Have you ever made an attempt to obtain a government record by submitting on OPRA (Open Public Records Act) request? It can be an easy process or made difficult by the evasive efforts of town officials. Nonetheless, the public has an avenue of relief. Interesting story involving the Government Records Council. Garwood recently paid out in excess of $56,000 as a result of its attempt to squash an OPRA request. Could Westfield be next. More to follow............Until then, click on the link om/news/index.ssf/2010/12/bridgewater_spends_17k_to_defe.html
to read details of a related article.
Details of the Garwood settlement can be found by clicking here http://www.countywatchers.com/?p=3402
Note: Could Westfield be next?
I found your blog through a friend who works for Patch. They don't want to touch this....
ReplyDeleteI'm ashamed to be a Westfield resident today. While I was shopping a man entered the store I was in and I could tell he was upset. The people at the register were surprised by his return as well and asked if everything was ok?
What I heard next really made me ashamed of Westfield, the town I live in.
"What a monstrous town Westfield is!"
This person had one day to shop and actually choose Westfield because of the "free parking" and easy access to the stores. He saw the bagged meters on every street but couldn't find a spot so he parked in the lot behind the Leader Store.
When he returned to put his purchases in the car he found a ticket for $32.00. I gather he then marched into the store and asked to see the manager. He very openly displayed his distain for Westfield with a statement like "Bait people to come and shop with free parking and then ticket them". He had more unpleasant comments for Westfield in general and this incident helped fuel his outrage.
The customer then returned the merchandise purchased to cover the cost of the ticket and said he would never come to Westfield again to shop.
Is this really the image we want to present for Westfield? Come on. Free parking but if your new to town or visiting, you're screwed? I hope you can post this.
This should be an entry, not a comment! Good Grief!
ReplyDeleteIt will appear as an entry tonight. In the future please specify that you would like it as a blog title. I'm sorry for the misunderstanding.
ReplyDeleteWhat ever happened to the good old days when there was just one or two people in charge of the meters. Barbara Creese always had a smile on her face as she did her rounds and you could count the number of complaints that came in on one hand, and that was all year. Now the town has a division of people covering the same area and twenty minutes can't go by without a complaint about parking. Maybe it's time to go back to the old ways of doing things. Just by getting rid of the parking director you save enough money where the town could give free parking all month of December and not just two days before Christmas.
ReplyDeleteI bet, if someone were to look, Westfield wrote more tickets during the "free" parking period then they did in the same time frame a few weeks earlier. Now there's a story I want to read on a blog or in a paper!
ReplyDelete