WEST MILFORD In a lawsuit filed against the town planners, the Appellate Court upheld a decision in favor of the board this week. It may seem thick with jargon and based on technicalities, but the suit between former resident Martin O’Shea and the West Milford Planning Board speaks directly to the concept of accessible government. O’Shea, an open government activist who recently moved out of town, had brought complaints against the school board, the town council and the planning board back in 2004 because he couldn’t get copies of minutes from past meetings and because of the way they were going into executive sessions, which exclude the public. The council and the school board settled with him, but the planning board fought the issue, and after failing mediation, the matter ended up in court. A year and a half later in December of 2005 Superior Court Judge Humpreys dismissed the case as moot. Between the start of the suit, some ten months after O’Shea’s request, the planning board released the minutes in question. O’Shea appealed the case, asking the court to order the planning board to follow a more stringent set of rules to make sure they adhered to the law. Although the state rarely hears an appeal on a case that has been deemed moot, they agreed to hear this one because in his decision Humphreys pointed out a number of “concerns” about the way the board had gone about both releasing minutes and going into executive sessions. The Appellate decision upheld Humphreys’ decision and said they couldn’t issue an injunction with additional rules for the board because each meeting and set of minutes would require case-by-case consideration. Planning Board Chairman Michael Tfank considered the ruling a win and said, “This reaffirms what we have known all along. That this was one of many frivolous lawsuits brought by Mr. O’Shea against West Milford.” O’Shea was angry with the decision and its impact on government bodies and the way they have to adhere to the law. “I think the public was the loser in the decision,” he said. “It should not have been necessary for me to even go to the appellate level. “ In rendering his decision, Judge Humphreys said he decided not to issue an injunctive order because it is too harsh a remedy and boards, especially in small municipalities, are usually composed of people who are not lawyers and so harsh restrictions should not be placed upon them. “It seems to me,” O’Shea said, “that what Judge Humphreys was saying there, is if the planning board consisted of lawyers that he would have found them guilty but since planning board members aren’t lawyers, that they can break the law with impunity.” Tfank was focused on the amount of money the township paid to defend itself. “This lawsuit alone has cost West Milford taxpayers almost $70,000 in legal fees and Mr. O’Shea on appeal has lost again,” he said. “We will be releasing a timeline of this litigation that we feel will expose the tactics that Mr. O’Shea employed which caused delays and drove up the overall cost.“