{"id":516,"date":"2018-10-22T18:32:53","date_gmt":"2018-10-22T18:32:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.teanecktoday.com\/blog\/?p=516"},"modified":"2018-11-22T13:06:20","modified_gmt":"2018-11-22T13:06:20","slug":"we-need-opra-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.teanecktoday.com\/blog\/teaneck\/we-need-opra-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"We need OPRA reform"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tomorrow, I&#8217;m requesting the Council put forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.teanecktoday.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/204-2018-GRC-OPRA.pdf\">Resolution 204-2018<\/a>\u00a0to:\u00a0Call for the Legislature to Amend the Open Public Records Act to Permit\u00a0Municipalities to Rely on the Government Records Council as a Defense to\u00a0Attorneys&#8217; Fees or to Abolish the Government Records Council Altogether.<\/p>\n<p>The Open Public Records Act is an extremely important step towards transparency in NJ.\u00a0 It permits residents to seek information from their elected representatives and to know, relatively quickly, what is happening at the municipal and county levels<sup>1<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>But like any legislation, there are some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nj.gov\/grc\/meetings\/present\/OPRA%20Exemptions%20(2015).pdf\">exemptions<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nj.gov\/grc\/public\/question\/\">calls<\/a> to be made.\u00a0 The exemptions are few, with an emphasis on disclosure.\u00a0 If you have an issue regarding an OPRA request, there&#8217;s also a place you can turn:\u00a0The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.state.nj.us\/grc\/\">Government Records Council.<\/a><!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Created under OPRA, the Government Records Council:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Responds to inquiries and complaints about the law from the public and public agency records custodians<\/li>\n<li>Issues public information about the law and services provided by the Council<\/li>\n<li>Maintains a toll-free help-line and Web site to assist the public and records custodians<\/li>\n<li>Issues advisory opinions on the accessibility of government records<\/li>\n<li>Delivers training on the law<\/li>\n<li>Provides mediation of disputes about access to government records<\/li>\n<li>Resolves disputes regarding access to government records<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The GRC has a devoted hotline for disputes and one of it&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nj.gov\/grc\/about\/\">stated purposes<\/a> is to &#8220;resolve[] disputes regarding access to government records&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The custodian of records can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nj.gov\/grc\/public\/question\/\">call for guidance<\/a>, if needed.\u00a0 The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nj.gov\/grc\/decisions\/search\/index.shtml\">opinions<\/a> the GRC provides are for the purpose of advising the public and municipalities about how to deal with OPRA related disputes.\u00a0 But that reliance is not a defense for the municipality if the GRC is determined to be wrong, by a Judge.<\/p>\n<p>As an example, in\u00a0Scheeler v. Ad. Cnty. Mun. Joint. Ins. Fund. N.J. Super. (App Div.\u00a0May 16, 2018), the Appellate Division rejected a GRC opinion that OPRA contained a citizenship requirement.\u00a0 The municipalities (including neighboring Paramus) that had relied on the GRC opinion, not only lost the case against them, but were also required to pay attorneys&#8217; fees.<\/p>\n<p>In the past, many residents (as well as the town) have had issues resolved by the GRC and several have sued in Superior Court related to denials of access.<\/p>\n<p>The advisory opinions drafted by the GRC in their role of resolving disputes regarding access should be permitted by OPRA to allow municipalities to rely on them as a method of knowing what is appropriate.<\/p>\n<p>If the Township can rely on the decision of the GRC, and still find themselves to be liable for attorneys&#8217; fees and statutory penalties, what exactly is the purpose of the GRC issuing the opinion in the first instance?<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, I am requesting that the township join others (such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.paramusborough.org\/AgendaCenter\/ViewFile\/Minutes\/_07112018-469\">Paramus<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.northarlington.org\/\">North Arlington<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ho-ho-kusboro.com\/vertical\/sites\/%7B3CE9DD32-C41A-4F77-920B-857DDAB7E2B1%7D\/uploads\/7-24-18_Combined_MC_Work_-_Regular_Meeting_Minutes.pdf\">Ho-Ho-Kus<\/a>), who have already asked the State to institute a simple and clear reform to OPRA: Give the GRC teeth to advise us or remove it.<\/p>\n<p>Bottom line: If the Town asks the GRC for advice and follows it, we should not be punished for doing so.<\/p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.teanecktoday.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/204-2018-GRC-OPRA.pdf\" class=\"pdfemb-viewer\" style=\"\" data-width=\"max\" data-height=\"max\" data-toolbar=\"bottom\" data-toolbar-fixed=\"off\">204-2018 (GRC OPRA)<\/a>\n<hr \/>\n<ol>\n<li>I will ignore for the moment, the fact that the State exempts itself from the openness and transparency provided by OPRA.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tomorrow, I&#8217;m requesting the Council put forward Resolution 204-2018\u00a0to:\u00a0Call for the Legislature to Amend the Open Public Records Act to Permit\u00a0Municipalities to Rely on the Government Records Council as a Defense to\u00a0Attorneys&#8217; Fees or to Abolish the Government Records Council Altogether. The Open Public Records Act is an extremely important step towards transparency in NJ.\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-meetings","category-teaneck"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>We need OPRA reform - Teaneck Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.teanecktoday.com\/blog\/teaneck\/we-need-opra-reform\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"We need OPRA reform - Teaneck Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In addition to protections against the few individuals using OPRA as a weapon against the Town, the NJ Legislature should either provide that a good-faith reliance on the opinions of the Government Records Council (created by the Open Public Records Act or &quot;OPRA&quot;) is a defense against attorneys&#039; fees -- or have the GRC stop issuing them.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.teanecktoday.com\/blog\/teaneck\/we-need-opra-reform\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Teaneck Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-10-22T18:32:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-11-22T13:06:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Keith Kaplan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"In addition to protections against the few individuals using OPRA as a weapon against the Town, the NJ Legislature should either provide that a good-faith reliance on the opinions of the Government Records Council (created by the Open Public Records Act or &quot;OPRA&quot;) is a defense against attorneys&#039; fees -- or have the GRC stop issuing them.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Cm_Keith Kaplan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Keith Kaplan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.teanecktoday.com\\\/blog\\\/teaneck\\\/we-need-opra-reform\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.teanecktoday.com\\\/blog\\\/teaneck\\\/we-need-opra-reform\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Keith Kaplan\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.teanecktoday.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/cbad47e1768fb15e1321fb9e5fbd012c\"},\"headline\":\"We need OPRA reform\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-10-22T18:32:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-11-22T13:06:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.teanecktoday.com\\\/blog\\\/teaneck\\\/we-need-opra-reform\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":548,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"Meetings\",\"Teaneck\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.teanecktoday.com\\\/blog\\\/teaneck\\\/we-need-opra-reform\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.teanecktoday.com\\\/blog\\\/teaneck\\\/we-need-opra-reform\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.teanecktoday.com\\\/blog\\\/teaneck\\\/we-need-opra-reform\\\/\",\"name\":\"We need OPRA reform - 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