Friday, January 24, 2014 Andrew McNally Assistant Counsel New Jersey Office of the Governor PO Box 001

Trenton, NJ 08625 Phone: 609-292-6000 Dear Mr. McNally, We are in receipt of your open records request response letter dated January 23, 2014, unfortunately the reasons specified for delaying response to our request are not lawful under New Jersey law. You cite N.J.S.A. C.47:1A-9, a section which contains two provisions. 1) N.J.S.A. C.47:1A-9B contains provisions for exemption for records that abrogate or erode any executive or legislative privilege or grant of confidentiality. Your claim of executive privilege flies in the face of public statements made recently by Governor Christie. For example, at his January 9, 2014 press conference Governor Christie stated he would act accordingly in terms of releasing it to the public. We respectfully request you revaluate your claims to executive privilege related to these documents. 2) N.J.S.A. C.47:1A-9A contains a litany of other vague and unspecified exemptions. None of these appear to apply. You cite N.J.S.A. C47:1A-3A which prohibits the release of information obtained as a result of an ongoing investigation. This does not apply for two reasons: 1) Many, if not most, of the documents we request are not related to the ongoing investigation into the unlawful access lane closures in Fort Lee, N.J. We suspect many of the emails are related to the conducting of other government business on personal email accounts. We request that any such documents are delivered immediately. 2) N.J.S.A. C47:1A-3A states that this provision shall not be construed to allow any public agency to prohibit access to a record of that agency that was open for public inspection, examination, or copying before the investigation commenced. This exemption applies in this circumstance because records we are requesting were a public record prior to the existence of any investigations. Other entities request similar materials your office merely failed to review employees private email accounts for government records prior to the investigation (Associated Press, 1/11/2014).

455 Massachusetts Ave NW, Sixth Floor | Washington, DC 20001 | 202-747-2060 | www.americanbridgepac.org Paid for by American Bridge 21 Century. Not authorized by any candidate or candidates committee
st

Your offices failure to accurately comply with previous lawful requests for information prior to a formal investigation should not be construed as those documents existing as a public record exclusively because of the investigation. To argue as such would suggest your office was acting properly when not providing responsive documents to other entities. Your office asks for understanding and additional time because of the volume of incoming similar requests. 1) If there are indeed similar requests, surely your office will be able to obtain and review materials for these requests simultaneously and efficiently. 2) N.J.S.A. C.47:1A-5I states that records be provided not later than seven business days after receiving the request. 3) You claim your office made its best efforts to obtain the documents requested. Please describe the efforts your office undertook to comply with our request and why they were not successful. You state you will make the records available as soon as possible. We ask that you provide a specific time frame for compliance with our request. As you know, New Jersey Open Records Law contains dispute resolution procedures through the court system or the government records council. It is our hope that we can resolve this matter as quickly as possible without the need for litigation or records council review. Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. Sincerely,

American Bridge 21st Century 455 Massachusetts Avenue Suite 280 Washington, DC 20001

455 Massachusetts Ave NW, Sixth Floor | Washington, DC 20001 | 202-747-2060 | www.americanbridgepac.org Paid for by American Bridge 21 Century. Not authorized by any candidate or candidates committee
st