OPRA tracker

Records we’ve requested

Public-records requests Jersey Intel has filed under New Jersey’s Open Public Records Act. Subjects stay private until the story runs. When agencies stall, we report it.

  • NJ Schools Development Authority Filed 10/8/26 Received
  • Essex County Filed 10/8/26 Received
  • City of Newark (3 requests) Filed 10/8/26 Partial
  • Bergen County Filed 10/8/26 Partial
  • City of Hackensack Filed 10/9/26 Response due ~10/20/26 Overdue
  • City of Plainfield Filed 10/9/26 Response due ~10/21/26–22 Overdue
  • Bergen County Sheriff's Office Filed 10/9/26 Received
  • Passaic County Filed 10/12/26 Partial
  • Bloomfield Township Filed 10/13/26 Response due ~10/22/26 Overdue
  • NJ Department of Environmental Protection Filed 10/13/26 Partial
  • City of Atlantic City Filed 10/13/26 Response due 11/10/26 Extended
  • Middlesex County Filed 10/15/26 Received
  • NJ Transit Filed 10/26/26 Response due 11/5/26 Pending
  • Fairfield Township Filed 10/18/26 Response due 11/25/26 Extended
  • Paterson Public Schools Filed 10/19/26 Partial
  • Paterson Public Schools Filed 10/20/26 Received
  • NJ Department of the Treasury Filed 10/20/26 Response due 10/29/26 Pending
  • NJ Department of Human Services Filed 10/20/26 Response due 10/30/26 Pending
  • NJ Department of Environmental Protection (2nd request) Filed 10/20/26 Response due 10/30/26 Pending
  • City of Elizabeth Filed 10/20/26 Received
  • Clifton Public Schools Filed 10/21/26 Response due 10/30/26 Pending
  • Essex County Purchasing Filed 10/21/26 Response due 10/30/26 Pending
  • Essex County Accounts & Control Filed 10/21/26 Response due 10/30/26 Pending
  • City of Vineland Filed 10/21/26 Response due ~10/30/26 Pending
  • Essex County Human Resources Filed 10/22/26 Received
  • City of Paterson Filed 10/23/26 Response due 11/4/26 Pending
  • City of Paterson (2 requests) Filed 10/26/26 Response due 11/5/26 Pending
  • City of Paterson Filed 10/28/26 Response due 11/6/26 Pending
  • U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FOIA) Filed 10/28/26 Response due 11/27/26 Pending

Updated 10/28/26

Julio Reynoso

Publisher & Editor — Jersey Intel

Julio Reynoso is the Publisher and Editor of Jersey Intel, an independent investigative newsroom covering state, county, and municipal government, campaign finance, public contracts, and OPRA public-records investigations across New Jersey. Have a news tip or public document? Email jerseyintel@gmail.com.

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Accountability

Stack early-voting bill’s density cutoff fits only Hudson County, N.J.

October 12, 2026 · Julio Reynoso

S4796, introduced Oct. 8 by Sen. Brian Stack (D-33), would require early voting for every election — including municipal, school-board and fire-district contests — only in counties with at least 15,000 people per square mile. 2020 Census figures put Hudson alone above that line; Essex, the next densest, is under 7,000. The Legislature’s bill page says OLS certified the measure for a fiscal note; no estimate is posted.

Accountability

N.J. solar bill: landfill, mine projects could add non-contiguous land

October 9, 2026 · Julio Reynoso

S4729, introduced by Senate President Nicholas Scutari on Oct. 5 and approved by a Senate committee Oct. 8, would let community solar projects on landfills, brownfields, contaminated sites and mines include ‘related, non-contiguous tracts of land’ and bar the BPU from limiting how much. The September solar law allowed only ‘associated or contiguous’ land, and only for public remote net metering.

