001Good evening everyone. This is the finance and shared services committee meeting for the month of September. Um I have with me today um board members Mr. President, Mrs. Dain, Mr. Sharma, Mr. Purrell, Dr. Peek and from the administrative staff I have Dr. Layman and Miss Allen. Uh we do not have a very big agenda so but we will so get started with the monthly bill list. Um, it's again a very simple one. One point I'm I'm going to get you the total. I think it's 1 5 million and $22,000 change. Um, again, summer month. So, this is the bill list for August. Um, that's why we're seeing to be so slim. I think we only had amongst the big items other than the payroll and the utilities it was mostly tusution for um esy our
002our students going out of this um I'm going to open up to the board members if they have any questions on the good bus saying none we'll go on to the next agenda item which is the attorney invoice for the month of July we have um invoice of $19,800 for the attorney invoice. Um did any of the board members have any concerns or questions? Seeing none, I'm going to dive into the third item on the agenda, which actually stems off of the bill list. Um, one thing that has been very good with using the Bush Law Firm for the past almost year is that they bucket their services and you're able to see what we're spending on every >> service. Um, and what we have flagged as a concern, I have flagged as a concern
003for the last couple months has been our Oprah cost. So, just so the public knows, we I just said our billless was uh our bill was $19,000. Um our Oprah costs were $11,000. >> Um out of the 19 I'm saying or in addition to >> No, so total total Tony invoice was 19 and our Oprah was 11. >> And um last month also our Oprah was significantly high and I had race concern. Now it's not every month that number. We do range and I went back 12 months thankfully because they bucketed and it's easy to go back 12 months and I saw what we've been paying. We we've also paid $200 one month. We paid 2,000, we paid $7,000, but for the last two months consecutively this was a little high. So I brought it
004to Laura as a concern. Um there have been a high number of uh Opras in the last two months. um that does add to the cost but it also started um conversation in my head something that I had seen at an uh at a workshop 3 years ago and I brought it to Dr. Chandi and I think I brought it again to her last year when our cost started going up. There are tools out there that you can use that reduces the manpower that we use and can also redact for us. So the reason I am bringing it up here is to get everybody's thoughts if you've heard anything from other districts. So what I did before this meeting was I did reach out through NJSBA connection. Thanks to Miss Ragnar for introducing me to
005them to other districts to see what they're doing and uh what their costs are like. Nobody does see costs like ours. But um Monroe is unique that way. And while it's a freedom of information that people have a right to do the OPRA uh we do have to draw a line where our you know where our costs are going on that. So I thought it would be a good discussion to have in this public committee meeting so that those people that are listening can also understand the impact of OPRA and be more judicious when they make those requests because it it's it may not be obvious but some of the things can be directly questioned to administrators instead of using OPRA as a tool. So if you have a concern about a transportation issue, a
006curriculum issue or you know something that we as board members did, I think it it just it just helps if your first mode of communication is directly to the administrators or the board president asking for some clarity. And if you don't get what you're looking for and you feel like something is being hidden from you, then Freedom of Information Act can kick in and you can then use OPRA as a tool. Um, when you submit an Oprah request, it has to go through the due process. Oprah secretary has to pull up all the recordings, has to redact them, has to use the attorney's help, and that's how we already have an OPRA secretary that does the work on it. Then we use the attorney services and what we're discussing tonight is the attorney service but
007it's also a lot of manpower going at our office. Go ahead. >> Does the OPER request so we have an Oprah secretary? >> Every single Oprah we get is there any that are deciphered in house? >> Yes. >> Or does every single one go to the attorney? >> No. I mean I see unless I'm not getting but I see like some clients we'll get like there was this open request or that open request but I don't >> so view everything that we are fulfilling or what is still pending so that's a public record but what I understand is our first step is our secretary our second step is the redaction which is legal which is our attorney you want to >> why can't the secretary >> yeah that that was my question mostly names and
