City sued for not releasing dog-licensing records
TRENTON >> City clerk Dwayne Harris may be in the doghouse. And the city is gearing up for a dogfight.
Over the last year, a man who brought a class-action lawsuit against Carrabba’s Italian Grill that reached the New Jersey Supreme court last year filed a litter of lawsuits against New Jersey municipalities that refused to turn over dog-licensing records he says he needs to bolster his business.
Home improvement contractor Ernest Bozzi fancies himself a government watchdog, accusing 19 municipalities across the state of violating the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) for not disclosing the doggone records in dispute.
Trenton became the 18th victim – the fifth this month – of this serial document bloodhound, who says in his complaint he agreed to allow the city to redact the documents before they were turned after battling another municipality over privacy concerns regarding the same records.
Bozzi’s attorney said in the complaint his client successfully obtained the same dog-licensing records from more than 100 municipalities.
Bozzi needs the records to find the names and addresses of Trenton dog owners to try to market and sell them on a new invisible fencing pet containment system.
The city, relying upon another non-binding Government Records Council (GRC) case that also involved a contractor seeking records, has contended Bozzi’s request amounts to “unsolicited contact” for the Trenton owners.
“Thrice the appellate division has analyzed these same records in unpublished cases and thrice has reached the same conclusion: there is no significant privacy interest at stake and the records must be released,” wrote Donald Doherty, the attorney representing Bozzi in his puppy paper pursuits.
But some municipalities have doggedly pushed back against the canine-record culler.
In addition to Trenton, Mr. Doggy Warbucks, who seeks the records and attorney fees as part of OPRA’s fee-shifting provision, this month also filed suit against Beachwood, Hopewell and Spotswood boroughs and Belleville Township over denial of the same records.
Doherty, who also represents government accountability guru John Paff in an unrelated transparency case against the Trenton Board of Education, contends the city is relying on a GRC case that isn’t dogmatic and ludicrously extended the bounds of dog owners’ privacy rights based upon unleashed speculation.
“The Bernstein v. Allendale GRC ruling makes other assertions beyond privacy that just plain fail the logic test. ‘Dog theft’ is theoretically possible, but how often does it happen?” the attorney wrote. “And if it does, would not the person who requested ‘dog license records’ be suspect number one? Further, Plaintiff allowed for all information but names and addresses to be redacted, so if someone wanted to steal a specific type of dog, anything Bozzi gets would not help them. And one would think criminals are not likely to obtain key elements of the modus operandi that could be so easily traced back to them. If the Defendants wish to engage this contest, they must come forward with proof of the dogtheft epidemic gripping their town.”
Last month, Doherty dog-tagged Bloomsbury Borough, Bayonne, Boonton and Cape May with similar suits.
The pair also filed civil complaints earlier this year against Union City, Ho-Ho-Kus Borough, Roselle Park, Weehawken Township, Dennis Township, Summit, Alpha Borough and Wall Township.
Neither Harris nor Doherty returned phone calls seeking comment on the public records dispute in Trenton. Trenton Law Director John Morelli said he hadn’t yet seen the complaint so he couldn’t comment.
The doggy duo of Bozzi and Doherty have teamed up together before to sue the parent company of Carrabba’s Italian Grill in a case that reached the state Supreme Court.
That lawsuit accused OSI Restaurant Partners of price-gouging restraint patrons after Bozzi contended he was snubbed at a Carrabba’s in Maple Shade in 2010, when he ordered up a couple Peroni beers and was charged a dollar more for one round.
He claimed he was told by restaurant staff that the computer changed prices at certain times, according to media reports.
While decertifying a similar classaction brought by another woman against TGI Fridays, the high court ruled Bozzi’s class-action suit could go forward with a narrowed focus on “customers who, in the course of a single visit to an OSI restaurant, were charged different prices for beverages of the same brand, type, and volume.”