New Jersey

Sarlo’s OPRA stink bomb needs to be defused | Editorial

Published

4 months ago

March 10, 2024

Sarlo’s OPRA stink bomb needs to be defused | Editorial

Just when taxpayers got used to the notion that public records actually belong to the public, our most powerful lawmakers have decided that it’s time to choke off access.

In a state notorious for government corruption and poor transparency, New Jersey’s Legislature will attempt to gut the venerable but dated Open Public Records Act, which is a ludicrous idea if you only consider the treacheries that were revealed by the OPRA law.

It is a cortex-snapping litany: Because of OPRA, reporters were able to shake free internal emails and other documents that exposed the causes of the meltdown of our veterans’ homes during the pandemic. Because of OPRA, law enforcement was fundamentally changed in our state, after records showed major disparities in how police use excessive force. Because of OPRA, inspection records for a group home led to a state investigation of the alleged abuse of a severely disabled woman. Because of OPRA, the Office of the Medical Examiner was found to be a dysfunctional joke — bungling crime investigations, mangling corpses, and misplacing body parts.

These are just a few recent examples of how one news organization – this news organization – uses OPRA. But it is used every day by reporters, activists, and citizens who seek information from various departments and agencies about taxpayer funds, pollution levels, public safety, and countless other government functions that would otherwise never see the light of day.

Now that transparency is imperiled, because a bill that aims to overhaul the 22-year-old OPRA law puts severe constraints on anyone seeking such information, which validates a level of distrust in government that is quintessentially New Jersey.

In other words, if there has ever been a time to share your opinion with your local state representatives, this is it, with hearings scheduled Monday morning for both chambers.

“It’s Sunshine Week, and to schedule a bill of this magnitude on such short notice – in two committees at the same time – is a message to the public that says, ‘Don’t bother us,’” said former Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, whose attempts to reform OPRA in the past fell short. “It’s a disgrace. People need to make calls.”

While no one disputes that OPRA needs an update – particularly to quell data mining by retailers — the bill (S-2930) authored by Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen) is a contemptible assault on government transparency.

Among its provisions: Access to email and call logs would largely be exempt, as requests for government-related emails would need to include a “specific subject matter” and “discrete and limited time period.” The request would also have to name a specific government employee whose email can be searched, not merely a department.

But the greatest change could be what happens when an OPRA request is denied, which is often. Currently, the government agency has to cover a legal fee if a requester successfully challenges a denial. But Sarlo’s bill leaves this longstanding fee-shifting provision up to the discretion of a judge who hears the case or the Government Records Council (GRC).

So even the government wrongly denies access to a public record, the petitioner might still be stuck with the legal tab. That will have a chilling effect on attorneys willing to take such a case.

Worse, all provisions are retroactive — including the fee shift change, so attorneys already arguing cases on the assumption that they’d be paid after a successful court challenge can still be denied payment.

Sarlo’s bill even allows agencies to deny requests that it believes could lead to “harassment,” and bans metadata, which is the encrypted information on an electronic file that shows its source.

Just like that, the public’s right to know is not American scripture, but a quixotic dream of the past.

Nicole Rodriguez, the president of NJ Policy Perspective, put it this way: “When documents are created by public officials on public salaries with the public’s trust,” she said, “there’s no good reason to restrict public access to that information. Yet that’s exactly what this bill does.”

Sarlo claims he consulted all stakeholders, but there is no evidence he listened to any besides the League of Municipalities, which has long sought to reduce the relentless torrent of commercial requests for records – a legitimate concern that demands a solution, but not one that involves strangling public access. The New Jersey Press Association, for one, said Sarlo didn’t keep his word to share a copy of the bill before it was posted, and called the process “a disservice to the public.”

Sarlo didn’t even bother to consult Marc Pfeiffer of the Rutgers-Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, who ran the GRC when the law was enacted in 2002. Pfeiffer’s take is blunt: “Bludgeons create a mess, and rapiers are surgical. This bill uses a bludgeon to try to deal with outliers that exist within OPRA.”

The reason for this overkill: Our elected officials seek to give government departments and agencies more freedom to stonewall public requests for information, which makes a state with a lousy reputation for transparency even more opaque.

