Open records law
vital to protecting democracy
EDITORIAL, thnt.com
Online, July 7, 2007
New Jersey's Open Public Records Act
turned five years old this week, yet access to government information still
isn't what was promised. Some uninformed or uninterested government
clerks to this day don't know the law, whole categories of records remain under
lock and key, and when information is parceled out sometimes it isn't what was
requested or isn't very useful in the form that it's delivered.
Even so, most who have a desire to view the intimate dealings of government in
action — from gadflies, to news reporters, to the curious citizen once in a
while — are a far sight better off in the New Jersey of today than they were in
the New Jersey of before. People tend to forget that back then the state's
citizens were stymied in their search for even routine government records by the
stingiest public access law in the nation. While abuses might still
happen, by and large the quest is much easier today.
That said, there is no denying that the law, known as OPRA, works best when it
gets worked aggressively by the public and the politician alike, meaning
citizens ought to remain on watch for abuses, and elected officials ought to
stay mindful that it is their obligation to streamline the process and expand it
to new records whenever possible.
Government does, after all, belong to its citizens. Elected
officials are merely the servant class. When this relationship gets
flipped on its head, as too often happens, excesses are inevitable. The
ability of the public to peer inside that machinery, to ensure that its gears
are in proper working order, is a basic necessity of effective representative
democracy. So here's to OPRA, imperfect as it may be. Happy
birthday.
(Emphasis added)
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