[HISTORY: Adopted by the Mayor and Council of the Borough of Dunellen 9-9-2002 by Ord. No. 02.09. Amendments noted where applicable.]
The Borough of Dunellen hereby creates a Borough public records policy governing public records created and/or governed by:
A. 
N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq., the Right to Know Law.
B. 
Records that are considered public records in accordance with common law.
C. 
Records that are subpoenaed pursuant to pending litigation and/or court order which may be subject to judicial review.
A. 
All requests for public records shall be made through the office of the Municipal Clerk on a form promulgated by the Municipal Clerk who is the Custodian of Records. No request for public records shall be honored without a properly filled out form.
B. 
All requests of department heads or other Borough officials or employees for public records by taxpayers, citizens, newspaper reporters, attorneys and other applicable parties shall be directed to the Municipal Clerk's office which will serve as the repository of such requests and the dissemination of said forms to obtain public records not within the Clerk's control and/or possession.
A. 
Upon receipt of a request for public records, if said records are public, the Municipal Clerk will respond to such request within seven business days of the receipt of said request. "Business days" are defined as Monday through Friday, excluding holidays and weekends. However, there will be times when, due to the nature or extent of the request or manpower, the Municipal Clerk will be unable to honor the request within seven working days. In such cases, the Municipal Clerk shall attempt to notify the applicant.
B. 
All persons requesting public records must understand that the public business of the Municipal Clerk will take precedence over a record request, especially where such request is a broad or far-reaching information request.
All requests for public records shall, whenever possible, be as specific as possible in seeking such records, and the Municipal Clerk reserves the right to reject a public records request when it is random in nature or when it is determined that the request does not fall under the Right to Know Law.
All requests for public records shall, except for requests by Borough employees and officials acting in their official capacity and nonprofit organizations, be subject to the Borough's policy as to copying costs.
The following records, or types of records, which are not public and shall not be made available to the public are, but not limited to, the following:
A. 
Records of a personal nature regarding Borough officials, employees and/or other applicable individuals.
B. 
Medical records of Borough officials, employees and/or other applicable individuals.
C. 
All records exempted by state and/or federal statutes, rules and/or regulations.
D. 
All records exempted by presidential and/or gubernatorial executive order.
E. 
All records which are not included in the definition of "public records" pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq. where applicable.
F. 
Confidential police investigation reports.
G. 
Work product or notes of Borough officials and/or employees.
Not all requests for public records do, in fact, lead to the copying, review and/or release of such records. A public record may be a public record under common law, but may not be a public record under the Right to Know Law (N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq.) or vice versa, or it may be or may not be a public record under any other legal statute, rules, regulation and/or court decision. The Municipal Clerk shall seek the opinion of the designated Borough Attorney as to whether or not a record is public if there is any question as to its potential copying, review and/or release.