Weinberg calls it “a real gut punch,” adding that “Democrats should be about protecting democracy – or so I’ve been told. Reducing a citizen’s access to their own government is not a way to do that.”

Apparently, our Legislature think it’s New Jersey’s way, but taxpayers don’t have to agree. Make the call.

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New Jersey

U.S. Supreme Court sides with Oregon city, allows ban on homeless people sleeping outdoors • New Jersey Monitor

Published

6 hours ago

June 28, 2024

Press Room

U.S. Supreme Court sides with Oregon city, allows ban on homeless people sleeping outdoors • New Jersey Monitor

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court Friday sided with a local ordinance in Oregon that effectively bans homeless people from sleeping outdoors, and local governments will be allowed to enforce those laws.

In a 6-3 decision, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the opinion that the enforcement of those local laws that regulate camping on public property does not constitute the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

“Homelessness is complex. Its causes are many. So may be the public policy responses required to address it,” he wrote. “The Constitution’s Eighth Amendment serves many important functions, but it does not authorize federal judges to wrest those rights and responsibilities from the American people and in their place dictate this Nation’s homelessness policy.”

The case originated in Grants Pass, a city in Oregon that argues its ordinance is a solution to the city’s homelessness crisis, which includes fines and potential jail time for repeat offenders who camp or sleep outdoors.

From Oregon to N.J., policymakers’ genius plan to solve homelessness is to say, ‘Go somewhere else’

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a dissent arguing that the ordinance targets the status of being homeless and is therefore a violation of the Eighth Amendment.

“Grants Pass’s Ordinances criminalize being homeless,” she wrote. “The Ordinances’ purpose, text, and enforcement confirm that they target status, not conduct. For someone with no available shelter, the only way to comply with the Ordinances is to leave Grants Pass altogether.”

During oral arguments, the justices seemed split over ideological lines, with the conservative justices siding with the town in Oregon, arguing that policies and ordinances around homelessness are complex, and should be left up to local elected representatives rather than the courts.

The liberal justices criticized the city’s argument that homelessness is not a status protected under the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. The liberal justices argued the Grants Pass ordinance criminalized the status of being homeless.

The Biden administration took the middle ground in the case, and U.S. Deputy Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler offered partial support.

“It’s the municipality’s determination, certainly in the first instance with a great deal of flexibility, how to address the question of homelessness,” he said during oral arguments in late April.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

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New Jersey

Raise a Glass: Discover these top 12 happy hour spots in NJ

Published

13 hours ago

June 28, 2024

Press Room

Raise a Glass: Discover these top 12 happy hour spots in NJ

🍸 Half-priced drinks and apps make for a good happy hour

🍸 Here is a list of 12 of the best happy hour spots in New Jersey

🍸 What’s your favorite watering hole in the state?

It’s 5 o’clock somewhere, right?

Work is done for the day. It’s still light outside. It’s warm, breezy, and it’s summer. It’s the perfect season to grab a few friends or co-workers and hit up a good happy hour. But where can you go to sip on a few cocktails and munch on some apps at reasonable prices?

Here are 12 of the best happy hour spots in New Jersey broken down by region — North, Central, South, and the Jersey Shore.

North Jersey

Barrow House (Google Street View)

The Barrow House

1296 Van Houten Avenue, Clifton

Happy Hour is only available in the bar area from Monday through Friday 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The Specials:

$6 – giant pretzel, crispy cauliflower
$8 – wings, mac n’ cheese
$10 – crispy brussels sprouts, margherita pizza, short rib tacos, spinach and artichoke dip
$5 – select drafts
$6 – house spirits
$8 – select wines
$10 – specialty cocktails
$25 – select bottled wine

The Craftsman (Facebook)

The Craftsman

1609 Maple Avenue, Fair Lawn

Happy Hour is available Tuesday through Friday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The Specials:

$6 – Craftsman draft beers
$6 – red or white wine
$9 – select cocktail specials
$65 – Craftsman punch bowl
$9 – pretzel, stuffed meatballs, chicken crackling and shishito peppers

Wicked Wolf Hoboken

120 Sinatra Dr, Hoboken

Happy Hour is Monday through Friday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The Specials:

$4 – well-mixed drinks, all draft beers and select glasses of wine
$5 – select appetizers