Accountability

North Bergen, N.J. voters get no say on Sacco’s seat until May 2027

October 8, 2026 · Julio Reynoso

North Bergen Mayor Nick Sacco says he’ll resign effective Oct. 28 and is backing Commissioner Hugo Cabrera for mayor and his son, Lincoln School Principal Nick Sacco Jr., for his commission seat. Under New Jersey’s Municipal Vacancy Law, that date lands 6 days before the Nov. 3 general election, too late for the ballot, so the four remaining commissioners pick the replacement and voters next weigh in on May 11, 2027.

Accountability

Third try at Bridgeton, N.J. High comes in $7M higher

October 8, 2026 · Julio Reynoso

The NJ Schools Development Authority’s Oct. 7 board packet recommends Ernest Bock & Sons at $80,985,000 for Bridgeton High School, the project’s third procurement and about $7 million above the bid SDA recommended in March. The budget is now $94,971,000, up from $49,240,000 in 2022. The packet calls a rival’s protest pending; an SDA decision dated Oct. 1 denied it. The resolution’s operative clause says $80,895,000. The same agenda carried a $1,519,054 Bock change order in Trenton.

Accountability

Trenton, N.J. health costs hit $73M; state board OKs $18M cap waiver

October 8, 2026 · Julio Reynoso

At the Sept. 9 Local Finance Board meeting, Trenton’s business administrator testified health costs were $56 million in 2025 and $73 million in 2026. The mayor said the city withdrew from the State Health Benefits Plan and self-insures. The board approved an $18 million cap waiver 5–2. The city’s April budget lists its entire insurance line at $71.7 million, and Trenton is back Oct. 14 seeking approval for $20 million in bonds.

Accountability

N.J. picked Thales to replace MVC’s license-system vendor in May

October 8, 2026 · Julio Reynoso

A June 11, 2026 Treasury decision names Thales DIS USA as the State’s pick to replace IDEMIA’s MVC driver-license system, chosen on “the lowest overall pricing.” The bid was issued in January 2025, before Gov. Sherrill took office. Her July 21, July 28 and Oct. 7 statements on the voter-registration errors don’t name Thales. The new bid says MVC and the Division of Elections “will provide all verbiage and workflows for the signature pad logic.”

Accountability

Hess consent judgment puts N.J. Arthur Kill claims on hold

October 8, 2026 · Julio Reynoso

The Hess consent judgment carves the Arthur Kill and lower Smith Creek out of the $19.5 million natural resource damages settlement for the former Port Reading refinery. That is where the State says the 1969 spill went. The State can’t sue over those waters until a formal damage assessment is done, any such suit must name multiple defendants, and Hess can argue a 2013 Occidental settlement already covered them. The Oct. 5 announcement didn’t mention the assessment condition or the Occidental defense.

Legislature

N.J. veterans’ tax break ballot question omits $181.8M yearly cost

October 8, 2026 · Julio Reynoso

Jersey Intel read SCR96 and its fiscal estimate. The ballot question would ask voters to raise the veterans’ property tax deduction from $250 to $2,500, but it doesn’t mention that the State reimburses towns for it. OLS puts that cost at $72.8 million in FY 2029, rising to $181.8 million in FY 2032. The Executive Branch never answered OLS’s fiscal-note request.

Accountability

N.J. AG Davenport joins challenge to NHTSA’s weakened CAFE rule

October 2, 2026 · Julio Reynoso

AG Jennifer Davenport joined a multistate First Circuit petition challenging NHTSA’s SAFE III rule weakening CAFE standards for model years 2022–2031. The AG release claims nearly $220 billion in lost national fuel savings and an EV-blind baseline — but offers no New Jersey-specific pump-cost model.

Accountability

Sherrill’s SHBP reform group seats Aetna, Horizon and Optum Rx

October 2, 2026 · Julio Reynoso

Governor Sherrill launched an SHBP Reform Working Group that includes current vendors Aetna, Horizon, and Optum Rx among stakeholders advising on contracting, networks, pricing, and plan design — with recommendations advisory and detailed design deferred into 2027 after the state already waived 2027 contribution increases.