Faulkner Act (small municipality)

The Faulkner Act, or Optional Municipal Charter Law, provides for New Jersey municipalities to adopt a "small municipality" form of government. Unlike the other Faulkner Act forms of municipal government, the small municipality plan is available only to municipalities with a population of under 12,000.

Voters select either three, five, or seven council members or a mayor and two, four, or six council members. Council members are elected at-large. Council serves three-year concurrent or staggered terms. An elected Mayor, if provided for, is elected by voters and serves a four-year term. Elections may be partisan or non-partisan. An organization meeting for the governing body is held on January 1 for partisan municipalities; July 1 for non-partisan ones.

The mayor, whether elected by voters or a council, presides over the council with voice and vote, but has no veto powers; exercises executive power of the municipality; appoints council committees; and appoints the municipal clerk, attorney, tax assessor, tax collector, and the treasurer, all with council confirmation. A Council-elected mayor serves a term of one or three years, depending on whether terms are staggered or concurrent.

The council exercises legislative power of the municipality and also approves mayor's appointees for municipal clerk, attorney, tax assessor, tax collector and treasurer.

The Mayor exercises executive power of the municipality; however Council may create an administrator by ordinance.

As in all Faulkner Act municipalities, citizens in the OMCL small municipality system enjoy the right of initiative and referendum, meaning that proposed ordinances can be introduced directly by the people without action by the local governing body. This right is exercised by preparing a conforming petition signed by 10% of the registered voters who turned out in the last general election in an odd-numbered year. Once the petition is submitted, the local governing body can vote to pass the requested ordinance, and if they refuse, it is then submitted directly to the voters.

Municipalities

In a July 2011 report, the Rutgers University Center for Government Studies listed 18 municipalities as operating under the Faulkner Act small municipality form of government:^[1]

Allamuchy Township, New Jersey
Belmar, New Jersey
Berlin Township, New Jersey
Bradley Beach, New Jersey
Chester Township, New Jersey
Clinton Township, New Jersey
East Hanover Township, New Jersey
Egg Harbor City, New Jersey (city website says small municipality, though source says that city form of government is used)
Estell Manor, New Jersey
Fairfield Township, Essex County, New Jersey
Greenwich Township, Gloucester County, New Jersey
Highlands, New Jersey
Island Heights, New Jersey
Lambertville, New Jersey
Logan Township, New Jersey
Lopatcong Township, New Jersey
Pohatcong Township, New Jersey
Stafford Township, New Jersey
Woodland Park, New Jersey

References

^ Inventory of Municipal Forms of Government in New Jersey, Rutgers University Center for Government Studies, July 1, 2011. Accessed November 18, 2019.

[1] Inventory of Municipal Forms of Government in New Jersey, Rutgers University Center for Government Studies, July 1, 2011. Accessed November 18, 2019.

[1]