008stuff like that. Like I don't know why >> didn't we send it out to >> pay attorney like why I thought the whole purpose of hiring it as Oprah secretary originally shed some light on >> was to >> I know that we do this. >> I know a lot of places where people get Opras and it's redacted by whoever the the person that handles it in that place or in the town like the it's mostly the redaction. you you could talk to an attorney and say like these things are always redact the person's name the kid's name whatever >> but it's not always that simple so my conversation on NGSBA connection when I was talking about the different tools that people have explored >> they said that tools will reduce your own manh hours >>
009but it doesn't really alleviate the attorney involvement that much >> now we've had opra requests with 1500 pages 900 pages I've been looking at the recent one that I've read. >> I haven't seen that >> and >> I I did seek that information from Laura but we didn't have that. >> So I'll just share and James B I inquired and um Dr. Bonnie our superintendent said typically most of our over requests are fairly straightforward vendors asking about bids things like that. So most of them are completed inhouse but when it becomes something with personnel teachers students that does go out to the attorney. We just don't have as much volume of reviews. >> So we don't typically have much on a regular basis. >> So those were the questions. Those were the questions that came
010to me on connection that what I think you should start at finding out why Monroe has so many requests. I said I already know why Monroe has so many requests. I I have an answer to that question and I don't think that's avoidable. That's what FOIA you know gives everybody. That's why I said it's it's better to educate the public to use that first line of approach where if that information isn't really you know nobody wants to hide it. People will give it to you with a email to the right person. It could be the board president it could be the superintendent start there and then if you don't get the information then file for no my question is I thought last year when we had the overabundance and it was overwhelming our opra secretary
011we asked Bush and Bush to take some on. Are we still doing that? Is he still being overwhelmed >> at times? So, you know, there are certain time unfortunately sometimes the timing is that we're overwhelmed with open requests and at the same time we're overwhelmed with registrations or something else. So, that's when there might be some help with the attorneys um because it's just everything else. I mean if it's a month where we're not having we don't have registrations or there's no there's a smaller amount of opers it's it's manageable but sometimes the time you know when everything comes in is so at the beginning of the year registration summer things like that then it wans down with bush and bush >> and um okay >> so just to give you a number um summer
012months we had I believe July had 23 and August had 24 okras >> um whereas there might be months with there are just maybe seven or 10, right? So, uh or four. So, that volume plus registrate in for schools being at is a lot. >> So, it's a lot. Um well, one of our jobs is to raise a concern and the other is to provide solutions. So, I I propose to the administration, Dr. Leman, is that we go out for an RFP. I have shortlisted four vendors you could research and then maybe ask for an RFP to do. I don't think that we are at ready to go out and get a tool but I feel like we should know what are the capabilities of the tool and whether or not they will help us.
013So in this last 12 months we've paid close to $40,000 for >> Oprah. And I feel if we were to go out to an RFP and find out that one of these vendors is going to be a fraction of that cost yearly, then you know I don't know what the year before was because uh Forzio did not bucket it that way and I I we didn't have enough time between seeing this and the finance committee meeting. If previous years have been similar, which again Monroe has been heavy on Oprah and not just this year, it's always been heavy on Oprah. There are ups and downs. If we can get a solution that can help us uh alleviate those that $40,000 to half of it or less than half of it, then this is a long-term
014thing. Would you agree? >> Yeah. I mean, just share those with us. We can also, you know, touch base with whoever they are and see if they're working with other districts and get feedback on them as well. So what Jerry Hill president shared with me was just FYIA, but they did say that it doesn't alleviate all of pure attorney. But when I was researching online, what I happened to have read most places was that they're all AI based and these days lawyers are using a lot of AI too. So, they're all being able to redact a lot, you know, for the first line of control. And then for anything that needs more deliberations, we could send it to the attorney. So, I'm going to email this to you as well. Next request, logical, and ga.
