[First Reprint]

SENATE, No. 714

 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

 

INTRODUCED FEBRUARY 15, 1996

 

 

By Senator BUBBA

 

 

An Act concerning certain State authorities and commissions and supplementing Title 52 of the Revised Statutes.

 

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

 

    1. a. A member of any State authority or commission, including an authority or commission created pursuant to statute and having members appointed by the Governor, but not including an authority or commission created solely for study, investigative or advisory purposes, who is absent from three or more consecutive meetings, or from twenty-five percent or more of the total number of meetings held annually, without being officially excused therefrom, shall forfeit the position to which the member was appointed. Such forfeiture shall be formally confirmed by the president, chairperson, or other presiding member at the earliest pertinent meeting and read into the minutes of the authority. The provisions of this section shall apply to any member of a pertinent authority or commission, whether paid or unpaid. The provisions of this section shall not apply to an ex officio member of an authority or commission 1[or] ,1 to a member of the Legislature 1or to a member of a State authority or commission who is appointed by an officer or official of the federal government1.

    b. For the purposes of this section: (1) "meeting" means a regularly scheduled meeting and includes any gathering of an authority, whether corporeal or by means of communication equipment, which is attended by, or open to, all of the members of a board, held with the intent, on the part of the members of the board present, to discuss or act as a unit upon specific public business of the authority, but shall not mean or include any such gathering attended by less than an effective majority of the members of a board or attended by or open to all the members of two or more authorities at a convention or similar gathering; and (2) an "officially excused" absence is an absence accounted for, before or within ten working days after the meeting or meetings missed, in a letter or memorandum from the member to the president, chairperson, or other presiding member and approved by a majority vote of the authority or commission members.

 

    2. This act shall take effect immediately.

 

 

                             

 

Provides for forfeiture of membership on certain authorities and commissions for absences from meetings.