Is that an Open Public Records Act handbook in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?

by: Rosi Efthim

Thu May 19, 2011 at 06:57:25 PM EDT

This event's way in the future - a free OPRA seminar Aug. 11 - but the release dropped today and it's likely to fall off my radar screen.

When I was a reporter, I spent most of a year covering a school district where negotiations broke down between the local teachers' union and the school board. As strike approached, dozens of tense parents sat through dry, detailed board meetings, punctuated by high drama. This was a small town. I was the only reporter in the room.

This board went into executive session frequently. And I got very familiar with the Open Public Meetings Act. My hand shot up every time they tried to take the meeting private. Sometimes they were entitled to; sometime they couldn't supply a qualifying reason, and had to continue in public. (They hated me).

Months into it, a parent mentioned she wished she had the power to bring the school board to a halt the way I sometimes did. She assumed it was some kind of power of the press. That never occurred to me. So I offered a clinic on the Sunshine Act. More than 70 people showed up.

What happened, after the jump ...

Rosi Efthim :: Is that an Open Public Records Act handbook in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?

Next meeting when they announced executive session, dozens of hands shot up to ask the reason. I never forgot the lesson of how powerful OPMA and its sister OPRA are in the hands of citizens.

Your NJ state government, via NJ Government Records Council, will be hosting a free seminar on OPRA - the Open Public Records Act in August:

OPRA Seminar for the Public - Free
Thursday, Aug. 11
New Jersey State Museum Auditorium, Trenton
Pre-registrationis required by July 29: email grc@dca.state.nj.us to register

It's important to point out how critical it is that our government at all levels is observed by alert citizens. New Jersey's Government Records Council, which offers this seminar, has itself been sued for violating OPRA. OPRA and OPMA have recently been overhauled. As the Christie administration rolls on, it's obvious some of the information we're entitled to about their actions will have to be forced to hand over. The more of us engaged in keeping our government's workings as transparent as possible - advocacy groups and individuals - the better.

Tags: NJ Government Records Council, GRC, OPMA, OPRA, Open Government, Sunshine Law, (All Tags)

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Is that an Open Public Records Act handbook in your pocket or are you just glad to see me? | 2 comments

Great topic, Rosie (0.00 / 0)

I'll never forget when the Tenafly Planning Board tried to silence me and call a closed session when I was giving a presentation on my proposed Floor Area Ordinance - which corrected the problems with the one previously presented by the Planning Board. They didn't like being shown up with a reporter in the room.

There were no members of the public and they thought they had me outnumbered. But Seth Augenstein from the Suburbanite saved me. He raised his hand and told the Chairman he couldn't call a closed session which was against the Open Public Meetings Act.

The story that went into the newspaper that week was about the Chairman's attempt to misuse the closed session to silence me and a major editorial followed in the paper about how what the Chairman tried to do was illegal.

I was forever grateful to that reporter for standing up to the Chairman. We need to know our rights especially as we see the Republican Senators in Wisconsin try to silence their Democratic Senators. It could easily happen here.

Unfortunately, my upstart reputation made sure I was no longer on the Planning Board the next year - the Mayor made sure he pressured the Council to give him a completely obsequious Planning Board with no one to object to HIS agenda.

But I still savor the memory of Seth raising his hand to object to the attempt to stifle democracy. After I left the meeting and my materials on the table, I found out later that the Board had to continue the meeting in the open and was caught telling the staff to use my materials and come up with a solution so that they could get "the credit" for it.

EVERY NJ citizen needs to know how to prevent these illegal closed sessions. Without transparency, democracy is a goner.

One Vote. Yours. It really does matter.

by: carolh @ Fri May 20, 2011 at 12:31:08 PM UTC