History will look back on this era in Trenton as one in which the ruling Democrats decided that New Jersey’s bulwarks of transparency were of little consequence.
Indeed, on the watch of Gov. Phil Murphy and his colleagues, Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin and Senate President Nicholas Scutari, we have seen a growing culture of indifference when it comes to preserving the institutions and mechanisms that provide the public with tools and access to the workings of their government at the municipal, county and statewide levels.
Evidence of this indifference is growing:
Last week, as the Asbury Park Press continued its reporting on the ongoing imbroglio at the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation, Scutari suggested there was more work to do on the demolition of the mechanisms that provide for open government in New Jersey.
We cannot forget the signature Murphy affixed last spring on legislation that weakened the New Jersey Open Public Records Act, which was considered a national gold standard for the open access it provided to public data and government documents.
For further evidence, we remember the so-called Election Transparency Act of 2023, odious legislation that upended New Jersey’s nonpartisan election watchdog, the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, weakened strong pay-to-play laws and allowed deep-pocketed political donors and corporations to spend more on New Jersey elections.
Both of these measures were billed by their sponsors — and the leaders of the Legislature — as reforms, a fact we continue to find laughable and worse, embarrassing.
In a truly remarkable series of comments that were offered in answer to questions about the mess at SCI from veteran political columnist Charles Stile, Scutari — who is very clearly in the pockets of the municipal and county clerks who drove the effort to decimate the reach of OPRA — had this to say:
“I think what we have is a lot of watchdogs, a lot of them. We have ELEC, SCI, we have comptroller, the Attorney General’s Office, we have county prosecutors,” he said. “One of these days we’re going to have to look at consolidation of those efforts.”
Really, Mr. Senate President?
Scutari went on to tout his subscription to the old saw we heard all last year from those in the cabal who supported the assault on OPRA: It’s too expensive.
In a state where the word corruption has long been synonomous with describing government at every level, Scutari’s position is simply incredible.
For a leading Democrat to take such a position publicly is as glaring as it is galling.
While Scutari and some of his allies consider other ways to erect more opaque glass around the workings of government in the name of affordability — namely proposals that may eliminate requirements that government post public legal notices in newspapers and online publications — we will be sure, over and over again, to remind the Senate president time and again that he publicly disavowed transparency.
What we know:CEO of New Jersey State Commission of Investigation resigns
The situation at SCI makes Scutari’s comments as tin-eared as they are appalling.
Consider:
Tiffany Williams Brewer resigned her post as CEO of SCI on Friday, Jan. 10, one day after Press staff writers Mike Davis and Michael L. Diamond published a story that showed she was teaching a full slate of courses this semester at Howard University in Washington, D.C. and that she signed documents claiming a principal residence in Maryland.
Williams Brewer, 51, disputed the Press’ findings, but she declined interview requests and refused to answer reporters’ questions. After Williams Brewer’s resignation, SCI’s three commissioners declined on-the-record interview requests. Murphy said Williams Brewer did the right thing in resigning, but referred detailed questions to the Legislature. Neither Scutari nor Coughlin have commented. Last week, Murphy appointed Joseph Kelley to the commissioner seat Williams Brewer vacated when she became the agency’s chief.
The three commissioners who were on watch when Williams Brewer took the top post — Kevin Reina, Robert Burzichelli and John Lacey — should, we believe, step aside.
Murphy, meanwhile, should find three additional replacements to oversee the important work of the SCI, which was creates as a nonpartisan watchdog agency in the wake of a series of mob-related scandals in the 1960s. Like ELEC and OPRA, SCI has been a critical tool to protect government transparency.
The agency designed to root out waste, fraud, corruption and abuse. Armed with a $5 million budget and a staff of about 40 investigators, attorneys and accountants, the SCI has subpoena power and can grant limited immunity to witnesses.
This is a critical agency that needs to function for reasons astute readers will recognize as obvious. Murphy needs to apply whatever pressure is necessary to ensure its healthy survival.
We reject Scutari’s notion that the reaction to Williams Brewer’s resignation would be to collapse the agency.
New Jersey deserves better — and our leaders in Trenton ought to know that.
