More information made public with new order

TRENTON — Gov. James E. McGreevey will allow more information to flow in the Garden State.

McGreevey issued a second executive order Tuesday that will lift many of the impediments his previous order placed on the Open Public Records Act last month.

"This administration remains committed to open, accessible government and to ensuring the successful implementation of the Open Public Records Act," the order states.

The new order removes 508 of 583 exemptions requested by state agencies.

The Open Public Records Act, passed last year, was the last measure signed into law by acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco in January. It updated a 38-year-old law to open public records.

The new law places the burden of proof from those requesting the information onto those who hold it. It provides a seven-day time limit for agencies to respond to requests. The new law took effect on July 8, but McGreevey signed Executive Order 21 three days prior with 583 exemptions added to the new law.

His new executive order, Order 26, retracts most of those exemptions and clarifies others that are either modified or maintained under the new order.

Instead of the 583 exemptions, 75 remain, with 52 of them modified, and only 23 maintained from the previous order.

"We have been successful in renegotiating Executive Order 21," New Jersey Press Association (NJPA) President John O’Brien said Tuesday afternoon.

The association represents many daily and weekly publications throughout the state.

"Executive Order 26 significantly limits the scope of that executive order (21)," O’Brien said.

O’Brien said that the association is still in "intense negotiations" with McGreevey and his staff with respect to the proposed regulations.

The regulations governing the new law are expected to be enacted in October.

O’Brien said that NJPA attorney, Tom Cafferty, who helped create the new law, is working to help decide what may be kept confidential due to terrorism and national security.

O’Brien explained that while many things should be public, the association can see the need to keep some things confidential, such as the ventilation and security systems of a nuclear reactor.

"There is no reason for that to be made public," he said.

O’Brien said that the first order inhibited the spirit of the new law because the order was vaguely worded.

— Charles W. Kim