Matt Kadosh is a journalist at TAPinto Newark where this article first appeared.
The controversial bill, which would mark the first update to New Jersey's Open Public Records Act in more than 20 years, has drawn the ire of community activists in Newark, which has been shutting down public information for local governments. He said it would become more difficult to obtain.
Local teachers unions, civil rights groups and groups advocating for police accountability have spoken out against bill S2930, and the records keeper of New Jersey's largest city says he's sitting right in the middle of the debate. Additional amendments could be considered at a Senate Budget Committee hearing in Trenton on Thursday, March 14.
The proposed legislation would expand the scope of public documents that cannot be accessed by the public and change how attorneys' fees are paid in public records disputes. It would also allocate $8 million, including funds needed to move certain documents online and pay members of the Government Records Commission, the agency responsible for resolving certain OPRA disputes.
“The Newark Teachers Association opposes the bill in its current form,” John M. Abeigon, president of the Newark Teachers Association, said in a statement to TAPinto Newark. “Democracy and transparency are not easy to maintain. This is especially true in a society addicted to litigation.
“However, as a public union currently engaged in an OPRA battle with the state’s largest school district, NTU believes a bipartisan amendment to OPRA legislation can be agreed upon that does not undermine our right to get the facts.”
In the dispute, the teachers union sought the release of a publicly funded report by the firm CREED Strategies that examined racial tensions at Global Studies High School. The Newark chapter of the NAACP, a civil rights group that has repeatedly called for the release of the CREED Strategies report, also opposes the bill.
“This is another slap in the face for our democracy at a time when citizens are questioning whether we will maintain our democracy or face authoritarianism,” Deborah Smith Gregory, president of the Newark branch of the NAACP, told TAPinto Newark. “It’s a beating,” he said. “The government must be accountable to the people,” she said. Capacity for OPRA information is part of that responsibility. “This is a government of the people, not a government of government officials telling us what to do.”
Newark Communities for Accountable Policing (N-CAP) expressed opposition in a statement released before the hearing.
“Accountability and trust in police cannot be achieved without transparency,” Zayid Muhammad, a lead organizer with N-CAP, said in an open letter to the Essex County delegation to the state Legislature. “We therefore urge each of you to say a resounding ‘no’ to current efforts to undermine this fundamentally important legal space.”
City Clerk Kecia Daniels said in a phone interview Tuesday, March 12 that the number of records requests the city receives is steadily increasing, with her office receiving more than 6,000 requests in 2021 and about the same number in 2022. . Figures for 2023 are still being compiled, she said.
“It is important to strike a balance between transparency and having the resources necessary to respond to each request in a timely manner. So for a municipality our size, we often get a lot of requests. It’s bandwidth that can keep up,” Daniels said.
“We are in charge of getting documents from all departments and it is a huge task, so we are in the middle of both sides of the argument, but something has to change. “The law needs to be revised to strike a balance,” he said.
The most frequent request is for police camera footage, which must be carefully reviewed before it is released, she said.
“Our volume is for public safety type requests,” Daniels said. “Everyone wants video. “Everyone wants body-worn camera footage, and it takes time.”
How do Newark lawmakers vote?
State Sen. M. Teresa Ruiz (D-Newark) voted in favor of advancing the bill on Monday. Ruiz was one of the lawmakers who left the more than eight-hour Budget and Appropriations Committee session before she was asked to appear on the OPRA bill. Absentee voting is allowed in Congress. Requests seeking comment from Ruiz on the bill were not returned Monday and Tuesday.
Rep. Garnet R. Hall, D-Maplewood, who represents the Newark area, voted to release the bill from committee. The vote was 5-2, according to online legislative records. But Mary Theroux, the congresswoman's chief of staff, said Hall has her doubts.
“She voted ‘yes’ to release the bill from committee,” Theroux said. “She has some concerns about the bill, but she decided to make it public so that there can be a full discussion of the bill at the Democratic National Convention.”
The Senate and House of Representatives meetings are scheduled for Monday, March 18.