Earlier today, League Immediate Past President Millstone Mayor Ray Heck, Bethlehem Mayor and President of NJ Conference of Mayors Paul Muir, and Municipal Clerks Association of NJ (MCANJ) Past President and Eastampton Municipal Clerk Kim-Marie White testified before the Assembly Appropriations Committee in support of legislation (A-4045) to reform and modernize the Open Public Records Act (OPRA), which is sponsored by Assemblyman Danielsen, Assemblywoman Flynn, and Assemblyman Atkins. The bill was amended and released from committee by an 8-1-1 vote with Assemblyman Auth voting no and Assemblyman Webber abstaining.
Yesterday, Deptford Mayor Paul Medany, Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp, Bethlehem Mayor and President of NJ Conference of Mayors Paul Muir, MCANJ President and Alexandria Municipal Clerk Michele Bobrowski, and MCANJ Past President and Eastampton Municipal Clerk Kim-Marie White testified before the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee in support of legislation (S-2930) to reform and modernize the OPRA, which is sponsored by Senators Paul Sarlo and Anthony Bucco. The bill was amended and released from committee by a 9-3 vote with Senators Testa, O’Scanlon, and Zwicker voting no.
It is critical that your Assembly Representatives and Senator hear from you today. Please let them know you support and welcome open transparent government, but do not support commercial entities exploiting OPRA for financial gain at the expense of taxpayers, your residents losing their privacy because they applied for a license/signed up for a municipal program or spending taxpayer dollars on a cottage industry created only because of OPRA.
There have been a lot of misconceptions and misinformation about this legislation since its introduction. A-4045/S-2930 does not hinder a resident or journalist from using OPRA to get access to public records. It modernizes the law to account for the technology and business practices that have emerged in the past 22 years. It will give judges and the Government Records Council the discretion to award prevailing attorney fees, instead of granting it automatically. It will reaffirm the original intent of OPRA to provide copies of records in the municipality’s possession and not create records or perform research.
Under this bill, if a resident submits an OPRA request for the emergency notification the municipality sent using Nixle regarding the pending snowstorm, the resident will receive a copy. Under this bill, if a news reporter submits an OPRA request for a copy of a professional service contract, the reporter will receive a copy of the contract.
In addition, the legislation implements many of the privacy recommendations from the 2004 Privacy Study Commission.
Now is the time to reach out to your Representatives urging them to vote yes on these commonsense reforms and providing them with examples of how the abuse of OPRA has impacted your municipality.
The League will continue to provide you with updates on these developments.
Contacts: Mike Cerra, Executive Director, mcerra@njlm.org, 609-695-3481, x120 and Lori Buckelew, Deputy Executive Director & Director of Government Affairs, lbuckelew@njlm.org, 609-695-3481, x112.