Editor’s note: This article has updated Reiman’s comments on the judge’s decision and added more details on Wronko’s online comments.

A Jersey mayor’s Facebook page is public record and he had to turn over a list of the people he banned from viewing it, a New Jersey superior court judge decided this month.

Carteret Mayor Daniel Reiman has used the social media page for around eight years. He makes announcements and residents respond with questions — except for those he blocked.

Steven Wronko, an open government advocate and Spotswood resident, said he was among those blocked. Reiman has not denied blocking Wronko, saying the man made inappropriate comments on the mayor’s page.

On July 18, 2018, Wronko requested a copy of Reiman’s banned list and a copy of deleted comments from his Facebook page for a six-month time frame, but his request was denied, according to court documents.

New Jersey, like all states, has long-standing laws in place that allow citizens to request documents from government. But lines between officials’ personal and public social media accounts can be blurred. In a high profile case in May 2018, a federal judge ruled that it was unconstitutional for President Donald Trump to block seven Twitter users.

In September, Wronko filed a civil complaint against the borough, claiming the information from Reiman’s Facebook page was considered “electronically stored” government records.

Reiman regularly uses the page for borough business, Wronko said. And, Carteret’s official Facebook page often links to Reiman’s page, treating it as an official source of information, CJ Griffin, a lawyer who works for Hackensack-based law firm Pashman Stein, argued in the civil action complaint.

In a decision earlier this month, Judge Alberto Rivas agreed. He ordered the clerk to send Reiman’s banned user list to Wronko, according to the civil action order.

Reiman said he “obviously disagreed” with Rivas’ decision but said he complied with it, turning over the list to the borough, which in turn gave it to Wronko. He said he does not plan to appeal the decision.

On Wednesday, Wronko showed NJ Advance Media the list he just received. The document had about 25 Facebook users listed. Wronko claims the list is incomplete and said he intends to file a class action lawsuit in federal court with others who were blocked from the page.

“Its an egregious violation of everyone’s civil rights,” Wronko said.

Right now, Carteret officials were only required to surrender the list, not unblock the Facebook users. That could change if Wronko successfully convinces a federal court his rights to free speech were violated, he said. In the meantime, Wronko said he is pleased with the small-scale win.

Reiman said he had no intention to un-block Wronko.

“Wronko is a nut,” he said, claiming the man’s comments incited violence on the page.

Reiman claimed Wronko also used profanity on the page. The mayor and others who moderate the page deleted some of Wronko’s comments, and ultimately blocked him, but Facebook also removed some of the posts, he said.

A copy of the comments shown to NJ Advance Media included reactions by Wronko to a flag-raising event. Wronko commented, “I have a right to challenge it, now I will request that they fly a Palestinian flag and a north Korean flag.” Other comments by Wronko included “ban me and I will sue” and “How dare you try to threaten me.”

In a statement, Reiman said of Wronko, “He has attacked my supporters and residents when we raise flags of democratic nation states who are U.S. allies and who have minorities that live here in Carteret. You can see where he created online fights demanding we raise the flag of North Korea and other states that sponsor terrorism.”

Rivas’s decision followed a similar decision by Superior Court Judge Bonnie Mizdol in June 2018. In that case, Timothy Larkin requested a list of Facebook accounts blocked or removed from the pages of Glen Rock Mayor Bruce Packer and five borough council members.

Mizdol ruled the Glen Rock officials’ pages were subject to the open records act. Griffin represented Larkin’s case too, and in both cases, the judges ordered the boroughs to pay for the plaintiffs’ attorney fees.

However, in other cases, judges have ruled official’s pages were not considered official government record and were instead personal or campaign pages.

Steven Gelber, a political opponent of Hackensack Mayor John Labrosse, tried to get the “Labrosse Team” Facebook page to be considered a public record in September 2018. But Mizdol said no, according to Insider NJ. She said the page was clearly for a political campaign, not government communication.

Cassidy Grom may be reached at cgrom@njadvancemedia.com Follow her at @cassidygrom. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips.

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