In today’s litigious society, municipalities face the insurmountable task of fulfilling OPRA requests in a timely fashion in order to satisfy those who request them. These entities are looking to comply with New Jersey’s Open Public Records Act (OPRA). These requests are increasing each year and while agencies struggle to keep up, mandated response times still remain in effect.

For those who don’t comply, the consequence is very costly. Here is an example illustrated by The Trentonian Newsletter, July 26, 2019 edition:

Mayor Kelly Yaeda calls it a “boondoggle” but the township’s ongoing noncompliance with the Open Public Records Act is a liability and burden to taxpayers…..Hamilton Township pays $10k IN OPRA lawsuit settlements and other townships follow….”

To avoid such a costly outcome, municipalities ought to consider technologically sophisticated options such as Foveonics Document Solutions’ OPRASync product. It automates the whole process while logging every request that enters a municipality’s office in a transparent fashion. The OPRA solution includes the software along with scanning services that amount to a fraction of the cost as compared with lawsuit costs that face many agencies today.

The benefits of this OPRA solution include the following:

  • Costs to deploy are much less than facing lawsuit costs
  • Reduce time spent in fulfilling requests by requiring requestor to submit records request online which is automatically sent to the agency’s OPRA response coordinator -who determines which department it gets automatically routed to – so response times are speedier
  • Requests are tracked down to the minute which increases compliance right off the bat
  • Provides Public with convenient self-service capability
  • Stores packaged responses in a repository for retention purposes and future use
  • Provides integrated redaction feature allowing staff to remove personal information

The Foveonics OPRASync solution has been developed with simplicity in mind. The system is very user-friendly and easily integrates with existing ECM’s, Databases, Outlook or payment systems. To get started on an OPRA partnership to reduce your liability, contact us.