Records That Are Exempt From OPRA

1. A Department record that consists of inter-agency or intra-agency advisory, consultative, or deliberative material is confidential and not subject to public access.

2. Information received by a member of the Legislature from a constituent or information held by a member of the Legislature concerning a constituent, including but not limited to information in written form or contained in any e-mail or computer data base, or in any telephone record whatsoever, unless it is information the constituent is required by law to transmit;

3. Any memorandum, correspondence, notes, report or other communication prepared by, or for, the specific use of a member of the Legislature in the course of the member's official duties, except that this provision shall not apply to an otherwise publicly-accessible report which is required by law to be submitted to the Legislature or its members;

4. Any copy, reproduction or facsimile of any photograph, negative or print, including instant photographs and videotapes of the body, or any portion of the body, of a deceased person, taken by or for the medical examiner at the scene of death or in the course of a post mortem examination or autopsy made by or caused to be made by the medical examiner except:
   1. When used in a criminal action or proceeding in this State which relates to the death of that person,
      
   2. For the use as a court of this State permits, by order after good cause has been shown and after written notification of the request for the court order has been served at least five days before the order is made upon the county prosecutor for the county in which the post mortem examination or autopsy occurred,
      
   3. For use in the field of forensic pathology or for use in medical or scientific education or research, or
      
   4. For use by any law enforcement agency in this State or any other state or Federal law enforcement agency;
      
      

5. Criminal investigatory records;
   
   
6. Victims' records, except that a victim of a crime shall have access to the victim's own records;

7. Trade secrets and proprietary commercial or financial information obtained from any source. For the purposes of this paragraph, trade secrets shall include data processing software obtained by a public body under a licensing agreement which prohibits its disclosure;

8. Any record within the attorney-client privilege. This paragraph shall not be construed as exempting from access attorney or consultant bills or invoices except that such bills or invoices may be redacted to remove any information protected by the attorney-client privilege;

9. Administrative or technical information regarding computer hardware, software and networks, including but not limited to source code, operating protocols, and manuals created by employees or consultants for the use of the Department, which, if disclosed, would jeopardize computer security;

10. Emergency or security information or procedures for any buildings or facility which, if disclosed, would jeopardize security of the building or facility or persons therein;

11. Security measures and surveillance techniques which, if disclosed, would create a risk to the safety of persons, property, electronic data or software;

12. Information which, if disclosed, would give an advantage to competitors or bidders;

13. Information generated by or on behalf of public employers or public employees in connection with any sexual harassment complaint filed with a public employer or with any grievance filed by or against an individual or in connection with collective negotiations, including documents and statements of strategy or negotiating position;

14. Information which is a communication between the Department and its insurance carrier, administrative service organization or risk management office;

15. Information which is to be kept confidential pursuant to court order;

16. That portion of any record that discloses the social security number, credit card number, unlisted telephone number or driver license number of any person; except for use by the Department in carrying out its functions, or any private person or entity acting on behalf thereof, or any private person or entity seeking to enforce payment of court-ordered child support; except with respect to the disclosure of driver information by the Division of Motor Vehicles as permitted by N.J.S.A. 39:2-3.4; record required by law to be made, maintained or kept on file by the Department shall be disclosed when access to the document or disclosure of that information is not otherwise prohibited by State or federal law, regulation or order or by State statute, resolution of either or both houses of the Legislature, Executive Order of the Governor, rule of court or regulation promulgated under the authority of any statute or executive order of the Governor.

17. A record that pertains to an investigation or inspection in progress by the Department, if the inspection, copying or examination of such record or records is inimical to the public interest; provided, however, that this provision shall not be construed to allow the Department to prohibit access to a record of the Department that was open for public inspection, examination, or copying before the investigation or inspection commenced;

18. The personnel or pension records of any individual, including but not limited to records relating to any grievance filed by or against an individual, except:
    
    1. An individual's name, title, position, salary, payroll record, length of service, date of separation and the reason therefor, and the amount and type of any pension received;
       
    2. When such personnel or pension records are required to be disclosed by another law, when disclosure is essential to the performance of official duties of a person duly authorized by this State or the United States, or when authorized by an individual in interest; or
       
    3. Data contained in information which disclose conformity with specific experiential, educational or medical qualifications required for Department employment or for receipt of a public pension, but not including any detailed medical or psychological information; and
       
       

19. Test questions, scoring keys and other examination data pertaining to the administration of an examination or an application for public employment or licensing;

    In addition, the statute provides continuation of any existing exception from public access to a government record that had previously been made under:
    

20. Resolution of either or both houses of the Legislature;

21. Regulation promulgated under the authority of any statute or Executive Order of the Governor;

22. Executive Order of the Governor;

23. Rules of Court; or

24. Any Federal law, Federal regulation, or Federal order.

    PROPOSED RULE: The following list illustrates the rules as proposed by the Department in the New Jersey Register on July 2, 2002 with modifications imposed by Executive Order 26, signed on August 13, 2002. The provisions that are underlined are modifications to the proposed rules imposed by Executive Order 26 and should be considered as the Department exemptions until the rule is adopted. Some of the provisions have been deleted from the rule but continue as exemptions directly under Executive Order 26 (see below).
    