015So go QQL seems to be something that bigger organizations use but I feel like the first three just FOIA next request and logical are so basically these are tools that don't just do the redaction they manage the intake and delivery. So from taking in to delivering there is an a manual piece to it where you would be supervising it and then deciding when to they might flag it and you might send it to the attorney but a lot of it is auto. So at this point all I'm asking for is we go out and get a we ask them for what the tool does. what would it be able to do for us as a district given what we deal with and what would what it would cost us and it might we might have
016a long-term engage to it and did you have any thoughts on that you think it's worth a shot of book we should try and it's the real thing >> yeah I mean there's no harm in exploring >> yep and seeing uh and even having a conversation and I I realize we used the firm for assistance in opas but even getting an attorney's perspective on automating or you know using one of these tools. Um is there a history of someone kind of getting caught you know like in a in an improper response or something like that >> and then what is what is the risk or what is the cost associated with that. So I'm sure that could potentially erase any savings in future too. So >> 100%. But I think it's >> that's one of
017the aspects of how we evaluated tool, how successful have they been, and have there been any lawsuit. >> The other aspect of this conversation in my head was we did have a policy um discussion on this. I have to say this was 22 or early 23 where we were um so back in the old days or would be paper. So there used to be a cost to the taxpayer when it went over a certain kind of paper. These days everything is online. So that has become a gray area. We have as a district consulted with the attorney and what a recent over request which was over 1400 pages was going to be very costly to us. So we let the taxpayer know based on a calculation between the business office and attorney that it would
018cost the taxpayer x amount of dollars if they wanted to fulfill that request. they chose not to at that point. So I would like this committee to ask the policy committee to review the OKR policy and maybe outline this very clearly in the policy document as to it can be a case basis that we take attorney's advice. We should have a guideline based on the current method of fulfilling an offer. >> Sure. I think it's addressed um how much you can charge you know for something it's going to take a lot of time um so we can charge um the lowest the rate the the salary hourly salary at the lowest rate of the person like the secretary basically that is doing it um use her hourly rate um and we have to let them
019know what it what it would be in advance we can't really that and it's it's a basis. We can't really set a fee schedule in advance or anything cuz it's based on case by case and who the lowest >> the threshold. So I believe when we reviewed that policy the old policy had a threshold based on the page count and we discussed that >> I think they decided that it was um like a day's work. I believe the old policy might have been like a day's work. There was based on like 800 like if they if they said one page is um a minute. So they determine like how much how many minutes were in a day and how much that would be your directive. So if we were to So I think that's something
020you know again it's maybe case by basis but if if we decided it was going to be um one case or or maybe less to fulfill we would send out a letter saying this is what they charge for. >> So is that in the policy or is that um >> oh in the policy now regarding how much I don't know that that's in the policy. I think that was something um that was discussed with the attorney previously. >> Do you think uh Mr. Pain is worth bringing it up in a policy meeting to review? >> Oh, definitely. Yeah. And see what the threshold is and based on the current procedure that it just has to be more aligned to what we're doing. >> I agree with you and I wrote a note to send to
021Carmen or do you want to contact? >> I could I could do that. Absolutely. I I think our recommendation from this committee would be one to go out and speak to whatever you know I just I'll send you the name so that you guys can decide which ones to contact. You could even add to that list based on what you find out from your peers in the district or other district. Um and then the other recommendation would be to Miss Alvarez to review this in the policy committee. Um it we don't want to discourage people from doing OPRA but it it it's all going out of the same pocket the taxpayers pocket and if it's if if you're paying those taxes and they're not really directly impacting student achievement then that money is just an
022operational inefficiency. So if people if our policy clearly outlines at what point we'll start charging them you know sometimes OPER requests are very broad instead of being very specific. So when it's broad and legally they have to pull in everything that falls with >> I don't think anymore. I think the local lost chain it has to be specific thing. >> It's not like he needs to be >> our recent ones with the keywords the ones that we went back with 1400 pages had a lot of keywords in there just in two months we had so many pages. Yeah, it's got to be specific otherwise there's >> so I don't know if the policy updated is since the law changed um back another reason to that's another reason to look at it >> and I'll reiterate
023to the public that's listening I know it's my third time saying it this tool this this this power this that you have in your hands it does cost money use it wisely Don't make it the first approach. Reach out to the people who can give you the information. If you don't get the information, then then you're more than welcome to do an Oprah. It's your right. Um but let's be conscious together about the >> I would suggest that you repeat what you just said at the next week's meeting. >> Oh, absolutely. I will do that. I put it in your report briefly. >> I will put it and I that's a good suggestion because you'll have maybe more people here. you'll have, you know, more people listening. I know people listen not too much to
024a committee meeting, but at a regular meeting, you're going to have more of a captive audience and what you said should be said. >> Agreed. I'll do that. Absolutely. Anything else? Anybody else needs to discuss? Any other agenda items? All right. That concludes the finance and shared services committee meeting in September. Thank you everyone. Have a great day.