Neighbors from the street he lived on his whole life, members of Congress, state lawmakers, and hundreds of Essex County residents packed the pews of the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark to mourn and celebrate the life of the late Congressman Donald M. Payne Jr. at his funeral Thursday. 

Payne, who family and friends called “Chop,” was remembered as a loving family man and a dedicated public servant who poured his heart into social justice and serving his district, which includes Newark. Nearly every speaker remarked on Payne’s fashion sense — the handmade bowties and pocket squares he coordinated, the colorful socks he’d sport, and the glasses he switched out to match his outfit. 

“We all talked about how dapper he was,” said former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California. “He put us all to shame. ‘Oh my gosh, what color will his bowtie be today? Or his socks?’ Whatever it happened to be, he looked so dignified.” 

Payne died on April 24 at age 65, 18 days after suffering a heart attack. The six-term congressman was elected to the seat after his father, Donald Payne Sr., died in office. His flag-draped casket was placed at the front of the church beside a photo of him in a bowtie. 

Family and friends wore orange outfits or pinned orange bows to their shirts in Payne’s honor. They spoke about the importance of celebrating Payne’s commitment to the people of New Jersey and remembering his legacy of the positive impact he made on society. 

Nearly 20 people spoke at the three-hour funeral, including Gov. Phil Murphy, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Rep. Maxine Waters of California, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, and Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo. Speakers read letters from President Joe Biden and singer and Newark native Dionne Warwick. Family members, including his triplets, also spoke in remembrance of Payne.

About 60 members of Congress and dozens of members of the state Legislature also attended. 

Jeffries told mourners he and Payne entered Congress around the same time and became friends. He said Payne joked about wanting to be the “Michael Jordan of one-minute speeches on the House floor, and that’s exactly what he did.”

He told the story of how Payne earned the nickname Chop and Choppy, which even his Congressional colleagues called him. 

“Apparently, when he was young his father, the great Donald Payne Sr., thought that his face was so delightful, that he looked like Porkchop,” he said to laughter. “He was beloved.” 

Many spoke about Payne’s impact on his hometown of Newark. Colleagues said he was a prolific legislator who always spoke out even when other members of the House were leaving chambers for other commitments. He advocated for voting rights, secured funding for clean drinking water, championed lower drug prices, and, as co-chair of the Men’s Health Caucus, shined a spotlight on men’s health issues. 

Payne’s political endeavors started when he organized the Newark South Ward Junior Democrats as a teen, his daughter said. His public service journey began when he became a toll booth operator on the Garden State Parkway, and later served on the Essex County Board of Freeholders and Newark City Council. 

He also came from a family well-known in New Jersey politics. His father was the first Black person elected to Congress from New Jersey. His cousin and uncle served in the state Assembly, and his cousins also are involved in politics in New York. 

Booker was mayor of Newark when Payne was council president, and together they addressed difficult challenges in the city during the Great Recession, from the foreclosure crisis and budget allocations to issues like sewage systems. Between making “godawful choices and hellish ones,” Payne would pull Booker away from his work and pray with him, he said. 

“To have him as my partner in Congress, two people from Newark, New Jersey, growing up just a few miles from each other, coming up on the same streets, representing the same communities — it was amazing to have him there,” Booker said. “He never let my head get too big and always kept my feet on the ground.” 

The congressman also battled diabetes, a personal struggle that led him to underscore the importance of affordable medication and work with others who suffered from diabetes. Foluso Fakorede, a cardiovascular doctor in Mississippi, recalled his first meeting in 2018 with Payne. They discussed the high rate of amputations Black people face because of diabetes, in part due to lack of awareness and screening. 

Payne was a tireless advocate for health equity in “particularly marginalized communities grappling with preventable amputations,” Fakorede said. He pointed to a bill Payne sponsored called the Amputation Reduction and Compassion Act, which would require Medicare and Medicaid to fully cover screening tests for people at risk of peripheral artery disease, which can lead to heart attacks and amputations. 

“His legacy extends beyond just policy. It was rooted in the human connection. He saw beyond statistics and bureaucracy, connecting with individuals on a personal level, understanding their struggles, and offering the comforting presence of his humor, compassion, and love for the arts,” he said. 

It’ll be another very warm, dry day in New Jersey on Thursday with near-record breaking temperatures climbing well into the 80s across much of the state.

Temperatures will be a bit cooler along the Jersey Shore with highs in the 70s as clouds mix in with sun, the National Weather Service said.

Highs are expected to be reach 87 in Trenton, which would be one degree short of the record for May 2 last reached in 2018.

The forecasted high of 83 in Newark and 71 at Atlantic City International Airport would not challenge records. A high of 88 is expected in Camden, not far off the record high of 90 in neighboring Philadelphia.

It’s cool this morning with temperatures in the 50s and some fog that will dissipate in the next few hours.

Overnight lows tonight will fall into the 50s again, setting up a pleasant and much cooler Friday with sunny skies. Highs on Friday will be in the mid to upper 60s.

The weekend weather forecast looks unsettled with cooler temperatures sticking around and the chance of rain.

Saturday should be mostly cloudy with temperatures in the 60s. There’s a 15% to 25% chance of light rain west of the Interstate 95 corridor, the National Weather Service said in its morning forecast discussion.

Rain could move in overnight into Sunday, though.

Periods of rain are likely Sunday with temperatures only climbing into the upper 50 to mid 60s.

Temps in early May generally range from the upper 40s to upper 60s.

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Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com.

3-minute read

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