ASSEMBLY, No. 1730

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

INTRODUCED MARCH 18, 1996

By Assemblywoman TURNER

An Act requiring gender balance in appointments to certain State entities.

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

    1. The Legislature finds and declares that women have historically been underrepresented on boards, commissions, and other similar bodies whose members are appointed by the Governor, the Legislature, and the Supreme Court, and that their underrepresentation has made it more difficult to involve women in the governance of this State.

    2. If a person's appointment or reappointment to any authority, board, commission, committee, council or other entity heretofore or hereafter established by law or joint resolution with a membership of two or more persons would result in the number of appointed members of the entity who are of the same sex as the appointee exceeding the proportion of persons of that sex who compose the group or constituency represented, licensed, or regulated by the authority, board, commission, committee, council, or other appointed entity, an appointment of a person of the other sex shall be made. If there are multiple appointing authorities, they shall consult each other to avoid a violation of this section. Where the constituency or the sexual composition of the constituency is not readily identifiable, the proportion used shall be that in the population of the entire State.

    3. Nothing in this act shall be construed to prohibit any person serving as a member of an entity upon the effective date of this act from completing the term for which the person was appointed.

    4. The Attorney General shall promulgate, in accordance with the provisions of the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), such rules and regulations as may be necessary to effectuate the purposes of this act.

    5. This act shall take effect immediately.

STATEMENT

    Women in New Jersey have been excluded from unpaid and paid appointments that give them the experience to qualify for elected and policy-making position in State government. Even after the nation became sensitized to such discrepancies by the Thomas-Hill hearings in 1991, and with the major political parties actively searching for women candidates to run for elective office, appointments in New Jersey have failed to correct the imbalance. The discrepancies are worse for paid boards and commissions than they are overall.

    In order to address any imbalance that exists between the sexes in State government appointments, this bill requires proportional representation of males and females among the appointed members of State authorities, boards, commissions, committees, councils, and similar regulatory and advisory entities established by law or joint resolution. It prohibits any appointment that would result in there being more males or females appointed to the entity than exist in the population served or regulated by the entity.

    The bill also preserves current appointments, regardless of gender, and directs the Attorney General to promulgate such rules and regulations as may be necessary to effectuate the purposes of the bill.

Requires gender balance in appointments to certain State entities.