Gov. Murphy, do you want to pull NJ backward? Veto OPRA 'reform' and push us forward
In a hastily called vote on Monday, our state’s legislative leaders jammed though a rollback of New Jersey's landmark Open Public Records Ac, or OPRA, putting new restrictions on citizens’ rights to public information. Instead of envisioning how to modernize the law, seizing on the new information technology developed since the law passed more than 20 years ago, the legislation takes us backward, putting in place roadblocks designed to reduce transparency.
By vetoing this ill-advised gutting of OPRA, Gov. Phil Murphy can move us forward, providing New Jersey residents with the information they need to devise and advance their own solutions to the challenges facing their communities. Murphy’s veto can open the opportunity for a better way, one that lays a foundation for tapping our residents’ common sense and desire to improve their hometowns — one that uses technology to turbocharge citizen participation.
At The Citizen Service, we teach citizens how to research local policies in their communities. We then teach them to advance proposals to improve them with a no-blame approach. This also benefits the public dialogue by moving the focus to solutions, instead of finger-pointing and ideological gridlock.
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We can now modernize the law to deliver more information to citizens in the most efficient way. For example, we could mandate that local and county governments have all policies, authorizing ordinances and resolutions included in a searchable database. This kind of change would also have the significant benefit of cutting down on the number of open-records requests.
A strong, modernized open-records act is foundational for citizens’ full democratic participation. Murphy should strengthen the existing law to create easier and more universal access to government records. This is how to better tap the pragmatism and ingenuity of our citizens in the fight to overcome today’s many challenges.
The Legislature’s cynical rollback of the Open Public Records Law is just part of a larger rollback of democracy. Expanding political donation limits for government contractors and attempts to reign in the state comptroller, are just a few more pieces of the picture of democratic decline here in the Garden State.
Murphy can choose to respect New Jersey’s citizens and restore the hope needed to fuel a vibrant pro-democracy movement here in New Jersey and beyond. Or the governor can join with our Legislature and, in the process, demonstrate his disrespect for the citizens of New Jersey.
Harry Pozycki, founder of The Citizen Service, helped lead the successful fights for the adoption of the Party Democracy Act, the Open Public Records Act, and New Jersey's state and local pay-to-play laws. For more information and access to training, visit https://thecitizenscampaign.org/
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Phil Murphy must veto OPRA 'reform'
