[HISTORY: Adopted by the Mayor and Council of the Borough of Palisades
Park 2-21-2006 by Ord. No. 1463. Amendments
noted where applicable.]
There is hereby established a municipal Community Affairs Committee,
hereinafter referred to as "the Committee."
The Commission shall consist of seven members.
A.
The members of the Committee shall be appointed by the
Mayor with the advice and consent of the Council. Each member shall be a citizen
of the United States and resident and a qualified voter of the Borough of
Palisades Park. One member shall be appointed for one year, one member for
two years, one member for three years, two members for four years and two
members for five years. At the expiration of each of the above terms, the
new member or members shall be appointed for a term of five years. All terms
shall start from January 1 of the year of the appointment. Vacancies in the
membership, occurring for whatever cause, shall be promptly filled by appointment
by the Mayor with the advice and consent of the governing body for the unexpired
term thereof. Members shall serve for their respective terms and until their
successors are appointed and qualify.
B.
Each member shall be chosen with a special view to his/her
qualifications, willingness and fitness for service on the Committee. The
member shall be willing to create and promulgate policies to make it easier
for people in the Borough to understand and get through the methods of government.
C.
Neither the Mayor nor a member of the Borough Council
shall be appointed as a member of the Committee.
D.
Each member and officer of the Committee shall, before
assuming office, take and subscribe an oath that he will faithfully and impartially
discharge the duties of his office.
E.
The members and officers of the Committee shall serve
without compensation, but each shall receive reimbursement for his actual
disbursements for his expenses in performing his duties.
F.
The Mayor shall choose annually the Committee Chairman,
without the consent of Council. The Mayor shall be ex officio a member, but
he or she shall not have voting privileges.
G.
A majority of the members shall constitute a quorum of
the Board.
A.
Insofar as may be practicable, the employees and assistants
required by the Commission shall be recruited from the public officers and
employees of the Borough. The Borough Attorney shall be the counsel to the
Committee. Borough employees serving the Committee shall do so without compensation
other than their regular compensation as employees of the Borough. The Committee
may, from time to time, ask the Mayor for the use of certain services by employees
of the Borough, and the Mayor shall designate which of the Borough's
employees, if any, shall render such services.
B.
To the extent that the Committee shall deem it necessary
to carry on its functions, and to the extent that it shall consider the services
of existing employees of the Borough insufficient for its purposes, it may
employ a part-time secretary which will be appointed by the Mayor without
the consent of the Council.
To effectuate its purposes, the Committee shall have the following powers:
A.
The Committee shall have the following additional powers:
(1)
To inquire into, survey and publicize the extent, advantages
and utility of the Borough's diversity.
(2)
To draft information pamphlets.
(3)
To conduct seminars and education programs to further
its purposes.
(4)
To study and analyze the various people of the Board
and, to the extent it deems necessary for its purposes, with a view to publicizing
the opportunities for the people of the Borough. In this connection, the reports,
records, statistics, compendia and similar documents of existing federal,
state, county, municipal and other governmental and public agencies, as well
as of responsible private institutions, boards, agencies and similar bodies
interested in the compilation of the information relating to industry, shall
be resorted to, wherever possible, in order to avoid unnecessary original
research and gathering of source material.
(5)
To advertise the advantages and opportunities of the
Borough.
(6)
To solicit the several industries to educate and employ
people of the Borough.
B.
The Committee shall make an annual report to the Mayor
and Borough Council, setting forth in detail its operations and transactions
for the preceding 12 months. A copy of the report shall be filed in the office
of the Borough Clerk and be open to public inspection during the regular business
hours of the Clerk's office.
C.
Nothing in this chapter provided and no authority given
to or exercised by the Committee shall impair or invalidate in any way any
funded indebtedness of the Borough, nor impair the provisions of law regulating
the payment into sinking funds of revenues derived from Borough property,
or dedicating the revenues derived from any Borough property to a specific
purpose.
D.
The creation of the Committee shall not be deemed to
limit in any manner the Mayor and Council's right to deal with any issues
independently of the Committee.
E.
The Mayor and Borough Council may appropriate annually,
during the life of the Committee, such sums as may be reasonably necessary
to conduct the normal operations of the Committee. The Committee shall annually
present to the Chief Financial Officer of the Borough its budget for operations
for the ensuing year, reflecting therein all unexpended balances on hand from
previous appropriations received from the Borough, at the same time and in
the same manner and form as is required by several departments of the Borough's
government, and the budget so submitted shall be acted upon as in the case
of the budgets of such several Borough departments, and, being so acted upon,
shall be made a part of the Borough's budget. A copy of the proposed
budget shall be filed in the Committee's office and be open to public
inspection during the regular business hours of the Committee's office.
The Committee shall keep and maintain at its office complete and accurate
records of its accounts, and separate accounts shall be kept for its normal
functions, which shall be open to public inspection during the regular business
hours of the Committee's office. The Commission shall not exceed its
budget, and moneys received from the Borough shall be expended only for the
purposes for which they have been appropriated.
