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S3737
SENATE, No. 3737
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
222nd LEGISLATURE
�
INTRODUCED MARCH 5, 2026
Sponsored by:
Senator� ANTHONY M. BUCCO
District 25 (Morris and Passaic)
Senator� RAJ MUKHERJI
District 32 (Hudson)
SYNOPSIS
���� Requires municipalities to accept complaints and
provide certain municipal announcements by electronic means.�
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
���� As introduced.
��
An Act
concerning municipal communications and
supplementing Title 40 of the Revised Statutes.
����
Be It
Enacted
by the Senate and General Assembly of
the State of New Jersey:
���� 1.��� a.� Each municipality
shall maintain on its Internet website, if one exists, a webpage containing an
electronic form that an individual may use to electronically transmit
complaints relating to the municipality to the clerk or designee of the
municipality, provided that funding is made available to the municipality for
the purposes of implementing this subsection.
���� b.��� The Department of
Community Affairs shall maintain on its Internet website a webpage containing
the electronic form required pursuant to subsection a. of this section for each
municipality that does not have an Internet website.� The department shall
forward a completed form to the clerk or designee of the applicable
municipality.
���� 2.��� Each municipality shall
maintain an electronic system that allows an individual to register to receive
municipal announcements through e-mail, text messages, social media, or other
electronic means, provided that funding is made available to the municipality
for the purposes of implementing this section.
���� For the purposes of this
section, �municipal announcement� means information relating to a municipality
including, but not limited to: adequate notice of any municipal public body
meetings in accordance with the �Senator Byron M. Baer Open Public Meetings Act,�
P.L.1975, c.231 (C.10:4-6 et seq.); the minutes of any such meeting when made
available; municipal budgets upon approval; declared emergencies; urgent public
health and safety matters; and road closures and other significant traffic
changes.
�����
3.��� Any action
undertaken pursuant to the provisions of P.L.��� , c.��� (C.������� ) (pending
before the Legislature as this bill) shall not be deemed to be an exercise of a
government function and shall not be subject to the provisions of the "New
Jersey Tort Claims Act," N.J.S.59:1-1 et seq.
���� 4.��� This act shall take
effect immediately.
STATEMENT
���� This bill requires
municipalities to have electronic systems in place to receive complaints and to
provide certain municipal announcements.� The complaint system required by the
bill would allow an individual to fill out and transmit a complaint form on the
Internet website of the municipality.� The notification system would allow an
individual to sign up to receive electronic announcements of certain municipal
information through e-mail, text messages, social media, or other electronic
means.� While many municipalities already have such systems in place, many do
not.� This bill would require all municipalities to have these systems in order
to ensure that all residents of the State receive the benefits of these
transparency measures.
���� In light of the unfunded
mandate provisions of the State Constitution, under which a State law may be
declared unconstitutional if it does not authorize resources other than the
property tax to offset the additional direct expenditures required for its implementation,
this bill would only require the implementation of these electronic systems if
funding is made available for those purposes through State appropriations,
grants, or otherwise.
���� Further, any action undertaken
pursuant to the provisions of the bill would not be deemed to be an exercise of
a government function and not be subject to the provisions of the "New
Jersey Tort Claims Act," N.J.S.59:1-1 et seq.