The resolution says that “the bills would impose a financial burden on municipalities that would not be offset by a revenue source other than the property tax, making the bills unfunded mandates prohibited by the New Jersey Constitution.”
Shamong Town Committee voted unanimously in support of a resolution to oppose legislative proposals regarding the Open Public Meetings Act and Open Public Records Act.
In June, the state Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee took action on two bills, numbers 1045 and 1046, which, according to the Shamong committee’s resolution, “would expand the Open Public Meeting Act to create impractical and burdensome requirements with respect to subcommittees and working groups established by the entire governing body, which would effectively limit the ability of small groups of local officials discussing issues of public concern for the purposes of informing the governing body.”
The resolution adds that “the bills would impose a financial burden on municipalities that would not be offset by a revenue source other than the property tax, making the bills unfunded mandates prohibited by the New Jersey Constitution.”
The resolution also included language explaining that Shamong simply does not have the resources necessary to accommodate such legislation, which is a topic Mayor Tim Gimbel addressed at the meeting.
“In a town like us, all these records that people come and ask for, we keep them on paper still,” Gimbel said. “So someone physically has to go find that document, and it takes time. We don’t have everything computerized.”
“It sounds less than optimal to be saying we’re opposing provisions to the open public meeting act, but the reality is that almost all of the OPRA submissions that come in are for public records,” said Doug Heinold, Shamong Township’s solicitor. “I think the statistics are that over 80 percent of them are commercial in nature. And there’s another percentage where there are people who needed public records requests — I won’t say for a non-legitimate reason — but in a harassing way. I don’t think, especially in small towns, that the Legislature realizes the impact it has on the day-to-day operations of a municipality when the clerk has to drop everything and respond to a request. [Township Administrator] Sue [Onorato] has some help in the office, but if they have other duties to fulfill and we get these requests in, it can be really cumbersome and a real problem.”
The resolution did not make clear which aspect of the bills the committee took issue with. However, according to bill 1046, committees would be mandated that “government records shall be readily accessible for inspection, copying, or examination [by the citizens of this state].”
In other news:
• Committee voted in favor of awarding a bid to Robert H. Hoover and Sons for the purchase of a 2018 Western Star snow plow truck at a cost of $159,239.
• Committee voted in favor of executing a grant contract for the repaving of Oakshade Road.
