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After being fast-tracked two months ago, a bill that would gut access to public records hasn’t returned to the calendar in either chamber of the New Jersey Legislature.

Introduced in early March, the bill — sponsored by state Sen. Paul Sarlo, D-Bergen, — cleared his budget committee one week later, but not before dozens of advocates spoke out against the bill and what it would do.

It was then pulled from the agenda for the Assembly Appropriations Committee just minutes before it was set to start.

Where is the bill now?

Many expected the bill to turn back up, especially after state Senate President Nicholas Scutari said in March he thought that by mid-April the Legislature will take up the bill, with “mostly clarification amendments.”

The state Senate president also said the Legislature is “going to try” to make the amendments available for viewing before they are heard in committee.

“Those amendments are being worked on as we speak, and they’re bicameral and bipartisan, so both sides of the aisle and both houses are coming up with things that are going to satisfy both, and I think you’re going to see the bill overwhelmingly pass,” Scutari said.

That bipartisan support shows in the addition of Republican sponsors in both chambers — state Sen. Anthony Bucco in the upper chamber and Assemblywoman Victoria Flynn in the lower chamber.

Sarlo had said in an interview at the end of March that he’s “made it clear. If we don’t get this done by the first week of April, I gave it a great shot and we’ll probably table it for another 20 years.”

The proposed legislation didn’t show up in either chamber in April — but attention hasn’t waned for advocates. OPRA was at the forefront of an event at Rider University on Tuesday and was a topic at a Garden State Initiative forum on Wednesday. Neither Sarlo nor lower chamber sponsor Assemblyman Joe Danielsen appeared at either event.

Organizers of the Rider event said that Sarlo had been invited but declined due to scheduling conflicts on Tuesday.

Bucco and Flynn were present during the Garden State Initiative event in New Brunswick Wednesday.

Requests for comment about the status of the bill and possible amendments to Sarlo and Danielsen went unanswered.

Bucco said in a statement he joined as a sponsor on the bill because he believes “our state’s current OPRA law allows New Jerseyans to play a significant role in our democratic process and that government transparency is of the utmost importance” but that “there have been bad actors who aim to benefit financially from bad-faith OPRA requests that exploit the system.”

He went on to say that there are there are people posting videos of young women on social media and “private businesses attempting to gain potential consumer information” which leads to an “unnecessary burden on municipal and state staff” and that it’s his “goal to prevent such exploitation without limiting legitimate access to public records by the press or others.”

Bucco also said that he wants to “ensure requestors who win OPRA lawsuits get reasonably compensated when government agencies unreasonably deny legitimate access to documents.”

NJ open records law could be gutted: Here’s what NorthJersey.com has unearthed using OPRA

What would the bill do?

In its current form the bill, creates exemptions for access to email and call logs, dog license information, email addresses and even digital calendars. Requests for email would need to include a “specific subject matter” and “discrete and limited time period” as well as a specific person, instead of a title or government department.

The bill would also ban the release of metadata, which is the information about when an electronic file was created and who created it.

Requests that an agency thinks could lead to “harassment” could be denied, and an official OPRA request form would need to be used. One of the most noted changes would be to the policy regarding attorney’s fees in the event of a lawsuit.

Requesters who win OPRA lawsuits “may” be entitled to legal fees if the public agency is found to have knowingly violated the law or unreasonably denied access.

The legislation was first enacted in 2002 and requires local, county and state government entities to provide the public with access to government records in New Jersey.

Gov. Phil Murphy would not comment on the specifics of pending legislation during a regular “Ask Governor Murphy” segment on WNYC in March but did say he thought OPRA needed to be tweaked, given the way that technology has changed in the years since it was implemented, and that he’s heard anecdotally about concerns regarding commercial use of the process.

“We are all in on transparency,” he said. “I would think if you get something that would address some of the things I just mentioned in a fair way that doesn’t undermine transparency, that’s something that I’m open-minded to … I haven’t seen anyone with nefarious behavior here. I think there are people who are legitimately trying to address some issues with the system, but we are all in on transparency most importantly. Period. Full stop.”

Katie Sobko covers the New Jersey Statehouse. Email: sobko@northjersey.com

Earlier today, the Chicago Bears officially announced the uniform numbers of their new free-agent additions and their 2024 draft class. The current roster has 72 players, so once the undrafted free agent class is announced, more rookie jersey numbers will be issued. Chicago’s rookie minicamp will be on May 10 and 11, so that announcement should be soon.

Here’s the full list of new numbers, along with the previous Bear that wore that number.

Bears Draft Class

15: Rome Odunze, WR (Trent Taylor, WR 2023)

18: Caleb Williams, QB (Robert Tonyan, TE 2023)

19: Tory Taylor, Pr (Equanimeous St. Brown, WR 2023)

72: Kiran Amegadjie, OL (Michael Dwumfour, DL 2023)

94: Austin Booker, DE (Rasheem Green, DL 2023)

Veteran Free Agents

4: D’Andre Swift, RB (Eddie Jackson, S 2023)

The Bears’ unofficial ban of number #0 continues.

11: Brett Rypien, QB (Darnell Mooney, WR 2023)

13: Keenan Allen, WR (Tyler Scott, WR 2023)

14: Gerald Everett, TE (Nathan Peterman, QB 2023)

30: Tarvarius Moore, S (Joejuan Williams, CB 2023)

31: Kevin Byard III, S (Jaylon Jones, CB 2023)

36: Jonathan Owens, S (DeAndre Houston-Carson, S 2022)

37: Corliss Waitman, P (Duron Harmon, S 2023)

38: Douglas Coleman III, DB (A.J. Thomas, S 2023)

43: Cameron Lyons, LS (DeMarquis Gates, LB 2023)

45: Amen Ogbongbemiga, LB (Buddy Johnson, LB 2023)

55: Jacob Martin, DE (Dylkan Cole, LB 2023)

65: Coleman Shelton, C (Cody Whitehair, OL 2023)

71: Ryan Bates, iOL (Riley Reiff, OT 2022)

73: Jake Curhan, OT (Michael Schofield, OL 2022)

79: Matt Pryor, OT (Michael Schofield, OL 2022)

81: Dante Pettis, WR (Jake Tonges, TE 2022)

93: Byron Cowart, DT (Justin Jones, DT 2023)

Bears With New Numbers

1: Jaylon Johnson, CB (Justin Fields, QB 2023)

10: Tyler Scott, WR (Chase Claypool, WR 2023)

21: Jaylon Jones, CB (D’Onta Foreman, RB 2023)

78: Michael Dwumfour, DT (Roy Mbaeteka, OL 2023)

A 15-year-old New Jersey girl was arrested for swatting William Shemin Midtown Community School in Bayonne.

It’s unclear if the teenager accused of falsely alerting police to an emergency situation attends the 1,200 student elementary school she shut down for about an hour Monday morning, according to NJ.Com.

Law enforcement closed streets near the campus while making sure the apparent prank posed no risk.

“At no time was the safety of any student, faculty member, or general public at risk,” the Bayonne Police Department said in a statement posted Wednesday.

School officials announced a shelter in place order when the incident unfolded, then lifted the order soon after realizing the report was a hoax.

“Please be advised that the shelter in place has been lifted and all is well at the Den,” the “Home of the Bears” posted Monday.

The suspect in Monday’s swatting reportedly faces a fourth-degree felony charge that would land an adult in prison for up to 18 months. A $10,000 fine could also be imposed.