Chairman Litwin called the meeting to order at 10:37 a.m.
Chairman Litwin read the Open Public Meetings Statement.
Chairman Litwin led all present in the salute to the flag.
Ms. Buckelew called the roll as follows:

Commission Members Present: Chairman Larry Litwin, Grayson Barber, Thomas Cafferty, George Cevasco, Edithe Fulton, Pamela McCauley, Rosemary Karcher-Reavey, and Karen Sutcliffe.

Commission Members Absent: Richard DeAngelis, John Hutchison, William Kearns, Jack McEntee and H. Lawrence Wilson.

Staff Present: Joseph Monzo, Acting Director, Division of Local Government Services, Catherine Starghill, Legal Specialist and Jeannie Janukowicz and Lori Buckelew, Division of Local Government Services staff.

Ms. Barber moved to approve the minutes of the September 19, 2003 meeting as amended with a second by Mr. Cafferty. The motion was adopted on a call of ayes and nays.
Commercial Use Presentations:

Amy Holder, Vice President of Data Trace Inc., addressed the Privacy Study Commission on the issue of commercial use of public records. Specifically, Ms. Holder discussed her national company’s use of title and other real estate records maintained by government agencies throughout the country.

Stephen Phillips, President of Charles Jones Inc., addressed the Privacy Study Commission on the issue of commercial use of public records. Mr. Phillips also discussed his company’s use of title and other real estate records maintained by state and local government agencies throughout New Jersey.
· Ms. Fulton questioned whether Mr. Phillips would object to limiting access to school employees’ home addresses. Mr. Phillips stated that he would not object as long as identification of this category of individuals for nondisclosure of home addresses was consistent with public policy.
· Mr. Cafferty noted that Mr. Phillips’ comments suggest a system that would restrict access to public records more so than OPRA. Ms. Barber disagreed with Mr. Cafferty stating that title search or real estate documents would still be public records and that Mr. Phillips’ recommendation was simply to identify the types of records for which disclosure would or would not be allowed.

Steven Craig, President of Superior Information Services, addressed the Privacy Study Commission on the issues and recommendations raised in the draft special directive report. Mr. Craig explained that his company, like Lexis Nexis, provides public records to a host of private companies and individual subscribers. Mr. Craig noted that, amongst other things, his company uses public records to provide accurate and efficient information to credit reporting agencies.

Review of the Special Directive Draft Report:

Ms. Barber noted that she had no additional comment on the Special Directive report. She asked for comments from other Commission members. Chairman Litwin suggested that the report be amended after the November public hearings to incorporate the public’s comments. Ms. Barber agreed. Ms. Barber also agreed with Chairman Litwin that the Commission members’ opposing viewpoints on the special directive issues should be included in the body of the report. The Commission agreed to defer additional discussion on the presentation of the final report until after the November public hearings.

Subcommittee Reports were discussed as follows:

Special Directive: Previously discussed.

New Jersey Practices: Ms. Sutcliffe stated that the subcommittee had contacted state and local government agencies to request their participation with the Data Practices Survey. There were staggering deadlines for completion of the survey beginning Friday, October 24, 2003. Ms. Starghill noted that there has been an overwhelming response to the survey.

Outside New Jersey: Ms. Barber stated that the subcommittee’s mission has been accomplished.

Public Interest: Judge Karcher-Reavey stated that a second round of public hearings have been scheduled as follows: November 6th, Ewing Township Municipal Building; November 10th, Rutgers University Camden Campus; November 12th, Rutgers Law Center Newark; and November 13th, Berkley Township Municipal Building. All public hearing will be held from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Ms. Starghill noted that notices for the public hearings have been sent to the legislators, local government professional associations, New Jersey organizations registered with the state and all major newspapers in the state (via advisories through the state press corp).

Technology: Ms. Starghill reported that Mr. Kearns is preparing a discussion document.

Commercial Use: Mr. Cafferty noted that a teleconference meeting had been scheduled for October 27th to discuss their draft report.

Ms. Starghill provided the Commission with a staff update. She noted the changes to the study timeline. Ms. Starghill also noted that the Data Practices Survey, public hearing notice and the Special Directive draft report were available on the Commission’s website. She also indicated that the amended and now approved minutes from the September meeting would be posted on the website next week.

Chairman Litwin opened the meeting for public comment. Hearing no one, Mr. Cafferty moved to adjourn, with a second from Mr. Cevasco.

Chairman Litwin adjourned the meeting at 12:05 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Larry Litwin, Chairman