On Monday, the Assembly State and Local Government Committee is scheduled to consider A-4045, and the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee is scheduled to consider S-2930.
It is urgent that the Senators on the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee and the members of the Assembly State and Local Government Committee hear from you today and this weekend too and that you share your strong support for OPRA reform. These identical bills make various reforms to the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) that address many of the issues municipalities have been experiencing since the inception of OPRA, including:
- Implements recommendations of the Privacy Study Commission.
- Provides our residents with protections from losing their privacy in the course of conducting public business.
- Addresses burdensome commercial requests that continue to increase each year. Since the enactment of the OPRA, commercial enterprises have abused the legislation as a mechanism for commercial purposes.
- Addresses the mandatory prevailing attorney fee provisions that have cost taxpayers.
- Take the first step to address how police records should and are considered under OPRA. As the use of technology has increased in police work, requests for police records have increased tremendously.
- Permits public agencies to adopt an official OPRA request form that must be used for all OPRA requests.
The League thanks Assemblyman Joe Danielsen and Senator Paul Sarlo for sponsoring these bills. We are strongly in favor of these proposed changes and encourage you to reach out to your legislator to express municipal support for these bills.
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.