by James Morgan
Ridgewood NJ, The BOE discussed a litigation item in Executive Session Thursday evening that concerns a settlement proposal of a lawsuit against the Board by Saurabh Dani, a candidate for the Board of Education in next week’s election.
This settlement proposal was not sought by the Board and originated with Mr. Dani’s attorney.
Earlier this year, Mr. Dani sued the Board for material that did not exist. He was told this before he filed his lawsuit. Based reading his complaint, knowledge of the facts and on advice from its attorneys, the Board opposed the lawsuit.
In a mid-March hearing in Hackensack, the judge on the case requested that the Board furnish additional information. This additional information was promptly supplied to the court.
To date the judge has not issued an opinion on the merits of the lawsuit. Once the judge’s an opinion has been filed, the Board will have a period of time to decide whether an appeal is appropriate. Based on comments at the March court hearing there appear to be several points that could warrant appellate court attention.
The subject of this litigation is an Open Public Records Act (“OPRA”) complaint by Mr. Dani. In this type of litigation, OPRA law permits a plaintiff’s attorneys to be paid by the Board of Education if the District is found to be in violation of the law. In any OPRA case, responsibility for such costs are not final until all court procedures have been concluded.
Mr. Dani’s attorney, on behalf of his client, recently proposed that Mr. Dani would drop his OPRA lawsuit if the District agrees to pay his attorney’s fees of $6,674.65. In the current situation, no fees have been awarded by the court and proceedings are ongoing. It is far from certain whether any fees will ever ultimately be awarded.
State regulations generally prohibit a Board member from actively suing the Board of Education they serve on. It is my understanding that the offer was proposed to ensure Mr. Dani had no pending litigation against the Board which would disqualify him from taking his seat on the Board of Education if he were to win next week.
After discussion in Executive Session, the Board announced that it had decided to take no action on Mr. Dani’s settlement offer.
Simply put, the matter has not been decided by the courts and serious questions remain about the future of this case. Any discussion of who is responsible for legal fees is premature.
Personally, I am disappointed that a candidate for the Board of Education is offering to drop litigation if the Board agrees to have his legal fees be paid by the Ridgewood taxpayers. In my judgement, the original lawsuit was unnecessary and diverted the Board’s time from more pressing matters. It has cost the District money to defend its position. He chose to file this lawsuit and he is responsible for his costs until final court actions are complete.
These comments are essentially the same as I stated at tonight’s Public Meeting of the Board of Education. They represent my thoughts on this matter and do not represent the position of the full Board.
You’re assuming that Jim Morgan is telling the truth. That’s a colossal assumption. Next time do your homework before you post.
Sad. Why Saurabh Dani thinks Ridgewood taxpayers should pay his legal fees for taking our BOE to court over an OPRA request is beyond me… and most voters I know.
What a waste of time and resources when our board needs to be focused on making sure the schools are doing their best to provide a quality education to our children remotely.
Seems like frivolous, ego-driven self interest here. Sort of like allowing fake posters on his private Facebook group “It takes a Ridgewood Village” group even though that goes against Facebook policy and community standards. Bizarre. And speaks to his poor character and lack of qualification for our BOE. He’s lost my vote.
Morgan broke the law. Plain and simple. He is a scumbag. Why doesn’t he pay his own legal fees????
Jim Morgan is a guiltysack of shit
Just so I understand, Saraubh Dani makes a delusional obsession out of suing the Board over inconsequential items to harass our unpaid volunteers, and we’re supposed to bankroll his vanity project? Can’t he just save us all some money and complain in his Facebook group to the mindless drones who echo his every thought in the hopes they get a few “friendship” crumbs?
I can’t believe this guy may end up on the BOE. What a shame for our town.
Jim – i’m truly sorry you and the board have to put up with this. We don’t always agree with boe policy but we recognize the time and effort it takes and with no reward. I worry that the constant criticism from the peanut gallery makes the prospect of serving unpalatable. Thank you from the silent majority for putting up with this.
sour grapes ???
I see Saurabh has unleashed some of his mindless sycophantic attack dogs in the comments of this post as well…
the Ridgewood BOE is the most corrupt dishonest bunch in the Village , no transparency , bully your children if you raise objections ugh and $115 million dollar budget , look at the great job at Orchard told parents “tell your kid don’t eat dirt” , dont keep meeting minutes , ignore all taxpayer imput only interested in self aggrandizement could not careless about the students
Dani runs a Facebook group with outrageously strict proof of residency requirements that he is in charge of vetting. Yet somehow a fake profile was admitted that only posts in support of Dani and attacks his opponents. How odd! Somehow though, the vocal element of the group (which can’t stop talking about how they “personally know” Dani) are not concerned with the invasion of privacy, but instead have rushed to the defense of using a fake profile.
