PUBLIC NOTICES NJAC, the New Jersey State League of Municipalities (NJLM), and the New Jersey School Boards Association (NJSBA) are urging State leaders to address New Jersey’s looming public notice crisis exacerbated by NJ Advance Media’s recent announcement that it’s terminating daily print publications in January of 2025 by providing local governments with the following options to publish public notices: In a clear and transparent manner on a local government’s official website; or, In a database created and maintained by the State of New Jersey; or, On a website or digital pu...

NJ PACT/REAL RULES With the comment period for the New Jersey Protection Against Climate Threat (PACT)/Resilient Environment and Landscape (REAL) rules extended until November 7, 2024, NJAC is respectfully requesting that Governor Murphy and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) consider a more moderate regulatory and legislative approach to implementing the sweeping changes in a manner that actively engages stakeholders at the local and federal levels along with the business community and residents. You may find additional details about the PACT/REAL rules by visiting...

NJAC is advocating for the following legislative initiatives for the remainder of the 2024/25 legislative session. ONLINE LEGAL NOTICES ISSUE: NJAC supports legislation that would provide local governing bodies with the opportunity to electronically publish legal notices in a newspaper’s website or digital publication as it would provide counties, municipalities, school boards, authorities, and more with the opportunity to comply with the law in a timely, cost effective, and efficient manner. In general, current law requires purchasing officials, clerks of the boards, planning departments...

CODE RED ALERTS On June 20th, the Senate Health, Senior Citizens, and Human Services Committee amended and favorably reported S-2346 (Turner D-15/McNight D-31), which would establish a three-year pilot program in the State Office of Emergency Management (OEM) under which participating counties must formulate plans to issue a Code Red alert under certain circumstances. In general, this legislation would require OEM to select 10 willing counties to participate in the pilot program, where the county’s OEM coordinator would develop consistent Code Red alert plans throughout the county along with...

ONLINE LEGAL NOTICES NJAC is encouraging all 21 counties in the State to adopt the following resolution concerning online legal notices. A RESOLUTION urging state leaders to pass legislation that will authorize counties, municipalities, school districts, and all local governments to electronically publish legal notices in a newspaper’s website or digital publication. WHEREAS, current law requires purchasing officials, clerks of the boards, planning departments, improvement authorities, sheriffs, and other local government professionals to publish printed legal notices in local newspaper pub...

REVISIONS TO THE OPEN PUBLIC RECORDS ACT (OPRA) On May 13th both houses passed and sent to the Governor S-2930/A-4065 (Danielsen D- 17/Flynn R-13)(Sarlo D-36/Bucco R-35), which would make various changes to the process for access to government records. NJAC supports this legislation as it would streamline and modernize the open public records process by encouraging public entities to digitize documents and make searchable online, records such as contracts, resolutions, meeting minutes, agendas, and more. This process would save valuable time and resources and is long overdue. NJAC also apprec...

EASING THE OPRA BURDEN FROM COMMERCIAL REQUESTS AND EXCESSIVE ATTORNEY FEES A law firm sought court approval of legal fees for $565.0 per hour and a grand total of $227,667.00 to litigate a matter under the Open Public Records Act (Act). A company that brands itself as “a trusted information database of government purchase orders,” made a public records request for purchasing data and then sold the information as a supplier subscription A nationwide company that advertises itself as the “largest network of accurate construction project leads … to help you win more jobs,” made a publ...

TRANSPORTATION TRUST FUND Notwithstanding earlier reports that Governor Murphy had signed into law A-4011 (Calabrese D-36/Wimberly D-35)(Sarlo D-36/Scutari D-22), he is expected to do so early next week as the measure would reauthorize the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF), revise the gas tax calculation, and establish an annual fee for zero emission standards. NJAC testified in support of the legislation before committees in both houses as the measure reestablishes a stable, dependable, and long-term source of constitutionally dedicated funding that will continue to ensure a safe and reliable...

FISCAL YEAR 2025 STATE BUDGET On February 27th, Governor Murphy delivered the Fiscal Year 2025 State Budget before both house of the State Legislature at the State House in Trenton. NJAC will spend the next several weeks reviewing the $55,900,000,000.00 billion dollar spending plan and will testify at public hearings before budget committees in both houses later this month. Please note that although you may review the “Budget in Brief” at www.nj.gov/treasury/omb/publications/25bib/BIB.pdf, the document only provides a summary of the Governor’s budget recommendations. The State Office of Manag...

1. Bills Signed Recently into Law COUNTY REORGANIZATION MEETINGS: On January 8th, Governor Murphy signed into law S-4081 (Beach D-6/Diegnan D-18)(Atkins D-22/Carter D-22)  as P.L.  2023, c. 226, which authorizes boards of county commissioners to hold annual reorganization meetings at additional locations other than the Superior Court. NJAC is grateful to the sponsors for their leadership in introducing this legislation on behalf of the Association as one of our top priorities to close the 2022/23 legislative session; and, thank you to the clerks of the board for their help  and guidance in ra...