We will take a different approach with this week’s State Matters and focus on bills from State Assemblyman Danielsen and State Sarlo that seek to destroy OPRA.
Haven’t you heard about it? You aren’t alone, as they are trying to cram these changes through at the speed of light. Here is a timeline of events that occurred this week leading up to Monday’s hearing.
(1) Sarlo’s bill popped up on 03/04/2024, with a hearing scheduled for 03/11 in front of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee.
(2) The Jersey Vindicator reported on aspects of the bill on 03/5/2024 which included:
- The bill guts fee-shifting by making it discretionary, not mandatory, which will make it difficult for requestors who are denied records to find lawyers to represent them to fight records denials from agencies that don’t follow the law and wrongfully deny access to public records.
- The bill would make any “draft” private, which experts say makes it ripe for abuse.
- The bill exempts all email logs and call logs.
- The bill makes it much harder to request emails because a “specific subject matter” and “discrete and limited time period” must be provided, and the requestor must identify the specific person (not a job title, for example) whose email must be searched. That means the requestor must know the names of the people involved at the public agency.
- Records custodians can deny any request if the agency thinks it could lead to “harassment,” which is vague and subjective.
- The bill exempts all metadata.
- A “task force” would be created to study police records, and the task force would be stacked with law enforcement and government representatives.
- The bill exempts email addresses, home addresses, and pet license information.
- The bill mandates the use of an OPRA request form, adding one more hurdle to obtaining records. Currently, citizens can email requests without using an official form.
- The clock starts ticking for custodians to fill a request when the custodian “receives” the request. This means if a custodian is away from work, those days don’t count in terms of the timeframe for responding to requests. As it already stands, most custodians routinely request one or two extensions to produce records.
- Records custodians will no longer have to give requestors documents in the format the requestors want anymore. For example, you may want a document sent to you via email, and the custodian could insist on giving you a paper copy instead.
- You cannot request a record if it relates to current litigation against a public agency or if it is duplicative of a discovery request. Lawyers say this affects their ability to do work for their clients.
- Records custodians can take 14 days to fill a request if they have to review it for Daniel’s Law compliance. Daniel’s Law forbids the disclosure of home addresses for public officials.
- The bill would take away the incentive to comply with OPRA because it revokes the personal liability of records custodians for willful violations of the statute. Instead, the agency and thus the taxpayers would pay the fine.
- The bill also significantly limits “commercial” requests.
(3) From there organizations and news outlets have spoken out against the bill.
(4) This is What You Can Do
- You can sign BHCW’s Petition Opposing this Bill we will be attaching the petition in front of decision makers as testimony
- You can use use the League of Women Voters tool to contact legislators directly.
Whatever you do, you need to act BEFORE THIS MONDAY.
(5) Looking ahead …
Andy Kim has spoken out against this bill yet Tammy Murphy has not said a word. That should save NJ residents a lot of time in coming to a decision this year.
(6) Berkeley Heights Residents
Apparently the league of Municipalities gave this bill a green light. Why?
Please ask Mayor Devanney, Councilman John Foster, Councilwoman Poage, Councilman Couto, Councilwoman Illis, Councilman Machado & BOE Representatives Bradford, Stanley and Penna to speak out publicly on this bill.
Councilman Paul Donnelly and BOE Representatives Foregger, Akiri, Joly and Khanna have all expressed public opposition to the Bill.
