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Cities
A City in the context of New Jersey local government refers to one of five types and one of eleven forms of municipal government.
Despite the widely-held perception of a city as a large, urban area, cities in New Jersey have a confused history as a form of government and vary in size from large, densely populated areas to much-smaller hamlets.
The 1897 and 1899 city charter laws applied only to areas with a population under 12,000, and provided for a directly-elected mayor, who served a two-year term and had strong executive powers. Both featured a council elected from wards to staggered three-year terms, plus one councilman elected at-large for a term of two years. The Mayor had veto power, which could be overridden by a two-thirds vote of the Council. The two acts differed in a number of ways, including the process for selection of a Board of Education (1897: elected; 1899: appointed by Council).
By 1987, there were only eleven cities under these City Acts (including East Orange, which effectively operated under a special City charter). As in other forms, many amendments, revisions and changes had been made over the years, leading to confusing and often conflicting legislation.
The City Act of 1987 provides for a directly-elected mayor who serves a four-year term and for a council that consists of seven members; six elected from two wards for staggered three-year terms and one elected at large for a four year term. There are three councilmen in each ward with one councilmember from each ward up for election every year. The mayor is the chief executive and votes only to break a tie. The Mayor has veto power over all or portions of any ordinance, subject to override by a two-thirds vote of the Council. The Act also provides for the delegation of executive responsibilities to a municipal administrator.
Those cities operating under pre-1987 charters could retain the characteristics of their structure of government regarding terms of office, number of positions and other powers. Provisions of the 1987 Act can then be adopted through a petition and referendum process by the electorate.
Boroughs
A Borough (sometimes abbreviated Boro on road signs) in the context of New Jersey local government refers to one of five types and one of eleven forms of municipal government.
Though it is now the most common form of government in New Jersey, as of 1875, only 17 boroughs had been created, all by special acts of the legislature.
The Borough Act of 1878 allowed any township (or portion thereof) with a land area of no more than four square miles and a population not exceeding 5,000, to establish itself as an independent borough through a petition and referendum process on a self-executing basis. As enacted, a borough would be governed by an elected mayor (serving a one-year term) and a six-member council (elected to staggered three-year terms). The mayor would preside at council meetings, but had no vote except to break ties. A wave of boroughs were incorporated by newly-minted municipalities to allow for home-ruled school districts.
The Borough Act of 1897 amended the original Act, eliminating the self-executing incorporation feature of the earlier legislation. Henceforth, newly incorporated boroughs (or those seeking to dissolve or increase or decrease in size) required approval of the legislature. The elected mayor and six-member council were retained, with the mayor now serving a two-year term.
The Borough Act of 1987 was created to streamline borough law and clear away amendments, changes and contradictory rules that had accumulated over the century of the Borough's existence as a form of government. The 1987 Act allowed for the delegation of executive responsibility to an appointed administrator.
Traditionally, voters elect a mayor and six council-members at-large in a partisan election. The borough system has a weak mayor and the council performs most legislative and executive functions. This form of local government is used by 39% of the municipalities in New Jersey
Towns
A Town in the context of New Jersey local government refers to one of five types and one of eleven forms of municipal government. While Town is often used as a shorthand to refer to a Township, the two are not the same.
The Town Act of 1895 allowed any municipality or area with a population exceeding 5,000 to become a Town through a petition and referendum process. Under the 1895 Act, a newly incorporated town was divided into at least three wards, with two councilmen per ward serving staggered two year terms, and one councilman at large, who also served a two year term. The councilman at large served as chairman of the town council.
The Town Act of 1988 completely revised the Town form of government and applied to all towns incorporated under the Town Act of 1895 and to those incorporated by a special charter granted by the Legislature prior to 1875. Under the 1988 Act, the mayor is also the councilman at large, serving a term of two years, unless increased to three years by a petition and referendum process. The Council under the Town Act of 1988 consists of eight members serving staggered two-year terms with two elected from each of four wards. One councilman from each ward is up for election each year. Towns with different structures predating the 1988 Act may retain those features unless changed by a petition and referendum process.
Two new provisions were added in 1991 to the statutes governing towns, First, a petition and referendum process was created whereby the voters can require that the mayor and town council be elected to four-year terms of office. The second new provision defines the election procedure in towns with wards.
The mayor in a town chairs the town council and heads the municipal government. The mayor may both vote on legislation before council and veto ordinances. A veto may be overridden by a vote of two-thirds of all the members of the council. The council may enact an ordinance to delegate all or a portion of the executive responsibilities of the town to a municipal administrator.
Fifteen New Jersey municipalities currently have a type of Town, nine of which operate under the town form of government:
| Municipality |
County |
Form |
| Belvidere |
Warren |
Town |
| Boonton |
Morris |
Town |
| Clinton Town |
Hunterdon |
Town |
| Dover Town |
Morris |
Town |
| Guttenberg |
Hudson |
Town |
| Hackettstown |
Warren |
Special Charter |
| Hammonton |
Atlantic |
Town |
| Harrison |
Hudson |
Town |
| Kearny |
Hudson |
Town |
| Morristown |
Morris |
Faulkner Act (Mayor-Council) |
| Newton |
Sussex |
Faulkner Act (Council-Manager) |
| Phillipsburg |
Warren |
Faulkner Act (Mayor-Council) |
| Secaucus |
Hudson |
Town |
| West New York |
Hudson |
Walsh Act (New Jersey) |
| Westfield |
Union |
Special Charter |
Townships
A township, in the context of New Jersey local government, refers to one of five types and one of eleven forms of municipal government. It is a political entity as any typical town, city or municipality, collecting property taxes and providing services such as maintaining roads, garbage collection, water, sewer, schools, police and fire protection. The Township form of local government is used by 27% of New Jersey municipalities.
