Open records advocate: Keyport moves too slow BY KAREN E. BOWES Staff Writer "To my knowledge, the prosecutor is not taking any action at all against Keyport. It's not a criminal violation." - Robert Bergen Mayor KEYPORT - An open records advocate has filed a complaint with the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office, saying the borough takes too long to provide meeting minutes and is therefore in violation of the Open Public Meetings Act. In November, John Paff of Somerset requested the minutes for closed-session council meetings held Sept. 9, Oct. 3 and Oct. 17. A month later, Paff was still waiting, causing him to file the complaint with the Prosecutor's Office. Paff, who chairs the Open Government Task Force for the Libertarian Party of Central Jersey, recently filed similar complaints in Monroe and Milltown. On Dec. 5, Borough Attorney John Wisniewski wrote a letter to Prosecutor Luis Valentin, defending the borough for taking several months to transcribe the meeting minutes, approve and then vote on them before allowing the closed-session documents to become available to the public. "The borough of Keyport is a small town with limited resources and while it endeavors to ensure that meeting minutes are made promptly available to the public, there are competing demands on personnel who cannot devote all their time to transcription duties," Wisniewski wrote. Mayor Robert Bergen agrees. On Monday, he said Paff's complaint is "very factually incorrect." "His request was made on Nov. 3, I think," Bergen said. "By Nov. 17, we had supplied about 80 percent of what he asked for," the mayor added. Closed-session minutes take longer to produce, Bergen said, because of the lengthy process involved. After being transcribed, the minutes are sent to the borough attorney for redaction, or the process of removing people's names and other personal information, Bergen explained. After being redacted, the minutes are approved through a vote during a regular Borough Council meeting. "We only have two a month," Bergen said. At the Dec. 5 council meeting, the minutes were approved. And according to Bergen, "the last documents were mailed out Dec. 12." Nevertheless, Paff maintains the town takes too long. "Virtually every town complains about limited resources and competing demands on personnel," Paff wrote." Bergen noted other factors may have contributed to the delay, such as the retirement of longtime clerk Judy Poling, who was not replaced right away, as well as the unexpected resignation of the borough administrator, who was also not immediately replaced. "It's been a very abnormal year for Keyport," Bergen said. Bergen said he is not worried about the complaint. "To my knowledge, the prosecutor is not taking any action at all against Keyport," Bergen said. "It's not a criminal violation." Bergen believes it may be time for a new law regarding transcribing minutes, one that is not "an unfunded state mandate." "Maybe in this day and age we don't need to do that," Bergen said. "When I can just stick a CD in my car and listen to it."