Jackson Township has unanimously voted on a resolution that appeals to legislators to form a commission to reconsider the Open Public Records Act, widely known as OPRA, which mandates that government records must be made available to the public, with few exceptions.
In the resolution, Jackson Township says that it supports the concept of records being available for the public to see, but that it has “spiraled out of control.” The township says that they simply cannot keep up with the number of requests being made by Jackson residents for information relating to their governance and that it also has been prone to abuse and misuse, although specifics describing how the law has been abused were not included in the resolution.
Think about this for a moment. For 18 years, OPRA has been, as the resolution states, a “positive light,” allowing citizens to see the inner workings of their local governments. Yet Jackson wants to do away with that. If there truly are too many OPRA requests being made, Jackson should then hire more clerks so that they can be transparent. Instead, Jackson wants state legislators to change the laws so that they don’t have to be bothered with the citizens who elected them.
The resolution begins by saying that Jackson “strongly believes in and supports open, transparent government.” If that were truly the case, wouldn’t they simply comply by the law instead of trying to change it?
It is not a secret that Jackson has come under legal scrutiny over certain behaviors by Township officials. Some of those behaviors were documented and released to the public by way of the OPRA process. Is this why Jackson now wants lawmakers to change the laws so that they won’t get into further trouble?
Citizens have a right to know about the inner workings of their government. This resolution clearly shows that Jackson Township’s claims of being supportive of open and transparent government are nothing more than lip service intended to placate the masses.
Nov 12 - 373R-19 - Study Commission to review OPRA
Wow..i am doing an opra now as they should stop hiding the truth
If they would do things properly, there would fewer OPRA requests!
“Voter” you hit the nail on the head! The reason why there are so many OPRA requests is precisely because the Jackson elected officials have allowed their bias to corrupt their governance.
LOL!
What an unmitigated breathtaking chutzpah!
Which law-abiding citizen in their right mind would do away with OPRA?
As the wizard said, “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!”
Toms River just passed this same ordinance.
1. Submit an OPRA request to the clerk and ask for, “a copy of the status logs of all OPRA requests submitted to Jackson in 2019, 2018 and 2017”.
2. Download the towns audited annual reports for the last 3 years from the municipal website, and find out how much has been spent on the township law firm & the township ethics committee.
3. With any ordinance you can find out the sponsor of that ordinance. Just submit an OPRA request and ask for, “all the backup pertaining to this ordinance, including the sponsor of the law”.
4. If this ordinance has no basis, and it may not, sue the township in municipal court for official misconduct.