Scutari, Sarlo, and Danielsen passed their “let’s hide all the shady things we do” bill through the committee today. As we reported earlier, Scutari threw out independent voters off the committee and installed puppets. The most incredible thing witnessed was the complete ignorance and outright lies about OPRA that were used as justification for the bill.

For example:

As CJ Griffin states in another post, such footage would be exempt from OPRA.

However, Berkeley Heights residents have grown accustomed to people making things up about OPRA requests.

Sarlo’s lack of knowledge of fee-shifting was hilarious. Fee shifting allows everyday people to sue government organizations on contingency. Without this protection, citizens wouldn’t have a chance against entities (such as our school district) that use high-priced attorneys to hide information from families.

Here is Attorney Walter Luers schooling Sarlo:

Sarlo was ignorant (or feigned ignorance) when challenged on law enforcement being the majority voice on the very task force that would determine key rules in record requests involving police records.

Here is Assistant Public Defender Fletcher Duddy schooling Sarlo:

Schooling Sarlo was the day’s theme (we have more clips which we’ll share) but it wasn’t enough to stop the folks Scutrari installed in passing this.

This article would not be complete without our very own Sai Akiri sharing how our community has used OPRA to hold our BOE Accountable.

Three Republicans and one Democrat voted no.

Now it goes to a vote on the 18th, so the story is not yet finished – and we are ready.

Please continue to sign and SHARE the petition.

Sign the Petition

Articles on OPRA

Subscribe to BHCW For Free