Community Corner

Cranford Resident Fights Subpoena From County Prosecutor

Tina Renna, president of Union County watchdog group is being asked to reveal county employees who improperly used generators after Sandy.

Tina Renna, who for several years has been a strong advocate for transparency in county government, is in hot water for not sharing her own documents with the county. According to an article in the Star-Ledger, her website The County Watchers tipped-off the Union County Prosecutor's Office to a list of names Renna has. The names are of county employees allegedly caught up in "generatorgate".

Following Superstorm Sandy, county officials discovered that there may have been misuse of county generators by some employees. According to court papers filed by Renna's lawyers (and attached to this article as a PDF) the county was tipped to her knowledge of 16 employees from a December post on her site entitled "Generatorgate – An exciting opportunity to shine a light on our corrupted system of law and order".

According to the Star-Ledger, Renna is fighting the court order by using state shield laws to protect her from divulging her information. State shield laws are used to protect journalists and their sources. County officials have an issue with whether Renna is actually a journalist, or her blog an actual news outlet.

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Renna, a Walnut Avenue resident has been a strong advocate for open government, challenging county and state authorities over the release of documents over the years.


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