meanwhile lawmakers and Watchdog Advocates are still grappling with another issue here in the state proposed reforms to the open public records act or Oprah it's largely used by journalists and the public to get access to government records that have uncovered some of the state's biggest corruption stories well last night a panel of experts gathered to dissect the suggested changes they say would gut the law as we know it senior political correspondent David Cruz reports legisl leaders say the general public cares more about property taxes and other so-called pocketbook issues than they do about the open public records act it's you people in the media they say who are stirring things up it's true a lot of the backlash that led to the failure of the initial attempt at an Oprah update in March did come from press groups like The Society of professional journalists last night the group held a forum on the campus of Ryder University intended to keep the pressure on lawmakers who pulled the Oprah bill for further consultation with stakeholders and perhaps some amendments I want to just caution people it isn't dead they're still working on it they've made that clear um I did district office visits this week and you know the the responses are that lawmakers other than leadership haven't seen any amendments but that they are indeed working on them and that you know probably within the next two weeks we'll see some hearings drop one of the sponsors the new sponsors is Tony Buco the Senate Republican leader and that's ominous because if the Democratic caucuses don't have enough votes and the Republicans can lend some votes then that indicates that um they could pass it anyway buo has been more outspoken on the Oprah Bill and along with Senate budget committee chairman Paul sarlo has cited Public Safety in the addition to an economic burden on municipalities as a reason for Oprah reform you know those folks that are out there um sending in Oprah requests for body warn uh camera videos of young women and then posting them on the Internet trying to get at those Bad actors to stop that some folks uh quite frankly for a lack of better words have have some made re some really creepy creepy requests of municipalities and cities around the state New Jersey quite frankly but requests like that and it should be noted that lawmakers have presented no actual evidence of them would be rejected by the current Oprah law says CJ Griffin an attorney who represents media organizations and others who've had their opah requests rejected she's become one of the faces of the resistance to Oprah changes and a target of criticism from Bill sponsors limitting access to body cams she says would just make uncovering corruption and misconduct harder body cams that showed pops bragging on tape about police brutality committing police brutality we got a body cam showing the police planted a gun in a field uh we got the body cam showing that the police found a flas in the council vice president's car during an accident investigation and tried to hide it from the camera not only is information the the information world going to sort of explode the misinformation world is also going to explode so people have to have confidence in the ability of citizens to get information and they have to have confidence in the ability of journalists to get information um so this isn't it's not a trivial matter in any way shape or form there is still no date set for a new hearing on Oprah lawmakers won't say what stakeholders they're meeting with or what they're saying to one another either in emails or voice messages or texts and they won't have to they're immune to the very Oprah law they say they're trying to make better for you I'm David Cruz NJ Spotlight news [Music]