Central Jersey

Salt Creek Grille, Princeton (Google Street View)

Salt Creek Grille

1 Rockingham Row, Princeton

Happy Hour is only available in the bar and lounge Monday through Friday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The Specials:

Half-priced all wine by the glass
Half-priced all draft beer
$5 – edamame and seaweed salad
$7 – sake salmon
$8 – California roll
$9 – salt and vinegar chips
$10 – roasted garlic hummus, tomato bruschetta, eggplant parmesan rolls, spicy salmon roll and shrimp tempura roll
$11 – Bavarian pretzel bites, sliders and fire cracker
$13 – short rib mac n’ cheese

Killarney’s Publick House (Facebook)

Killarney’s Publick House

1644 Whitehorse Mercerville Road, Hamilton

If Irish fare with a flair is your thing, then check out this Happy Hour on Monday through Friday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The Specials:

$3 – Miller Lite
$4 – Nutrl Orange
$5 – Guinness combos
$6 – Surfsides, Tito’s drinks and Hornitos drinks
$12 – espresso martini
$7 – edamame
$8 – chicken sweet chili potstickers, hummus duo, mac and jacks
$9 – bang bang shrimp
$10 – wings
$11 – mussels
$15 – pound pick and peel shrimp

Elixir Bar and Grill (Facebook)

Elixir Bar and Grill

2222 Woodbridge Ave, Edison

There are so many snacks and drinks to enjoy during the Elixir Bar and Grill’s Happy Hour. Drink specials are available from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. daily and during all NFL games. Appetizer specials are also available from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. daily.

The Drink Specials:

$1 off pints, beer bottles, and malternatives
$5 – Fireball, Screwball, Red Stag or Caza Cafe shot
$6 – Jack, Crown, Jameson or DonJ shot. Tito’s, Jack, Jameson, Don Julio, or Bacardi mixed drink.
$6 – sangria or wine by the glass
$7 – bomb shot
$9 – on the rock’s elixirita’s, rumrita’s, mojito’s or mules
$10 – house martini, Long Island Ice Teas and specialty cocktails

The Food Specials

$4 – chips and salsa
$6 – two soft tacos
$7 – half-order of nachos
$8 – buffalo cauliflower, tostadas, and small bites
$9 – queso and chips
$10 – Mexican street corn dip, half-dozen boneless wings and fries, traditional quesadilla and Mexican pizza
$11 – half-dozen wings and fries, two sliders and fries, and grande burrito with chips and salsa
$12 – guacamole and chips
$13 – five soft tacos

The Jersey Shore

Mister C’s (Facebook)

Mister C’s Beach Bistro

Allen Avenue & Ocean Place, Allenhurst

Happy Hour at Mister C’s takes place daily from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and all day on Sundays

The Specials:

$4 – Budweiser, Bud Lite, Coors Lite, Miller Lite and Yuengling
$6 – Corona Extra, Corona Light, Heineken, Heineken Light, Stella Artois, Blue Moon, Yuengling Black & Tan and O’Douls
$6 – house drinks, martinis and wine
$8 – Tito’s drink special
$10 – Tito’s martini
$6 – South West chicken egg roll, short rib empanada and zucchini sticks
$8 – vegetable spring rolls
$9 – blackened tuna bites, wings, blistered shishito peppers and hummus
$9.50 – sweet sausage, peppers, and onions
$10 – everything Pretzel
$11 – tempura shrimp
$14 – PEI mussels
$18 – Mister C’s margherita pizza
$24 – charcuterie and ahi tuna nachos

Tuckers (Google Street View)

Tuckers Tavern

101 Southwest Ave, Beach Haven, NJ

If you’re hanging out on Long Beach Island this summer, then check out the Happy Hour at Tucker’s which is Monday through Friday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The Specials:

$6 – Manafirkin, Coors Light, Blue Moon, Yuengling, and Stella
$7 – house wine
$8 – well drinks and specialty cocktails
$1 – Buck a Shuck oysters
$7 – soup of the day
$8 – onion rings
$11 – super frico caesar
$12 – French onion flatbread
$13 – lacquered chicken wings
$14 – crispy fish sandwich

One Willow (Facebook)

