Many public bodies post all their audits on-line for
the public to view. The Lodi Board of Education
does not. I recently placed an OPRA request
for a copy of the most recent audit. The
Board Office sent me an audit for June 30, 2022. Every deficiency and recommendation were
blacked out. This is
unacceptable. I have been requesting
audits from different government agencies for at least 10 years. Never once have the findings and
recommendations provided by a public audit been completely redacted. Link to the
June 2022 audit:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OnP2vUGmL6SJIkg_2WrdUnddhEPvRaPD/view?usp=sharing
The Lodi Board Office is clearly in violation of the Open Public Records Act. The letter they sent to me does NOT in any way justify them redacting a public audit.
In fact, the two cases they cited have NOTHING to do with
public audits:
I can easily go to an OPRA attorney and sue
for the unredacted audit as well as attorney fees. I am posting this today to show the residents
of Lodi how their Lodi Board of Education President Nancy Cardone, her five Board puppets, the politician run Giacobbe firm, and Board Office Administration have no respect for Lodi residents or
the law. They continue their war on transparency
and continue to enrich the Giacobbe attorneys for violating the law.
It is being reported that the Business Administrator has not been showing up to work. The Giacobbe attorneys are likely writing these OPRA denial to access letters. Residents throughout New Jersey that google Matthew Giacobbe’s name and land on this blog should demand that their BOEs and town councils terminate the Giacobbe firm for blatantly violating the Open Public Records Act and behaving in the most unprofessional and unethical manner.
All 9 Board Members should demand that
public audits be made available to the public and anyone undermining public
transparency and the law be removed.
