A New Jersey township is responsible for more than $17,000 in legal fees after trying to defend a $5 fee to the state Government Records Council.

ADVERTISEMENT

The council ruled Bridgewater Township, which spent $14,000 in legal fees on the case, is responsible for the $3,500 in legal fees spent by resident Tom Coulter as well as a $4.04 refund for the $5 he paid for an audio recording of the Feb. 4, 2008, Township Council regular session meeting, The (Bridgewater) Courier-News reported Wednesday.

Coulter argued he should only have to pay 96 cents, the actual cost of the CD, rather than the $5 stipulated by the township records fee ordinance.

"This David and Goliath saga is about much more than litigation over a $5 CD which cost the township well over $17,000," Coulter said in a Friday e-mail. "It's about lack of common sense in government. It's about the culture at Town Hall. It's about the kind of unmitigated dysfunction that pervades the township government."