ASSEMBLY, No. 1245

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 1996 SESSION

By Assemblymen AZZOLINA and RUSSO

An Act providing for electronic access to certain public records of the executive and the judicial branches of State Government, and supplementing Title 47 of the Revised Statutes.

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

    1. a. As used in this section, "State electronic public record" means records which are available in electronic form and are required by law to be made, maintained or kept on file by any board, body, agency, department, commission or official of the executive or judicial branch of the State government, or by any board, body, commission or authority established by law within or in but not of the executive or judicial branch of the State government, or by any official acting for or on behalf thereof, except as otherwise provided by any other statute, resolution of either or both houses of the Legislature, executive order of the Governor, rule of court, any federal law, regulation or order, or by any regulation promulgated under the authority of any statute or executive order of the Governor. State electronic public record shall not include the records of any county, municipality or instrumentality thereof or any board, body, agency, department, commission, or authority created by any county, municipality or instrumentality thereof.

    b. The chief executive officer, or the designee thereof, of any board, body, agency, department or commission within the executive branch of the State government, or the chief executive officer, or the designee thereof, of any board, body, commission or authority established by law within or in but not of the executive branch of the State government, and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey of the judicial branch of the State government, or the designee thereof, except as otherwise provided pursuant to the provisions of any statute, resolution of either or both houses of the Legislature, executive order of the Governor, rule of court, any federal law, regulation or order, or by any regulation promulgated under the authority of any statute or executive order of the Governor, may determine which State electronic public records , if any, shall be made available to the public through the largest nonproprietary cooperative public computer network in full text format, with a minimum of document-level indexing features. Each board, body, agency, department, commission or official of the executive or judicial branch of the State government or any board, body, commission or authority established by law within or in but not of the executive or judicial branch of the State government shall be solely responsible for creating and maintaining its State electronic public records.

    c. Each board, body, agency, department, commission or official of the executive or judicial branch of the State government or any board, body, commission or authority established by law within or in but not of the executive or judicial branch of the State government, shall take all appropriate measures to protect the security of information deemed to be State electronic public records and shall enter into an agreement with the appropriate office in State Government responsible for computer security and guidelines to devise and maintain a security system for the protection of all electronic records made, maintained or kept on file by that board, body, agency, department, commission or official of the executive or judicial branch of the State government or that board, body, commission or authority established by law within or in but not of the executive or judicial branch of the State government.

    d. Each board, body, agency, department, commission or official of the executive or judicial branch of the State government or any board, body, commission or authority established by law within or in but not of the executive or judicial branch of the State government, may impose a fee or usage charge based solely on the actual direct cost of providing the information as a condition of gaining access to the State electronic public records specified in subsection a. of this section through the network described in subsection b. of this section; however, no fees or usage charges shall be imposed on any other board, body, agency, department, commission or official of the State government, any board, body, commission or authority established by law within or in but not of the State government, or any publicly-supported library of this State.

    e. Nothing contained in this section shall be construed as prohibiting a private individual or entity from using State electronic public records specified in subsection a. to provide, either commercially or on a voluntary basis, services which provide for electronic access to those records .

    f. Each board, body, agency, department, commission or official of the executive or judicial branch of the State government or any board, body, commission or authority established by law within or in but not of the executive or judicial branch of the State government, may respectively adopt, pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), rules and regulations necessary to effectuate the purposes of this act .

    g. Within two years of the effective date of this act, the appropriate office in State Government responsible for computer security and guidelines shall prepare and transmit a report to the Governor and the Legislature on the progress of State agencies and instrumentalities in making State electronic public records available through the largest nonproprietary cooperative public computer network.

    2. This act shall take effect immediately but shall be inoperative until January 1, 2001, but any board, body, agency, department, commission or official of the executive or judicial branch of the State government or any board, body, commission or authority established by law within or in but not of the executive or judicial branch of the State government, or any official acting for or on behalf thereof may take such anticipatory administrative action in advance as shall be necessary for the implementation of this act and shall make appropriate plans to have State electronic public records available to the public through the largest nonproprietary cooperative public computer network on and after January 1, 2001.

STATEMENT

    This bill authorizes the executive and judicial branches of State Government, as well as boards, bodies, commissions and authorities established by law, to make available to the public, in electronic form, certain State public records. These records would be provided through the largest nonproprietary cooperative public computer network (Internet) in full text format.

    Each entity within the executive and judicial branches of State Government would be solely responsible for creating and maintaining its electronic public records. Each such entity is to take all appropriate measures to protect the security of documents deemed State electronic public records and enter into an agreement with the appropriate State Government office responsible for computer security to devise and maintain a security system for the protection of those records.

    A fee or usage charge, based upon the actual direct cost of providing this information, may be imposed by State Government for the privilege of gaining electronic access to the information; other entities within State Government and publicly-supported libraries would be exempt from the charge.

    The bill would allow private persons to offer fee-based or voluntary services providing electronic access to the public records covered by the legislation.

    Each branch is authorized to adopt rules and regulations to effectuate the purposes of the legislation.

Permits certain public records of executive and judicial branch of State government to be available on Internet.