Background Information: I was shocked to see that the Lodi Board of Education decided to erase “Hearing of Citizens” from its meeting minutes. People hide things when they have something to hide (For instance, when people complained about Petty's asinine uniform plan, that is public record and should not have been erased from meeting minutes). Being that either the members of the Lodi Board of Education, the Superintendent, or the interim Business Administrator decided to erase parts of the public record, I submitted the following OPRA request on October 3rd.
This was the response I received today from the Interim Business
Administrator:
From: Dennis
Frohnapfel <dennis.frohnapfel@lodi.k12.nj.us>
Date: Wed, Oct 13, 2021 at 9:07 AM
Subject:
To: Rosalia Mykietyn <Rosalia.Mykietyn@lodi.k12.nj.us>
Mr. Curioni:
This Board Secretary does not record public comment. I
am required to record the actions of the Board ONLY. During my
tenure here in Loci, public comment will not be recorded. The info you
requested does not exist.
Dr. Dennis R. Frohnapfel, R.S.B.A.
Interim SBA/Board Secretary
This was my email response to Dennis Frohnapfel:
From: rcurioni
<rcurioni@optonline.net>
To: Rosalia Mykietyn <Rosalia.Mykietyn@lodi.k12.nj.us>, Dennis Frohnapfel
<dennis.frohnapfel@lodi.k12.nj.us>, Douglas Petty
<douglas.petty@lodi.k12.nj.us>
Date: October 13, 2021 at 12:49 PM
Subject: RE: Fwd:
Mr. Frohnapfel,
I personally submitted public comments electronically using
the district website. Therefore, I know that the public records I requested do
exist.
I have never heard of a public body not recording or
summarizing what takes place during a Hearing of Citizens.
Please have someone in the district office locate the
records I requested if you don't want to do your job. Your tech guy can locate
public comments submitted electronically.
Please forward my email to all board members because they
may not be aware of the new policies you are implementing.
Once again, if you are going to deny my OPRA request, please
cite in writing the reason you are using to withhold the electronic records
that clearly exist.
Ryan Curioni
After our email exchange, Douglas Petty turned over this one page of public comments (from 4 people) submitted electronically but omitted all the other recorded summaries for the “Hearing of Citizens” that took place during the requested time period. Click on link below:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WfP4_oKBmJ-w7m5knNucK7v99F2n-R_H/view?usp=sharing
Under Douglas Petty, Dennis Frohnapel, “Giacobbe”, and the
BOE members that employ them, enable them, and enrich them, Lodi is seeing the
worst violations of the Open Public Records Act.
These are a few of the public records that this school
administration has ILLEGALLY withheld from the public after requested via OPRA. These same records have always been offered
to the public in the past:
1) Giacobbe’s legal
invoices (a real lot to hide there)
2) The Detailed Budget
for 2021-22 (Frohnapel claims none of the 9 BOE members ever saw a copy of the detailed
budget before they approved the budget and a tax increase)
