League Applauds OPRA Reform Law

Trenton–NJLM Executive Director Michael F. Cerra issued the following statement in response to the Governor signing into law S-2930, which makes various and long-overdue reforms to the Open Public Records Act.

“We appreciate the Governor’s action in signing the OPRA reform legislation into law. The bipartisan legislation preserves transparency, enhances privacy protections, provides fairness with the awarding of attorney’s fees, and perhaps most importantly, provides relief to government agencies for costs which are paid for by the property taxpayer.

This new law is not perfect. We would have preferred it to go further, for example, to offer protections against data mining and begin the study of police records. The law is a product of years of discussion and compromise and, taken as a whole, modernizes a two-decades-old statute that was a product of the 20^th, not 21^st, century.   While we will continue to push for additional necessary reforms, those found in the legislation signed today are a positive step.

Now the League and its partners will pivot to provide the necessary training and education to assure that the tools provided in S-2930 enhance transparency, improve privacy protections, and realize much-needed relief for our taxpayers.

Our thanks to Governor Murphy, Senate President Scutari, Assembly Speaker Coughlin, Senate Republican Leader Bucco and Assembly Republican Leader DiMaio, Senators Sarlo and Bucco and Assembly Representatives Danielsen and Flynn, and the Legislature for acting on long-overdue reform.”

For more information, contact Executive Director Michael Cerra at 609-695-3481, ext. 120.

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