Open Public Records Act Needs To Be Looked At, Berkeley Council Says

BERKELEY, NJ — The Berkeley Township Council is asking for the state to come up with a better plan for Open Public Records Act requests.

Ten minutes of the most recent meeting were spent discussing Open Public Records Act (OPRA) requests.

OPRA is New Jersey's equivalent to the federal Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), that provides the public the right to access public records. While often used by journalists, anyone is allowed to request records for any reason, and can even do so anonymously.

There are few limits to the law, as some records may contain private information that are exempt, but overall, agencies are generally not allowed to deny requests and there is no limit to the number of requests an individual can submit to a specific agency.

These are the problems the Council cited in asking for a better idea.

"This year, so far, the township has paid $79,876.50 for OPRA requests," Councilman John Bacchione said.

As township clerk, Beverly Carle is the one who has to deal with the requests. "That's only for attorneys," Carle added about the cost. "That is not the cost of the work that goes into it within this building."

Bacchione called for a resolution to be send to state legislators to "come up with a solution where it doesn't hurt the municipalities who are answering all these OPRA requests."

The Council and administration shared issues with OPRA and wanted to bring these along with solutions to the state.

Officials asked for there to be more specificity in requests and to limit how many requests one person can make.

Lauren Staiger, the township attorney, mentioned issues with fee-shifting, where if a person brings a "frivolous lawsuit against the township" pertaining to OPRA violations, the township has to pay their attorney fees but the person does not.

"The township is paying for every time this has been litigated," Staiger explained.

"Not one change has been made to the New Jersey law," CFO Frederick Ebenau said, citing a similar Florida law that has undergone many revisions over the years.

Another concern brought up was even that if the information is freely available on the township's website, the request still has to be fulfilled.

"Let's hope that the state legislature is fair and balanced with the decision that they make on this," Bacchione said. "This is a serious problem and costing the taxpayers a lot of money."