Township Committee Opposes Potential Changes to Public Records Law

The Township Committee passed two resolutions by a vote of two-to-one opposing potential changes to two Senate bills that would call for more transparency through the Open Public Records Act (OPRA).

“While I do have some issues with some of these bills, I am always in favor of more open government,” said Committeeman Sean Sharkey, who made the lone vote in favor of the bills. Mayor Mark Dykoff and Committeeman David Most opposed.

The bills included a “quite voluminous amount of changes,” Township Administrator Veronica Laureigh said. “I feel we’re already open and cooperative.”

The changes expand what is required under OPRA and would therefore create more work, she said. 

Some of the changes included clarification of what records are public; the expansion of meetings that would be required to tape, including small subcommittees; prohibiting the assessment of special service charges for extensive research in looking up documents for residents; and requiring certain records to be made available on the township’s website.

“We do a very good job here in Lacey,” Sharkey said. “Especially with our OPRA requests. Our Municipal Clerk's office does a very good job but this is going to affect other municipalities in the state.”

The bills would also require committee members to reveal any texts or notes sent during meetings, to provide more descriptive agendas and limit add-ons, Laureigh said.

If the Senate approves such changes to OPRA, more staff will be required, Laureigh said. The Municipal Clerk’s office had three OPRA requests submitted on Thursday alone.

“Our staff members spend a great amount of time on OPRA requests,” Dykoff said. “Believe me, I’m all for transparency but we don’t have the staffing to offer help. It’s a mandate without the funding.”

Most agreed that the changes would incur a great amount of costs on Lacey.

One of the bills (S1452) is sponsored by Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex), who tried for 18 months to get the Department of Education to provide information about how the state lost out on a $400 million federal grant, NJ Spotlight reported.

While Buono was able to obtain much of the information necessary, NJ Spotlight reported that she is unsure of what she didn’t see. Buono said she was able to work around barriers through avenues that the average citizen would not have had and obtaining public records shouldn’t be that difficult.

“I’ve been an advocate of open transparent government for my entire legislative career,” said Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen), Senate Majority Leader and primary sponsor of the bills (S1451 and S1452).

“There are a lot of towns passing resolutions (in opposition to the changes),” Weinberg told Patch. “The bills have gone through further tweaking. Some misunderstand what the bills say; some aren’t looking at the latest version. All of these communities should find ways to make it easier to comply with the law instead of finding roadblocks between them and the public.”

One of the bills regarding OPRA has not been updated for 40 years while the other hasn’t been updated for 10, she said.

“When they were originally written, the word Internet didn’t even exist,” she said. “They needed updating with the technological advances that we have today.”

Many of the changes were based on court case rulings, she said. Over the years, government has become more complex and everything elected officials do should be open with some exceptions.

“Everything we do is owned by the public,” she said.

The bills have undergone many changes through compromising with the Municipal Clerks Association, Weinberg said. For example, the bills originally allowed for a shorter timeframe for compliance to OPRA.

The bills allow towns to do more electronically if they have the capability, she said. For example, directing residents to the township webpage for records, contracts and budgets.

“We’re not pushing them to spend money on any of these things,” she said. “In some ways it should be easier for communities… Towns are only looking at what they perceive to be the negative part of this.”

Bob Hearn of Lanoka Harbor showed concern that the municipality would be opposed to these OPRA changes.

“We have a president (and federal government) who is stonewalling the general public every day,” he said. “I would hate to see New Jersey get in the position where the towns and people can do the same thing.”

The expansion of definitions would make it difficult for the clerk’s office to accommodate some of the requests, Township Attorney Lauren Staiger said.

“Municipalities lose a lot of money in just manpower and time in being able to accommodate with the current legislation,” she said. “So to expand it even more, a short staffed municipality would be spending even more money and time in providing responses.”

Resident Regina Discenza, a frequent user of OPRA, is in favor of the changes Buono is pushing for, as there have been times when she was unable to obtain detailed information about subcommittee meetings because currently there is no requirement for minutes or tape recordings.

“The new changes will also make it easier for citizens to access records and makes more records available,” she said. “More transparency is definitely better.”

Many other municipalities are considering passing similar resolutions while the legislation is still pending, Laureigh said. Laureigh will send the resolutions opposing the changes to the Senate.

The statements for the proposed bills S1451, S1452, S465, S546 are attached to this story as PDFs.