Tell NJ Lawmakers to Protect Government Transparency

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Transparency and government accountability are fundamental to democracy, but New Jersey lawmakers are currently trying to rush through S2930/A4045, a bill that would gut the Open Public Records Act (OPRA).

If this bill passes, it will severely limit the public’s ability to access public records and hold government officials accountable.

New Jersey must remain committed to the principles of democracy and the public’s right to access public records. To do that, we must not let this bill rollback the protections of OPRA.

Send a message to your elected officials and urge them to protect government transparency and accountability by voting NO on S2930/A4045.

Message recipients:
Governor Phil Murphy
Senate President, Nicholas P. Scutari
Assembly Speaker, Craig J. Coughlin
Majority Leader, Senator Teresa Ruiz
Majority Leader, Assemblyman Louis Greenwald
Members of the Assembly Appropriations Committee

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Subject No Rollbacks on OPRA; Vote No on S2930/A4045

There is no democracy without government transparency. By requiring overly specific information for requests, removing mandatory fee shifting provisions, and restricting access to emails and call logs, S2930/A4045 severely limits the public’s ability to access public information.

I’m urging NJ Lawmakers to protect transparency in New Jersey’s government, and VOTE NO on S2930/A4045.

Message Body

• When an OPRA request is denied, the requestor has the right to engage an attorney to file a lawsuit. Under the current law, the requestor’s attorney can have their fees paid for by the government body if they win the lawsuit. If they lose the case, the attorney does not get paid. S2930/A4045 removes this mandatory fee-shifting provision, meaning attorneys would have to take these cases with the understanding they may not get paid even if they do win. This will make it extremely difficult for requestor to find attorneys willing to take their case and many unlawful denials will go unchallenged.

• S2930/A4045 strips access to email and call logs. Email and call logs are incredibly useful records that provide insight into daily government correspondence. Including these records in OPRA responses is an automated process that does not create additional work for clerks.

• S2930/A4045 increases the amount of specific information requestors must include to receive requested records and requires requestors to use mandated forms for each request. These provisions make the process unnecessarily burdensome and make it much easier for government bodies to deny requests for minor technical reasons.

• S2930/A4045 includes the creation of the Police Record Access Improvement Task Force. The proposed membership of this task force is skewed in favor of police enforcement and government perspectives. Instead of creating a task force, lawmakers should join the majority of states in the U.S. and advance legislation to make police disciplinary records available to the public.

New Jersey must remain committed to the principles of democracy, including supporting the right of the public to request access to government information. New Jersey lawmakers can reaffirm the Garden State’s commitment to transparent government by voting NO on S2930/A4045.

Sincerely,

[First Name] [Last Name]

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Tell NJ Lawmakers to Protect Government Transparency

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