Last week, we reviewed the New Jersey Appellate Division’s ruling in Kean Federation of Teachers v. Board of Trustees of Kean University, which changes a public entity’s obligations regarding Rice notices sent to its employees. You can read last week’s post here.
This week, we will examine the Appellate Division’s other decision in the Kean case regarding a public body’s duty under the Open Public Meetings Act (“OPMA”), N.J.S.A. 10:4-6 et seq., to make meeting minutes promptly available. While the OPMA itself does not establish a specific time period for the “promptly available” standard, the Appellate Division found that the Board of Trustees of Kean University (“Board”) violated the OPMA when it made its meeting minutes available 58 business days after its previous meeting.
During the 2014-2015 academic year, the Board held a total of five meetings on September 15, 2014, December 6, 2014, March 2, 2015, May 11, 2015, and June 29, 2015. Its practice was to consider for approval at each meeting the minutes of the immediately previous meeting, a typical procedure adopted by public entities. On December 18, 2014, an individual requested the minutes from the December 6, 2014 meeting. The Board’s Custodian of Records released the minutes on March 4, 2015 after the Board had formally approved them at the March 2, 2015 meeting, which was 58 business days and 88 calendar days after the December 6, 2014 meeting.
The Appellate Division disagreed with the Board’s argument that it promptly made the December 6, 2014 meeting minutes available by providing them two days after they were formally approved by the Board at the March 2, 2015 meeting. The Appellate Division also rejected the Board’s argument that it would be burdensome for it to convene additional meetings in order to approve the previous meeting’s minutes within 30-45 days. Rather, the Appellate Division relied on the Legislature’s commitment to transparency in public affairs through the OPMA. To that end, the Appellate Division reasoned that members of public bodies must act expeditiously and without delay to make minutes available to the public.
Public bodies should review their board meeting schedule and make sure their practices are consistent with making meeting minutes promptly available. As this case shows, 58 business days (88 calendar days) will not comply with the OPMA.
