Bill Text: NJ A2904 | 2010-2011 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Prohibits municipalities from setting minimum fees for employment of its off-duty police officers.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-06-14 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Housing and Local Government Committee [A2904 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2010-A2904-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman ALBERT COUTINHO
District 29 (Essex and Union)
SYNOPSIS
Prohibits municipalities from setting minimum fees for employment of its off-duty police officers.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning the regulation of fees for the contract employment of off-duty police officers and amending N.J.S.40A:14-118.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. N.J.S.40A:14-118 is amended to read as follows:
40A:14-118. The governing body of any municipality, by ordinance, may create and establish, as an executive and enforcement function of municipal government, a police force, whether as a department or as a division, bureau or other agency thereof, and provide for the maintenance, regulation and control thereof. Any such ordinance shall, in a manner consistent with the form of government adopted by the municipality and with general law, provide for a line of authority relating to the police function and for the adoption and promulgation by the appropriate authority of rules and regulations for the government of the force and for the discipline of its members. The ordinance may provide for the appointment of a chief of police and such members, officers and personnel as shall be deemed necessary, the determination of their terms of office, the fixing of their compensation and the prescription of their powers, functions and duties, all as the governing body shall deem necessary for the effective government of the force. No ordinance or administrative regulation shall set minimum fees for the contract employment of off-duty members of the police force, or require that salaries or fees to off-duty members be paid into an escrow account administered by the municipality. Any such ordinance, or rules and regulations, shall provide that the chief of police, if such position is established, shall be the head of the police force and that he shall be directly responsible to the appropriate authority for the efficiency and routine day to day operations thereof, and that he shall, pursuant to policies established by the appropriate authority:
a. Administer and enforce rules and regulations and special emergency directives for the disposition and discipline of the force and its officers and personnel;
b. Have, exercise, and discharge the functions, powers and duties of the force;
c. Prescribe the duties and assignments of all subordinates and other personnel;
d. Delegate such of his authority as he may deem necessary for the efficient operation of the force to be exercised under his direction and supervision; and
e. Report at least monthly to the appropriate authority in such form as shall be prescribed by such authority on the operation of the force during the preceding month, and make such other reports as may be requested by such authority.
As used in this section, "appropriate authority" means the mayor, manager, or such other appropriate executive or administrative officer, such as a full-time director of public safety, or the governing body or any designated committee or member thereof, or any municipal board or commission established by ordinance for such purposes, as shall be provided by ordinance in a manner consistent with the degree of separation of executive and administrative powers from the legislative powers provided for in the charter or form of government either adopted by the municipality or under which the governing body operates.
Except as provided herein, the municipal governing body and individual members thereof shall act in all matters relating to the police function in the municipality as a body, or through the appropriate authority if other than the governing body.
Nothing herein contained shall prevent the appointment by the governing body of committees or commissions to conduct investigations of the operation of the police force, and the delegation to such committees or commissions of such powers of inquiry as the governing body deems necessary or to conduct such hearing or investigation authorized by law. Nothing herein contained shall prevent the appropriate authority, or any executive or administrative officer charged with the general administrative responsibilities within the municipality, from examining at any time the operations of the police force or the performance of any officer or member thereof. In addition, nothing herein contained shall infringe on or limit the power or duty of the appropriate authority to act to provide for the health, safety or welfare of the municipality in an emergency situation through special emergency directives.
(cf: P.L.1981, c.266, s.1)
2. This act shall take effect immediately and shall be retroactive to May 1, 2007.
STATEMENT
This bill would prevent municipalities from adopting ordinances or regulations that set minimum fees for the contract employment of off-duty members of the police force, or require that salaries or fees to off-duty members be paid into an escrow account administered by the municipality. In certain urban municipalities, off-duty police officers are frequently employed, on a contract basis, by non-public apartment complexes to help provide security services to the tenants. The police officers agree to work for an hourly rate that is negotiated between themselves and the owners of the apartment complexes. If a municipality is permitted to require that its off-duty police officers be paid a certain minimum amount by the apartment owners that is higher than the current negotiated hourly rates, then those higher security costs will be passed along to tenants in the form of rent increases that they may not be able to afford.
This bill would be retroactive to May 1, 2007, to ensure its applicability to an ordinance adopted by the City of Newark that set a standard hourly rate for the contracted off-duty employment of its police officers.
