[ back ]
The Happy Mediator
It’s really unfortunate that so many seemingly minor disagreements these days seem to wind up being resolved in a courtroom.
This should by no means be taken as a knock against Woodcliff Lake. There are certainly other towns in the Pascack Valley with worse records than the borough when it comes to court appearances in recent years.
However, the current complaint filed by resident Kevin O’Brien against the borough pertaining to the Open Public Records Act brings up an interesting problem that many municipalities could also fall prey to. O’Brien is seeking correspondence pertaining to a BMW planning board application, a request that should not be all that difficult to fulfill.
The real problem here is that so many municipal officials use their personal or work computers and e-mail accounts to conduct borough business. While the e-mail accounts and computers are not borough property, the e-mails are subject to the Open Public Records Act. Ideally, they should all be forwarded back to the borough to be included in the file. If they aren’t, and someone requests them, then the person has to go back through months worth of correspondence to dig them up. The easy solution, only use the e-mail accounts provided by the municipality.
Too late in this case.
But getting back to the original point, I can’t help but wonder if filing complaints and lawsuits isn’t becoming more commonplace in part due to all of the courtroom and police dramas on television these days. Maybe someone should come up with a new drama that will teach us how to resolve issues without entering a courtroom. “The Happy Mediator,” perhaps, or a maybe a comedy, “The Bored & Lonely Judge.”
I know, it’s a bad idea. I wouldn’t watch them either.
[ back ]
