Open Letter to NJ State Senator Nicholas Scutari Requesting the Immediate Withdrawal of S-4924

The following email was sent to State Senator Nicholas Scutari, along with other government representatives and press outlets, by NJ21st.

Senator Scutari,

We are writing this to fulfill a civic and moral obligation every New Jersey resident has- to push back on the continued assault on transparency and open government that your tenure has ushered in.

S-4924 is yet another salvo against what was once a proud tradition in New Jersey connected to open government. Destroying OPRA was not enough. Now that Comptroller Kevin Walsh has elevated the value of the Comptroller’s Office and made it a force to be reckoned with, one of the few remaining vestiges of accountability left in this state, you are introducing a cynical lame-duck bill under a plainly false “efficiency” argument.

Your public claim about “no indictments” as a basis to weaken the Comptroller’s Office is especially rich coming from someone who, immediately after the Comptroller found that the Union County Board of Commissioners had paid three top county officials more than $400,000 in extra stipends and tuition reimbursements through an illegal resolution process, legislation was introduced that changed the very law OSC found Union County had violated.

It’s hard to get an indictment when the people who make the rules simply rewrite them the moment a watchdog catches them.

But that’s not really the point, is it?

The narrow indictment argument is an incredibly dishonest tactic that minimizes the substantial work Mr. Walsh and his office have produced, especially on police accountability and government integrity. In America, the voter is the final arbiter of right and wrong. The investigations, audits, and public reports OSC has brought forward are more valuable, and often more cost-effective, than litigation. When wrongdoing is exposed to the public, the people themselves become the judge. That is the core of accountability.

As a journalism outlet, we have consistently found OSC to be an essential resource, and frankly, a source of validation. It is proof that there are still people in power who are as concerned as we are about abuses of authority in this state, abuses that often hide behind disingenuous labels (much like S-4924). Mr. Walsh has built a home for the belief that everyone is equal under the law, and that belief is precious and increasingly rare in New Jersey government. 

You led and voted for the OPRA overhaul (P.L. 2024, c.16), which media organizations and transparency advocates warned would gut New Jersey’s public records law and make it harder for the public to shine a light on corruption and working-class families who could not afford attorneys to hold their local governments accountable.

You sponsored and passed the so-called Elections Transparency Act, which watchdogs across the spectrum say weakened campaign-finance limits, gutted local pay-to-play protections and defanged ELEC, our election watchdog.

Now you are attempting to weaken the Comptroller’s Office  – the one agency that has consistently held powerful actors accountable.

Please pull S-4924 from consideration and stop breaking things that work.

To everyone cc’d on this email – please step up and take action -do what you know is right so that future generations have some chance of rebuilding transparency back into our state government.  This is your government – you are just as responsible.

Sincerely,
John Migueis
Laura Kapuscinski
Shauna Williams
Nj21st Editorial Team

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