25. Information related to Green Acres and Natural Lands Trust land acquisitions, program offerings and active projects, including appraisals, valuations and title investigations shall be made available for public inspection, examination and copying no later than 48 hours before formal action is to be taken on any land transaction, program offering or active project unless the land transaction, program offering or active project is actively under negotiation, a binding contract has not been executed, or disclosure of the information would jeopardize the land transaction, program offering or active project.
    
    
26. Records relating to mediation proceedings conducted by or on behalf of the Department, except that any records that were open for public inspection, examination or copying prior to mediation shall continue to be available for public inspection, examination or copying during and after mediation. Final agreements resulting from mediation shall be available for public inspection, examination or copying.
    
    
27. Records that reveal the identity of a complainant;
    
    
28. Information provided by any Federal agency, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, on condition it be maintained confidential pertaining to enforcement of any Federally delegated program or joint Federal/State enforcement action;
    
    
29. The following information shall be withheld if the Department determines that the inspection, examination or copying of that record would substantially interfere with the State's ability to protect and defend the State and its citizens against acts of sabotoge or terrorism, or which, if disclosed, would materially increase the risk or consequences of potential acts of sabotage or terrorism:
    
    1. Any inventory of enforcement resources, including standard operating procedures, compiled and any policies or plans compiled by the Department pertaining to the mobilization, deployment, or tactical operations involved in responding to emergencies, including employee emergency contact information; and
       
    2. Information related to a nuclear power plant, which, if disclosed, would jeopardize the public health, safety and welfare or the security of the plant;
       
    3. Listing of Low Level Radioactive Waste generators including amounts of waste generated and. shielding designs for sources of radiation;
       
    4. National defense related information from Lockheed Martin's Aegis Radar System facility;
       
    5. Environmental Emergency Procedures plans such as emergency procedures for Wastewater Treatment facilities pursuant to N.J.A.C. 7:14A-6.12(D); and
    6. Inundation maps submitted as part of Emergency Action Plans pursuant to N.J.A.C. 7:20-1.7f and 1.11i.
    7. Discharge Prevention Containment and Countermeasures and Discharge Cleanup;
    8. Removal Plans and related general site plans;
       
    9. Off-Site Consequence Analyses developed pursuant to the Toxic Catastrophe Prevention Act;
       
    10. Radioactive Materials Licenses issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and advisories issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that address lessons learned, security or enforcement issues;;
        
        EXECUTIVE ORDER: Executive Order 26 changed a number of exemptions that were previously identified in the proposed rule and a prior Executive Order. The following provisions are to be applied as exemptions in addition to those set forth in the Department's rules.
        
        

30. No public agency shall disclose the resumes, applications for employment or other information concerning job applicants while a recruitment search is ongoing. The resumes of successful candidates shall be disclosed once the sucessful candidate is hired. The resumes of unsuccessful candidates may be disclosed after the search has been concluded and the position has been filled but only where the unsuccessful candidate has consented to such disclosure.
    
    
31. Records of complaints and investigations undertaken pursuant to the Model Procedures Complaints Alleging Discrimination, Harassment or Hostile Environments in accordance with the Policy Prohibiting Discrimination, Harassment or Hostile Environmental in the Workplace and Executive Order No. 106 (Whitman 1999), whether open, closed or inactive.
    
    
32. Information concerning individuals as follows:

    (1)information related to medical, psychiatric or psycological history, diagnosis, treatment or evaluation;Information related to a nuclear power plant, which, if disclosed, would jeopardize the public health, safety and welfare or the security of the plant;
    (2)Information in personal income or other tax return;
    (3) Information describing a natural person's finances, income, assets, liabilities, net worth, bank balances, financial history or activities, or creditworthiness, except as otherwise required to be disclosed.

33. Test questions, scoring keys and other examination data pertaining to the administration of an examination or an application for public employment or licensing;
    
    
34. Records of another Department or agency allocated to that Department in the possession of this Department or any agency allocated to this Department when those records are made confidential by a regulation of that Department or agency allocated to that Department adopted pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq. and Executive Order No. 9 (Hughes 1963), or pursuant to another law authorizing the Department or agency to make records confidential or exempt from disclosure; and
    
    
35. Records of this Department or any agency allocated to this Department held by the Office of Information Technology, the State Records Storage Center of the Division of Archives and Record Management (DARM), in the Department of State, or an offsite storage facility outside of the regular business office of the agency. Such records shall remain the legal property of this agency and be accessible for inspection or copying only through a request to the proper custodian of this Department or agency allocated to this Department. In the event that records of this Department or any agency allocated to this Department have been or shall be transferred to and accessioned by the State Archives in the Division of Archives and Records Management, all such records shall become the legal property of the State Archives, and requests for access to them shall be submitted directly to the State Archives.