ASSEMBLY TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE

 

STATEMENT TO

 

ASSEMBLY, No. 1344

 

with committee amendments

 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

 

DATED: SEPTEMBER 16, 1996

 

      The Assembly Transportation and Communications Committee favorably reports Assembly Bill No. 1344 with committee amendments.

      This amended bill authorizes a municipality to adopt and enforce an ordinance licensing the location and maintenance of pay telephones along public roads, streets and sidewalks or those readily accessible on a 24-hour-a-day basis.

      The bill authorizes a municipal ordinance licensing and regulating pay telephones to provide for a single, one-time municipal license and application fee, which shall not exceed $50 for each pay telephone. The fees would not be applicable to a public utility as defined in R.S. 48:2-13.

      An ordinance licensing and regulating pay telephones would be required to provide: that the name, address or post office box, and telephone number of the owner or operator of a pay phone be listed on the pay telephone; that the owner or operator of a pay telephone be required to clean the telephone and surrounding area on a regular basis, but not less than quarterly; and that municipal health and construction officials be authorized to enforce municipal standards regarding pay telephones. The bill provides that such an ordinance may include a penalty for non-compliance with the provisions of the ordinance which penalty may include a monetary penalty of not more than $500 and revocation of the pay telephone license issued by the municipality to the owner or operator of the pay telephone which is in violation of the ordinance.

      The committee amendments clarify that a municipality may impose a single, one-time annual license and application fee for each pay telephone. The amendments also provide that these fees would not be applicable to a public utility as defined in R.S. 48:2-13. The amendments require that the telephone number, as well as the name and address, of the owner or operator of the pay telephone be listed on the telephone. The committee also amended the bill to provide that a municipal ordinance may regulate pay telephones accessible on a 24-hour-a-day basis.

      Technical review was performed on this prefiled bill, as required under Joint Rule 18A of the Senate and General Assembly.