In a published opinion issued earlier this week, Opderbeck v. Midland Park Bd. of Ed., the Appellate Division held that the agenda of open meetings provided to the public by public bodies does not have to include release of the documents referred to in the agenda. Although the court was interpreting the requirements of the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA), its opinion also has relevance under OPRA.

The appeal challenged a trial court injunction which required the Midland Park Board of Education to post on its website not just the agenda for its public meetings, as required by the OPMA, but also all of the documents and attachments referenced in the agenda. The order exempted from the publication requirement any documents the Board believed to be confidential under OPRA.

The court held that the OPMA did not authorize this order. It concluded that the OPMA only mandates the advance disclosure of meeting agendas, and does not impose a legal obligation to include the documents mentioned in the agendas in this disclosure.

The Appellate Division added that OPRA also does not require the posting of agenda documents. The court did not give a detailed explanation in this regard, but its point is clear: in the absence of a specific OPRA request, a public body is not legally obligated to release documents that are in its possession. The trial judge’s opinion ignored this basic principle, in mandating that the Board automatically post all non-exempt documents together with the agendas.