NJ Volunteer Fire Company Subject to Public Records Act

The Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court ruled today that a volunteer fire company is subject to the state’s Open Public Records Act (OPRA) even though it is a private, non-profit membership organization.

The case, Verry v. Franklin Fire District No. 1, has been three years in the making. It began in 2013 when a former police chief, Robert A. Verry, filed an OPRA request with the Franklin Fire District No. 1 seeking copies of the constitution and by-laws for the Millstone Valley Fire Department. The fire district denied the request concluding the fire company was not a public agency under the act. That prompted Verry to file a complaint with New Jersey’s Government Records Council (GRC).

The GRC concluded that the fire company is an instrumentality of the fire district, who all parties agree is a public agency. As explained by the Appellate Division:

• Although acknowledging the Fire Department was privately created as a volunteer organization by its members, the GRC found that when the Department applied and was accepted into membership by the Fire District … it became an instrumentality of the District, serving a governmental function under the District’s supervision and control. Because the relationship between the Fire District and the Fire Department “owes its existence to state law” … the GRC concluded the Fire Department was a public agency subject to OPRA.

The fire district appealed, leading to today’s ruling upholding the GRC’s determination. The Appellate Division applied a deferential review explained as follows:

• “We will not upset an agency’s decision absent a clear showing it is arbitrary, capricious, or unreasonable, that it lacks substantial support in the record or it violates express or implied legislative policies.”
• “[W]e accord substantial deference to an agency’s interpretation of a statute it is charged with administering.”
• “Viewing the Fire Department’s “formation, structure, and function,” we have no hesitation in agreeing with the GRC that the Fire Department, at least since 1974, has become an instrumentality of the District and thus a public agency subject to OPRA.”

Here is a copy of the decision: Verry v Franklin Fire District