forum where open government issues can be discussed by NJFOG followers and members. We might run this through Facebook only – Tom will check whether a Facebook account is needed to post comments. Tom will look into other message board options for the next meeting.
4. NJFOG Opt-in and email blaster ("listserv") - This is the traditional website opt-in for collecting email followers and blasting important messages back out (event announcements, "call your legislator" alerts, etc.) where we can drive traffic back to Facebook or the website or a public forum. This is currently run off of the simple email address and there is no control over usage, which needs to be remedied. Tom said he can setup a form on the new website that can feed a facility like Mail Chimp for traditional email collection and blasts.
Item #1 and #4 are must-haves with regard to cutting over the domain NJFOG.org to the new NFOIC hosted site. Tom will need to create the mechanism for both. All NJFOG.org emails will cease to exist when the domain cuts over unless a replacement exists on the new GoDaddy host account. Tom will look into preserving for Board communication. The need for spam controls for (200 sign-ups) will be eliminated as soon at the domain is cut-over if the email ceases to exist. In that case, Tom will create a bounce back message telling the user the email address no longer exists and informing the user of the current way to communicate. Emails sent to will forward to Walter and Linda and an automatic response will be generated such as "thanks - will get back to you”.
Later in the meeting, the board discussed having a lead point person on each committee, and it was agreed each committee would select its own chair. Tom Wyka was selected as chair of the Content Committee.
MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE REPORT – Bob Grant, Saul Qersdyn, Walter Luers
No report. A committee chairperson was not selected.
LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE – Maureen Nevin, Bob Grant, Walter Luers (chair)
At the last meeting, the board agreed Walter should check into goings-on with regard to the OPRA and OPMA bills. Walter reported that he did not yet contact Senator Weinberg, but sent an email to our allied stakeholders -- North Jersey Media Group, the Press Association, and the ACLU. Walter said that the former two had not had contact with Senator Weinberg, but that the ACLU had. ACLU Legal Director Ed Barocas said he would arrange a meeting with all allied stakeholders to discuss changes to the bills. Walter agrees the allies should meet and that no more than 3 NJFOG members should attend. Walter said he would like to see the most current iteration of the bills become law.
Weinberg wants all the parties to be on board with any changes – the League, the Clerks Association, NJFOG, ACLU, North Jersey Media Group and the Press Association, etc. Fran said her municipal clerk has indicated that the League of Municipalities has been heavily lobbying for changes to the OPRA and OPMA bills behind the scenes. Walter has heard the same and said that the League’s focus has been OPMA, specifically provisions with regard to texting, meeting minutes, and fee shifting.
A suggestion was made to invite the Citizens Campaign / Harry Pozycki (chair), though OPRA & OPMA have not been that organization’s primary focus. Several board members agreed that it is important to include the Citizens Campaign in any discussions. Fran said this presents an opportunity to build a relationship with the Citizens Campaign. John Paff suggested including Appleseed also and said FOG should reach out to all organizations that have shown an interest in open government, like the NAACP. Fran agreed.
Most board members also felt it was important for NJFOG to take a lead role in organizing and that a coalition of organizations should be formed. It was noted that a coalition including the NJPA got OPRA passed in the first place.
Walter was selected as chair of the Legislative Committee. He said he will follow up on these matters.
SEMINAR TASK FORCE – Walter Luers, Fran Brooks (chair), Chris Rogers
Walter discussed NJFOG’s OPRA presentation at the NAACP convention in Atlantic City on Oct. 12. He said it went well and was a good start to building a rapport with the leaders of that organization. Darnell Hardwick has been instrumental as our contact. Walter, John Paff and Linda attended. Linda video-recorded the presentation, which ran about 20 minutes.
Ron discussed the open government seminar at Rutgers on October 7. There were two speakers – Walter Luers and Joshua Rosenau (Joshua is with a reporting group called MappingChange.com). Ron said there were about 50 attendees and that the presentation format that Walter used (he would pose a question and then answer it) was done well.
The date for NJFOG’s seminar in Camden County should be known in December.
Linda mentioned May or June 2014 as possible dates for an OPRA seminar in Middletown Township. The board asked who would sponsor the seminar. Linda said that had not been decided.
Walter will speak to Chris Rogers about sending another rep from the NJ Taxpayers Association to NJFOG meetings in Chris’s absence.
Fran Brooks was selected as chair of the Seminar Task Force.
GRANT PROJECTS
Executive Session project -- Fran, Walter, John Paff, John Schmidt, Robert Edwards -- John Paff reported. John thinks all 21 county seats have now responded. John said he would reach out to the other members of the project group to schedule a meeting in the next two weeks. The next step is to get all the data in a single place in a format for review. John said that he would like to use Google drive/ docs for this purpose, where a scan of each county seat’s response will be a separate folder. John would like to have 5 to 7 reviewers.
Documents requested were executive session meeting minutes & meeting announcements. The goal is to determine how comprehensive minutes are, how quickly they are produced, how comprehensive the resolution is and whether the resolution topics align with actual discussion per the minutes. NJFOG’s report will include rankings for various categories.
NEXT MEETING DATE
NJFOG’s next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013.
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