N.J. Sen. Loretta Weinberg proposes expanded access to public records
By Tina Renna | February 4, 2010
Senator Lorretta Weinberg at a NJ Foundation For Open Government Sunshine Week event.
“We want to change the culture of those people who are custodians of records, of public officials, who think it is their responsibility and duty to keep these things from the public,” Weinberg (D-Bergen) said at a news conference in Trenton. “The public owns everything we do. They pay in one way, shape or form for the offices we have, the telephone calls we make, the copies we make and everything else.”
“The people of New Jersey — and everywhere else in this country, for that matter — should be able to request [records] even if it’s on the back of a cocktail napkin,” Weinberg said. “It’s far more important that the public’s right to know be upheld and protected even if it means that public-records custodians have to be a little more forgiving about how they receive records requests.”
Senator Weinberg Star-Ledger 2/4/10