One Willow

1 Willow Street, Highlands

This seafood and raw bar restaurant located on the waterfront in Highlands is perfect for a happy hour get-together. Happy Hour at One Willow runs Monday through Friday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The Specials:

$3 – Miller Lite bottle and Narragansett Can
$6 – draft beer, well spirits, and select wine
$7 – cocktails
$6 – potato chips and dip
$9 – mussels, crispy eggplant, kani salad, wings, tuna taco and vegetable spring roll

South Jersey

Cinder Bar (Facebook)

Cinder Bar

410 Berlin Cross Keys Road, Williamstown (Gloucester County)

119 Berkley Road, Clarksboro (Gloucester County)

The Cinder Bar has two locations in Gloucester County. Happy Hour at both spots is Monday through Friday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The Specials:

$3 – Coors Light drafts, Miller Lite drafts, and Modelo drafts
$4 – Blue Moon drafts
$5 – house wines and canned cocktails
$6 – select margaritas and martinis

Half-Off Select Appetizers:

Cheesesteak egg rolls
Ukrainian perogies
Short rib poutine
Pane and ricotta
Jalapeno bombs
Half-priced margherita pizzas

814 South Pub (Facebook)

814 South Pub

814 S White Horse Pike, Somerdale

Happy Hour is Tuesday through Saturday from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The Specials:

$4 – well drinks and wine
$5 – Tito drinks and Orange Crush drinks
$15 – Mic Ultra bucket and Miller Lite bucket
$17.50 – Corona bucket
$5 – burger and fries, meatball appetizer, almost pizza bread, mac n’ cheese wedges, fried pickles and onion rings

Keg & Kitchen (Facebook)

Keg & Kitchen

90 Haddon Ave, Haddon Township

Named “Best Bar Scene 2019” by NJ Monthly, the Keg & Kitchen offers Happy Hour specials on Tuesday through Friday from 2 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

The Specials:

$5 Everything

Old fashioned
Espolon margarita
Guinness stout 16 oz
IPA of the week
Red blend
Colombard-Sauvignon
Everything spice pretzel bites
Empanada
Hummus
Loaded chips
Chef’s flatbread
Chicken quesadilla
Kimchi hot dog
Arancini
Tacos
Cheeseburger

Of course, there are so many other happy hour places across the Garden State, so where ever you choose to go, “Cheers.”

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NJ’s dry towns: No stores to buy wine, beer or booze

Among NJ’s hundreds of communities — more than two dozen remain “dry” as of 2023.

Gallery Credit: Erin Vogt

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New Jersey

A closer look at what's in New Jersey's proposed $56.6 billion budget, from taxes to spending

Published

20 hours ago

June 27, 2024

Press Room

A closer look at what's in New Jersey's proposed $56.6 billion budget, from taxes to spending

What about property taxes?

New Jersey has among the nation’s highest property taxes, levied by local governments to finance services and schools. The state dedicates some income tax revenue to fund local governments, which helps keep property tax rates from growing even higher. This budget calls for increasing state K-12 funding to fully implement an aid formula ratified by the state Supreme Court, raising such aid to more than $11 billion, up nearly $1 billion from the current fiscal year. The budget also has about $2.5 billion for direct property tax relief, continuing programs introduced in 2022 and 2023 to help residents, renters and seniors. The average property tax amount in 2022, which is the most recently available information, is about $9,500, according to the state.

What else is in the budget?

Quite a bit, given it funds all aspects of state government, from the executive departments to public colleges and universities, to the Legislature itself, which this year passed a 67% pay raise for lawmakers, their first since 2002, which goes into effect in 2026. Overall, spending is up just over 4% compared with the current fiscal year budget.

It includes a number of expenditures — sometimes referred to as Christmas tree line items because they’re viewed as gifts for specific constituencies. They include funding for ending homelessness, helping people re-enter society from prison, fire departments, arts programs and one city’s effort to teach life skills through tennis.

Republican lawmakers said they barely had time to review the budget and lamented that they weren’t sure what all was in it. Even Democratic Senate Budget Committee Chairman Paul Sarlo said the document is too vast to read line by line, but he supports it overall.

“I could not take a test and be quizzed on every line item because it would take hours and hours and days and months,” Sarlo said. “I try to look at it in totality and that’s where I think we’re at.”

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