Why do we think that is? Why do we even have admission standards if fakes are OK? What proof did Dani get of residency? Does he know the real identity of the profile?
Jim – thank you for not caving in on the lawsuit. I’d spend $50,000 fighting the lawsuit before i gave Dani a dime of legal fees. Let him decide if its worth his own money before he spends ours!
no he doesn’t, on like wingnut and the mom and dad bigot group
Saurabh Dani’s interest is Saurabh Dani, not our kids, educators or schools. He’s unqualified to be on the BOE.
Jim Morgan and Sheila Brogan divert official board business communications to their personal email accounts and respond only from their personal accounts as a way to avoid having what should be readable by the public remain outside of what can be obtained through the Open Public Records Act. They are purposefully obstructing the public’s right to information. Had they simply complied with a simple and lawful request for information, there would have been no lawsuit for Mr. Dani to file months before he became a candidate. And once the judge decided in his favor, the BOE had another opportunity to comply with the judge’s order and save the taxpayers these legal fees. We are paying for both sides of this mess because the BOE refuses to follow the law even when a judge orders them to.
Wingrad and the “Ridgewood Moms and Dads” group promotes Ridgewood in Moral Narcissism agenda
You can’t get around OPRA by using personal email account.
The only question I have is what “additional information was promptly supplied to the court?”
Morgan is lying , like the BOE, no reason to settle
Dan Creed, Jeff Voigt, Jim Morgan. The EVIL LYING TRIO
Someone has something to hide.
Guilty – Morgan and Brogan.
Morgan and Brogan – Pay.
They were given many opportunities to correct the behavior but they continued with the illegality, someone will have to pay for their illegal acts, why not they themselves.
Why was this meeting scheduled a day before when most people were expected to mail their ballots?
Dan F is playing the BOE members, they will be remembered for this mess, long after they are gone.
Taxpayer the judge said they were getting around OPRA by using personal email.
The Board of Education has never been transparent. Mr. Dani has a citizen’s right to OPRA information that has not been forth coming and should be in the public domain. And if anybody votes for Dan Creed , they obviously know nothing about him.
Why is this important in a coronavirus pandemic when Villagers are dying from COVID-19?
Seems like a frivolous waste of time & money to satisfy Saurabh Dani‘s (and Sue Knudsen’s) blood-thirst. Caveat emptor with these hypocrites and bullies. All they care about is themselves, not the thousands off students, teachers and administrators the BOE oversees.
lawsuit was in 2019 and as you can see from the Orchard school remediation the BOE sits on things for years
Lol Creed based his entire campaign presence around accusations and conspiracy theories about a “fake” profile. Another narcissist preoccupied with petty garbage. How dare someone not support him.
Sadly, none of the candidates are the best we have in town. But why run when 25% of the town is mean and beats up on elected officials.
Ugggh, he could have dropped the lawsuit after the pandemic was declared March 12th. But chose not to.
Of course OPRA covers private email exchanges. All board members (and candidates for elected office) know this. Looking forward to a request for Sue Knudsen and Bernie Walsh’s private emails with Saurabh Dani and Lorraine Reynolds “the candidates”. Those should be interesting.
The board members could have started using official email for confidential business after March 12th, butt chose not to? Two of them are STILL using AOL and GMAIL accounts.
Posting a comment from the FB to provide context here
hi, as I have argued for a few years, this board doesn’t think rationally.
If I win the election and if I win the lawsuit, I have no case against BOE after May 14th. That’s the court date.
If I lose election and if I win the lawsuit on 14th, and the board doesn’t want to pay and continue to go on for appeal, they are going to be fighting with the attorney, not me. It’s on contingency. I have zero financial interest.
If they settled yesterday, they would have avoided more certifications in how they were using personal devices to use official email. I had agreed to drop the demand for those certifications if they paid my attorney’s fee. They have not even filed a motion to oppose those fees. So the judge is going to award the fee on 14th.
This was all just a drama.
And they flat out lied when they mentioned that my attorney asked for settlement. Board’s attorney reached out for settlement. They refused to pay his fee, so we filed motion to enforce the certification ordered on March 13th and motion for the fee. They reached out for settlement not us.
Lol saraubh, your attorney doesn’t have standing if you drop the suit. He can sue you though
Aren’t you the one creating completely unnecessary “drama” Mr Saurabh Dani?
Campaign emails are not subject to OPRA.
Actually the Deputy Mayor’s private emails are subject to OPRA