Good Intentions

Every year, state senators and assemblymen propose laws that would diminish OPRA’s powers. None has been passed, but they keep popping up.

Meanwhile, pressure is coming from the local level: West Milford, after losing a costly OPRA lawsuit, has become the latest in a string of towns that want to repeal a provision that forces municipalities to pay plaintiffs’ legal fees. Two other towns want to rewrite OPRA so they can decide what information to release or not.

And one of the governor’s transition team reports recently suggested that the price of providing documents to citizens should include the cost of labor. In other words, after already paying the salary of the municipal clerk, and after buying the copier and the paper, taxpayers should pay again for the clerk to make a copy of a meeting agenda. That extra cost will discourage healthy inquisitiveness.

I guess putting records online for everyone to see at their leisure is just crazy talk! This is why we need to take back the country at the local level. Gotta love New Jersey.