Lights out: Gov. Phil Murphy now presides over execution of transparency in New Jersey

Darkness descends on New Jersey.

The New Jersey Open Public Records Act — considered a national gold standard for the open access it provided to public data and government documents — has been decimated.

With the stroke of Gov. Phil Murphy’s pen this week, OPRA and government transparency were dispatched to a cruel and needless death.

In an instant, Murphy traded in his legacy — likely for the price of the Legislature’s support of a corporate tax to fund NJ Transit.

A self-avowed champion of good government, a governor who said he was “all in on transparency,” is clearly not.

Murphy’s signature on legislation billed by its sponsors as a “reform” egregiously curtailed the public's access to government documents and data. Murphy erased decades of progress in gaining access to documents and information paid for by New Jersey taxpayers.

The bill, which Murphy signed Wednesday, was sponsored by state Sen. Paul Sarlo, a Bergen County Democrat, and co-sponsored by state Sen. Anthony Bucco, R-Morris, and by Assemblyman Joseph Danielsen, D-Somerset, and Assemblywoman Victoria Flynn, R-Monmouth. State Senate President Nicholas Scutari was also a proponent of the legislation.

Hobbling the public’s access to documents and data funded by taxpayers, the new law:

• Continues to limit access to government email and text messages.

• Allows public agencies acting as records custodians to charge outrageous fees to release information — without the burden of demonstrating that the released information is complete.

• Renders it nearly impossible for New Jersey attorneys to combat instances when records requests are denied by public entities. As proposed, the law disables a current feature of OPRA that allows attorneys to recoup fees from agencies that wrongly deny requests.

Murphy has enabled public officials across New Jersey — all of whom collect salaries funded by taxpayers — to shut off access to records and data that should be public. Worse, Murphy signed a bill that allows public agencies to sue people who request documents who could be considered nuisances.

"It’s shameful that despite overwhelming concerns from their constituents, lawmakers fast-tracked, and the governor signed a bill that severely restricts access to government records and limits the public’s ability to hold elected officials accountable," said Sarah Fajardo, policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union in New Jersey.

Shameful, indeed.

A governor who seemed to cherish his legacy as a progressive has abandoned that course.

Murphy’s signature is an indelible stain on his legacy as a progressive, as a Democrat and as a New Jersey governor.

We will remind him of that relentlessly.

An ugly triumph for New Jersey's municipal employee lobby

What drove this legislation forward? How did New Jersey get here?

Municipal employees — and their powerful lobbyists in Trenton — have long complained that they are unduly and unfairly burdened by complying with public records requests.

Indeed, representatives of the New Jersey League of Municipalities and the New Jersey Association of Counties were among the leading proponents of Sarlo’s legislation. Both organizations dispatched officials to testify in its favor. They found willing accomplices in members of the Legislature who are themselves municipal officials, like Sarlo, who is mayor of the borough of Wood-Ridge, and Bucco, an attorney whose livelihood depends on the municipalities he represents.

This week, that cabal welcomed a new member: Murphy.

As we have said, the notion that public employees, paid by taxpayers to do the public’s work, are burdened by doing so is nothing short of ludicrous.

It’s especially galling in a state like New Jersey, where corruption has long been synonymous with politics. Put simply, the Garden State deserves far better civil servants than those who have worked so tirelessly to upend government transparency.

Equally galling was Murphy’s embrace of the argument. In a sprawling five-page memo that accompanied an announcement that he’d signed this horrendous bill, the governor struck a tone columnist Charlie Stile aptly described as self-serving and defensive. Murphy went so far as to go to embrace the arguments advanced by the League and the Association of Counties, writing, “I simply reject the idea that those calling for the bill’s passage are part of a nefarious plot to evade transparency and accountability.”

As we wrote in March, limiting access to government information in New Jersey is tantamount to fueling the fires of political corruption.

It’s that simple.

Earlier: Gov. Murphy signs legislation that dismantles access to public records in NJ

What fantasy is Murphy living in?

Advocates for government transparency will not soon forget Murphy’s odious memo, which portrays a governor suspended in some sort of gauzy alternate reality in which lawmakers, municipal officials and public employees are all imbued by a sense of decency and honesty.

If that had ever been the case, why would have OPRA ever been enacted 22 years ago?

Of course, those of us who do participate in reality know that New Jersey’s politics and the climate surrounding them have long been thick with corruption, greed and even malice.

Assemblyman Brian Bergen, with whom we have disagreed on some issues publicly, has been a staunch advocate for OPRA’s preservation — and for efforts to strengthen laws that promote transparency. Bergen shares our frustration.

“The self-serving nature in which New Jersey politicians govern is nauseating,” the Morris County Republican said. “The governor and lawmakers who voted for this OPRA bill have failed the people. New Jersey deserves better.”

CJ Griffin, an attorney known for her work and advocacy around OPRA, is equally frustrated.

"The governor signing this bill is a gut punch — not only to those who voted for him because they thought he was a progressive, but also the public at large," Griffin said. "No one can credibly say that this bill won't create more secrecy and perhaps what's more angering than Murphy signing the bill is his gaslighting statement defending it and insisting no harm will flow from it."

We urge Bergen and other members of the Legislature who fought the good fight to regroup and to work toward restoring a viable OPRA. We urge advocates like Griffin to join that effort.

We will remain steadfast in support of such efforts.

We will remain resolute in our position that New Jersey voters and taxpayers deserve access to documents and data they pay for.

We will remain resolute in our belief that transparency is not only good for New Jersey politics, but that it is essential.

We will remain deeply suspect of Trenton Democrats who relentlessly work to consolidate their power — even as progressive voters in their party support positive steps like the demise of the county line on our ballots.

We will remain deeply disappointed in Murphy, who should have done the right thing and vetoed this travesty.

We will remain steadfast in our faith in you, our readers, and our hopes that you convey to your representatives in Trenton that this legislation was a grievous error.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ public records laws: Phil Murphy and the death of OPRA