GUEST OPINION, May 9
By: Martin O’Shea
A firm believer that government must be watched, I’ve attended countless meetings of my town council in northern New Jersey. During one of them, an agenda item on cutting the school budget had just started to get interesting when the mayor proposed adjourning to a back room out of earshot of the pesky public.
Before the council could vote, I asked to speak. The mayor told me to shut up and sit down. When I insisted that the council’s rules allowed me to speak, he called the cops. While waiting for the law to arrive, I stated my case with council members which was that any discussion of the school budget at that point should be held in public.
As I was being booked at the police desk, the council voted on whether to hold its discussion in the back room. The public won that night. The council voted 3-2 against going into closed session and discussed the school budget in public.
That’s the way it should have been.
That’s also the way it should be in every municipality, but too often isn’t. Arbitrary and illegal executive sessions are only one of the many ways that the state’s Open Public Meetings Act also known as the Sunshine Law is regularly abused.
The Sunshine Law does recognize legitimate reasons for a public body to meet in private, such as personnel matters, lawsuits or negotiations. Unfortunately, it’s too easy to use those exemptions as excuses for closed sessions on matters that ought to be discussed in the open.
The 31-year-old Open Public Meetings Act is way overdue for an overhaul. It needs to be dragged into the 21st century, over the objections of elected and appointed officials and lobby groups such as the state’s League of Municipalities and Municipal Clerks Association.
The law lacks teeth and is almost never enforced. If my council had gone into a closed meeting that night, there was little I could have done about it. Knowing the county prosecutor wouldn’t act, I once sued over a violation and won what amounted to an empty victory. The Superior Court judge ruled in my favor but didn’t assess a fine. If he had, the maximum would have been $500, which is ridiculous when a pair of sneakers can cost $150.
To be meaningful, the Sunshine Law needs muscle and an agency to enforce it, such as the Government Records Council, which enforces the revised Open Public Records Act and has the power to assess fines up to $5,000.
So while there is no argument about the need for government to be watched, the citizens of New Jersey also need an upgraded open meetings law if the sun is to shine on public meetings more brightly than it does today.
Martin O’Shea, a retired newspaperman, contributed to the drafting of a bill that is pending in the Legislature to reform the state’s Open Public Meetings Act. Details about the bill, S-1219/A-2762, and a petition to support it can be found at http://www.njsunshinelaw.com).

