a bill Advocates warn will gut access to government records got the green light today from a key legislative committee approving controversial reforms to New Jersey's open public records act this is the Bill's second goar around in Trenton after lawmakers fast-tracked the legislation and were met with a tsunami of opposition members of the Senate budget committee today heard hours of testimony from clerks and Mayors arguing the requests have become a burden to Watchdogs and lawyers who insist this bill will undermine transparency senior correspondent Brenda Flanigan reports this approach that you're taking is kind of taking a bazooka to shoot a fly you might not hit the fly but there's going to be a lot of collateral damage Fierce Defenders of public records access buted heads with concerned Mayors and Municipal clerks over a highly controversial Bill to rework New Jersey open public records act the fiery hearing saw a clash of priorities as itics charged the measure raises hurdles to citizen access to public information while towns pleaded for reforms the bill remains deeply flawed many records that are currently available to the public will be cloaked in secrecy or otherwise made more difficult to obtain if the bill is enacted we're not trying to destroy democracy we're trying to help protect the people who service democracy critics claim sponsor senator Paul sarlo's rushing the measure through it's his second attempt to Fast Track the bill the first one got yanked after a firestorm of protest in sarlo's view Oprah is an out-of-date law that's turned into a gravy train for commercial data Miners and greedy lawyers I think you'll hear today as part of the testimony uh when you hear some of the rates in excess of $500 $600 an hour um it's troubling I think you're going to hear today it's about attorney fees and about a cottage industry of folks who are making a lot of money off the taxpayers in New Jersey and I'm not sure how we could ever resolve that we've we've done our best the amended version requires requests include more specific information with names and dates shifts the cost of attorneys fee so folks who sue after an agency denies their request have to pay lawyers even if they win unless they can prove agencies acted in bad faith and lets agencies sue people if their requests subst ually impair government operations an overflow crowd they brought in extra chairs heard Mayors clerks and lobbyists urge lawmakers to vote Yes we had to hire a Township at somebody in a Township clerk's office just to process oaha request she literally cried over oah requests there was a developer who who opened the township and took her 12 months with extensions to fulfill this request and her office the developer never picked it up it's Death By A Thousand Cuts and something has to give and I think this legislation with respect to how IT addresses attorney fees is a very good step so we support the bill this bill does nothing but restrict access to records and place hurdles that make it harder to request them progressives media lawyers and unions argued Oprah is crucial noting it helped break open the Bridgegate Case by uncovering the critical time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee email this just will be the end of Oprah as we know it in the current state of the media there is absolutely no money to send after people to provide to attorneys uh to to pursue these cases if the judges have ultimate discretion they do not award fees a bill modernizing Oprah that would allow for a lot of information to be posted online would be something that we would like to see but this bill does not do that the Senate budget and Appropriations Committee cleared the bill by a vote of 10 to3 Democrat Andrews wicker voted no as did Republicans Deano scandin and Michael tester at some point uh actually we're long overdue for some level of Oprah reform uh for a lot of the reasons we we heard from the the people backing the bill today I just don't think this bill is there yet the assembly budget committee will hear testimony on this bill tomorrow if it's approved it heads to a possible vote before the full legis legislature on Monday with support from Republican leadership in the Senate at the State House in Trenton I'm Brenda Flanigan NJ Spotlight news [Music]