Take advantage of
revised access law
Next week the rules regarding government re-cords that the public has access to will dramatically change for the better.
In January – in the closing hours of the last Legislature – a much needed improvement of New Jersey’s open public records law was passed and signed into law.
The changes that officially go into effect Monday will allow the actual owners – that would be ordinary people – to see and obtain copies of records central to the way government at every level, with the notable exception of the state Legislature, is operating.
When voting on the law, state legislators saw fit to exempt themselves from its provisions. While that is regrettable, even partial improved access the public records is better than what the state now has.
The new law not only spells out what sort of records are available (all except a handful of exceptions specifically noted in the law) but also sets a specific time frame in which someone making a request can expect a reply.
In most cases the response should be almost immediate, and the longest anyone is expected to wait is seven operating days.
Failure to respond to a proper request, which will mean filling out the appropriate form, can result in serious penalties, both for the government agency and the individual responsible for the failure to respond.
In addition to spelling out exactly what public records are to be available, the new law has a meaningful enforcement provision that calls for fines and legal costs to be assessed against the government agency, and in certain cases directly against the person responsible for a failure to comply.
For anyone who has ever been told, "That’s not available today," or "We don’t have to give you that," the ability to enforce a request is an important one.
It also is worth noting that the law refers to records, not just documents. If a person requests records in a format other than a printed page, such as on a computer disk or CD-ROM, they are entitled to those records in that format, if they exist that way.
What is important now is for the public to take advantage of the new rules. There is a great deal that governments, particularly local governments, do that affects us all every day.
If you want know why or how things are being done, the only way to find out is to ask.