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“I try to do it consistently throughout the state,” he told NJSpotlight earlier this year. “I probably have no more than five going on in any town at one time.”
Paff, who calls himself self-employed, admits that he has “no particular reason” for most of the requests. He just want to see how officials respond, he told the site.
Now and again, he says, he’ll get an anonymous tip.
Then he blogs about it: NJ Random Government Notes
Paff (above, with State Sen. Loretta Weinberg) has been called many things, including both “New Jersey’s busiest open government activist” and the “sunshine troublemaker.”
A volunteer firefighter, he angered colleagues when he went after the New Jersey State Firemen’s Association in 2011 for pension data and won.
“I usually do win,” he told NJSpotlight. “If I lose two cases a year, I’ve spent $500. That’s not deal-breaking money.”
In response to a suit filed by Paff, Superior Court Judge Peter E. Doyne ruled yesterday that the state’s Open Public Records Act (OPRA) requires that the sheriff disclose the names.
He went to court after receiving documents from the sheriff’s office that had the names of the officers, and those who brought complaints against them, redacted (blacked out).
“Although the Legislature has decided certain classes of information are not subject to [OPRA[, the statute does not create a specific exemption for guidelines issued by the attorney general,” Doyne wrote in his ruling.
“Moreover, defendants have not cited any binding authority for the position the AG guidelines, particularly as they pertain to records of internal affairs, are exempt from disclosure,” he added.
Paff is chairman of the New Jersey Libertarian Party’s Open Government Advocacy Project and is a member of the board of directors of the New Jersey Foundation for Open Government.
SEE: The man who makes sure government works — right out in the open (NJSpotlight)
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