'This was the right place to land'

Murphy defends bill that guts OPRA

By: Katie Sobko
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... A day after signing legislation to gut public access to government records and data, Governor Phil Murphy continued to defend his decision, saying on Thursday [06/06/2024] that it had been "Tough call" but that the law needed to be updated and "we also needed to preserve as best we could transparency."
..... After an unrelated event, the governor told reporters he had productive meetings with people both for and against the bill and said he ultimately decided signing the legislation was his best course of action.
..... "It's 22 years since it was first signed into law. My guess is it's not the last time it'll be looked at and updated," Murphy said.
..... Murphy also said the Government Records Council, or GRC, will expand and get more funding and more responsibility with the new law, and will include "serous-minded people from both sides of the aisle" and that those names will be announced soon.
..... State Senate Minority Leader Anthony Bucco, a sponsor of the bill, said the additional funding for the GRC will "help their efficiency and effectiveness."
..... Buccon was not on hand to vote for the bill when it appeared before the state Senate last month. [05/2024] He said that was because he had COVID-19 at the time.
..... Though advocates have said the new law will lead to further corruption, Murphy said it wouldn't happen because the GRC will "Watch" and have a "very powerful voice." He said the assumption there will be more corruption is the "wrong impression."
..... He wouldn't comment directly on whether or not the OPRA bill was part of a deal with legislative leaders to advance other prats of his own agenda but said that"you're always trying to find compromise and common ground with folks" and "you want to get to a place where everybody feels good about things, and this is part of a broader tapestry" but that ultimately decisions are made on the merit of the bills themselves
..... "I respect the folks who don't like this. I think they've got proper intent, and I have nothing but repsect for that," Murphy said. "the end of the day, within the bill itself, this was the right place to land.
..... Assemblyman Brian Bergen had been among the governor's critics. He said Thursday [06/06/2024] that by signing the bill the "governor failed the people of New Jersey."
..... "That's not something new. What;s new is the level of chicanery that went on behind the scenes to get it done and how many others are complicit in the act," Bergen said. "It's a sad day for those who may have been hopeful that government would do the right thing."

How did we get here?

..... The bill was introduced to the Legislature in March. [2024] while it sped through the state Senate budget committee chaired by its sponsor, state Senator Paul Sarlo, a Bergen County Democrat, it was pulled from consideration by the assembly Appropriation committee for amendments just minutes before it was scheduled to be heard."
..... Advocates recognized at that time that the bill would likely not be gone for long. It reappeared in mid-May [2024] in committee in both chambers where it was met with hours of testimony in opposition. Ultimately, it cleared both committees and passed by both full chambers within five days.
..... Before its approval in the Legislature, lawmakers said the bill was needed to cut down on commercial records requests and data brokering, but provisions to limit the latter were removed from the final bill and commercial entities can how have their requests expedited -for a fee.
..... In drafting the bill, the legislation's sponsors are listening to the concerns of small-town New Jersey mayors, according to State Senate President Nicholas Scutari.
..... "This isn't about us," said Scutari, who noted the Legislature is exempt from OPRA requests. "This is what I heard on my first day as Senate president at the League of Municipalities when I wans;t even sworn in yet, he said.

How will OPRA be impacted?

..... The new law implements stricter requirements on how to request things like texts and emails, including specific accounts, times, topics and titles.
..... There are modifications to the provision limiting access to meta-data to allow for access only to the "proportion that identifies authorship, identity of editor, and time of change."
..... The fee-shifting provision previously required public record custodians that had not, according to a judge, properly provided records to pay the requesters' attorney fees.
..... Now the law eliminates the attorney fee requirement but does allow for judges to decide that fees are warned if the denial was unreasonable, if the agency "acted in bad faith, or knowingly and willfully violated" the law.
..... There is also language that would allow for a court to "issue a protective order limiting the number and scope of requests the requester may make" if they "sought records with the intent to substantially interrupt the performance of government function."
..... the initial OPRA legislation was first enacted in 2002 and required local, county and state government entities to provide the pubic with access to government records in New Jersey.

..... Katie Sobko covers the New Jersey Statehouse. Email: sobko@northjersey.com.

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