Northeast
New Jersey legislators advance public records access law overhaul
New Jersey lawmakers pushed ahead Thursday with legislation overhauling the state’s public records access law, reigniting debate over the revisions that stalled earlier this year amid vocal opposition from civil rights and other groups.
The Democrat-led state Senate’s budget committee approved the amended legislation Thursday, with its Assembly counterpart set to take up the bill on Friday.
The bill’s revival comes after Republican minority leader Anthony Bucco signed on to co-sponsor the measure and following agreement on concessions by an influential group behind the legislation that represents the state’s more than 500 towns and cities.
THREE GROUPS ARE SUING NEW JERSEY TO BLOCK AN OFFSHORE WIND FARM
Among the proposed changes is the end of a prohibition on commercial record requests, by real estate developers for instance. Instead, the new measure would allow government clerks up to 14 days to respond to requests for records and allow for commercial interests to pay up to twice the cost of producing the records.
“When both sides are potentially not thrilled you have a good compromise,” Senate Budget Committee chairman Paul Sarlo said.
The General Assembly Chamber of the New Jersey State House in Trenton, New Jersey, is photographed. (Getty Images)
Civil rights groups, citizens and media organizations testified Thursday against the measure, citing in particular the end of what they said was a key component of the law: attorney fee shifting, which under current law provides for government agencies to pay legal fees only if the government is found to have improperly denied records.
That provision is important, according to attorney CJ Griffin who testified in opposition Thursday, because journalists and the public often don’t have the funds to pursue costly legal cases to obtain records.
“If your goal is to handle commercial requests … this bill doesn’t do it,” Griffin said. “This bill instead guts transparency.”
The bill’s sponsors countered that a court could determine that attorneys’ fees were warranted if a government records custodian acted in bad faith.
Another new provision of the proposed measure that drew opposition Thursday was the authorization for lawsuits to be brought in state Superior Court for records that requesters have determined to be interrupting “government function.”
Sarlo said he thought the criticism was inaccurate, but didn’t specify.
Lori Buckelew, a top official with The League of Municipalities that pushed for the legislation, said the changes are necessary to protect taxpayer dollars from the abuses of overburdensome records requests.
Paul Mordany, the mayor of Deptford, New Jersey, said his town has 200 pending requests, only three of which are from town residents. The rest are from lawyers, real estate developers and other commercial interests. The stress wears on the town clerk responsible for handling the requests under the Open Public Records Act, or OPRA, he said.
“I literally sat in her office more than one time as she literally cried over OPRA requests,” he said.
Access to officials’ emails and other public records regularly results in news stories shedding light on how the government works.
In 2018, for instance, the records law resulted in the disclosure of emails showing the then-governor’s administration working with the executives of a utility company lobbying lawmakers for a $300 million bailout for its nuclear plants.
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Connecticut is taking a step to make sure workers are paid fairly.
On June 30, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont signed Public Act 26-17, which enables the State Comptroller to issue a stop work order and withhold state funds to contractors that are not properly paying their employees.
The bill was signed on the construction site for Greeneville Elementary School, which is one of the four new elementary schools being built in Norwich. The State of Connecticut is reimbursing the city for 80% of the project, and the law applies to “any place where the state is making a payment,” Lamont said.
Wage theft can take many forms
It matters because wage theft can take many forms, from money taken from base pay, to money not given in benefits, Kimberly Glassman, director of compliance and government affairs for the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 478, said.
Local 478 also has a presence in the Norwich school building project, with 10 to 20 union members working at each site daily, Glassman said.
What do state leaders think of the Greeneville site’s progress?
Lamont is impressed with how quickly the work is going.
“They told me that the walls went up in the last two weeks, so a lot of progress is happening,” he said.
During the bill signing, Norwich Mayor Swarnjit Singh touted the importance of using union labor and the value of project labor agreements.
“We are on time and on budget,” he said.
After the bill signing, Singh said its possible the Greeneville School building could be complete as soon as the first quarter of 2027, he said.
“They’re not wasting any time,” Singh said.
State Rep. Derrel Wilson attended the original Greeneville School as a kid, and still lives in Greeneville. He was credited as being one of the driving forces for getting the workers bill passed.
“It’s exciting seeing this revitalization for our neighborhood, seeing active construction and watching individuals rebuild our community,” Wilson said.
Massachusetts
Massachusetts dad on ‘adventure of a lifetime’ left fighting for his life in Fiji after noticing bug bite
A trip of a lifetime quickly turned into an unimaginable nightmare for a Massachusetts father who is fighting for his life halfway across the world after being bitten by a bug.
Scott and Claire Winslow always dreamt of sailing across the South Pacific with their family — and in April, they were finally able to turn their dream into a reality when they embarked on an “adventure of a lifetime” to enjoy their retirement, according to an online fundraiser.
But just weeks into the three-month sailing voyage, Scott noticed what appeared to be a bug bite and his health rapidly deteriorated, WBZ-TV reported.
His condition worsened for nearly two weeks while at sea alongside his nephew, and by the time their ship made it to land in Fiji, he was so weak that he was unable to walk.
The father-of-three was rushed to a local hospital, where doctors discovered the severity of his infection.
“By the time they got to a doctor, he was so sick,” Scott’s daughter Lisa Babbin told the outlet.
Scott was then transferred from a private hospital to the Intensive Care Unit at Lautoka Hospital on Vitu Levu, the main island of Fiji, where his wife Claire was heartbreakingly told to “prepare for the worst.”
The retiree remains critically ill on a ventilator, battling septic shock and organ failure.
The infection has spread to Scott’s lungs and gallbladder and his kidneys are functioning at “a fraction of their normal capacity,” the GoFundMe page says.
It’s still unclear how the infection started — whether by the insect bite, an infected wound or something else, according to the dad’s family.
While doctors are doing everything they can, Scott’s critical condition requires greater care than the local hospital can manage, according to his daughter.
“Every hour counts for my father,” Babbin said.
The family has secured a bed for the critically ill father at the Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Mass., but doesn’t know if they will be able to afford to fly him back to the United States for better care.
“All we need is a medflight, that’s the only thing we need to get him home,” Babbin said. “Medflights are not cheap.”
A special medical flight from Fiji to Boston — which is over 8,000 miles in distance — could set the family back a staggering $250,000, according to the outlet.
In addition to the fundraiser, the Winslow family has applied for a US government loan to help with the astronomical costs of flying Scott home as well as the foreign medical bills that are adding up without medical insurance coverage.
Scott is a “hardworking, loyal, generous” man, “always willing to lend a hand,” relatives wrote on the fundraising page.
“He has spent a lifetime helping others, supporting his family, and being there whenever someone needed him.”
While Scott’s family “remain hopeful and continue to pray” for his recovery, “they are also facing the overwhelming financial burden that comes with a catastrophic medical emergency overseas,” the fundraiser says.
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