However, townships in New Jersey differ from townships elsewhere in the United States. In most states, townships are an intermediate form of government, between county government and municipalities that are subordinate parts of the township, with different government responsibilities allocated at each level. In New Jersey, there are no subordinate municipalities located within a township, as a New Jersey township is a form of municipal government within a county, equal in status to a village, town, borough, or city, all of which may coexist within a county.
Municipalities in New Jersey may be classified into one of five types, of which townships are one. Townships may retain the township form of government, or adopt one of the modern forms of government, which are not restricted to a particular type of municipality. In New Jersey, a municipality's name (such as X Township) is not necessarily an indication of its form of government.
In New Jersey, a township is a form of government which consists of a three to five member township committee usually elected at-large in partisan elections. At its organization meeting, held after an election, the committee selects one of its elected members to serve as mayor and preside at meetings. The other members of the township committee serve as commissioners of various township departments, overseeing the work of those areas along with overall legislative issues. Some mayors in this form of government also oversee specific departments. The mayor in this form of government is primarily ceremonial and has the same power as other township committee members. The mayor does hold the powers vested in all mayors under state law. One township committee member is elected deputy mayor each year. Some towns with this form of government rotate the mayor's office each year, while others elect the same mayor for 2-3 years in a row. On road signs, township is often abbreviated TWP or Twp.
Historically, a variety of legislation has been passed by the state legislature that has defined and refined the township form of municipal government:
The Township Act of 1798 was the first state legislation to incorporate municipalities. The government defined was a form of direct democracy, similar to the New England town meeting, in which the vote was available to all white males, at least 21 years old, who were citizens of New Jersey, and residents of the township for at least six months; and who paid taxes in the township, or who owned land, or rented a home in the township for a rent of at least five dollars a year. A group of five freeholders was elected to one-year terms on the Township Committee, which was responsible to oversee the expenditure of revenue in between town meetings.
The Township Act of 1899 abolished the town meeting and strengthened the role of the Township Committee, which was initially set at three and amended to allow for expansion to five members. Members were elected for staggered three-year terms.
The Home Rule Act of 1917 legally defined the term "municipality" and recognized five types of government: borough, township, city, town, and village and granted each equal legal standing.
The Township Act of 1989 simplified the much-amended Act of 1899. It retains a three or five member township committee serving staggered terms, whose members are generally elected at-large. The committee elects a mayor from among its members to serve a one-year term. Partisan elections are allowed under this law. Voters may initiate a referendum to change the membership to consist of either 3 or 5 members. While many township committees directly supervise the operation of their municipality, the revised act allows the committee to delegate all or a portion of its responsibilities to an appointed municipal administrator.
Communities
Unincorporated areas in the state of New Jersey are communities that are part of one or more incorporated municipalities. Some of the areas have official recognition as a Census-designated place, such as Somerset, New Jersey which is part of Franklin Township, Somerset County, New Jersey. Other communities have their own ZIP Code because they have their own post office such as Deans, New Jersey, which is part of South Brunswick Township, New Jersey. Other communities were once single-owner large farms that were later incorporated into a neighboring township such as Middlebush, New Jersey. Some smaller communtities are incorporated into larger urban areas, such as when Greenville was merged into Jersey City
In New Jersey, all unincorporated areas belong to, and are part of, at least one City, Township, Town, Borough or Village and pay property taxes to that entity.
In other parts of the United States, unincorporated areas do not belong to any municipality and as such the residents do not pay property taxes to any local government. Such unincorporated areas are governed and taxed by county or civil township level government.
CDP's
A census-designated place (CDP) is a type of place, an area identified by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes. CDPs are delineated for each decennial census as the statistical counterparts of incorporated places such as cities, towns and villages. CDPs are communities that lack separate municipal government, but which otherwise physically resemble incorporated places. CDPs are delineated to provide data for settled concentrations of population that are identifiable by name but are not legally incorporated under the laws of the state in which they are located. The boundaries of a CDP have no legal status. In some states the communities identified as CDPs are legally called "unincorporated communities."
The boundaries of such places may be defined in cooperation with local or tribal officials, but are not fixed, and do not affect the status of local government or incorporation; the territories thus defined are strictly statistical entities. CDP boundaries may change from one census to the next to reflect changes in settlement patterns. Further, as statistical entities, the boundaries of the CDP may not correspond with local understanding of the area with the same name. Recognized communities may be divided into two or more CDPs while on the other hand, two or more communities may be combined into one CDP. A CDP may also cover the unincorporated part of a named community where the rest lies within an incorporated place.
By defining an area as a CDP, that locality then appears in the same category of census data as incorporated places. This distinguishes CDPs from other census classifications, such as minor civil divisions (MCDs), which are in a separate category.
The population and demographics of the CDP district are included in the data of county subdivisions containing the CDP. In no case is a CDP defined within the boundaries of what the Census Bureau regards to be an incorporated city, village or borough. However, note that the Census Bureau considers Towns in New England states and New York as well as Townships in some other states as MCDs, even though they are incorporated municipalities in those states.
The Census Bureau reported data for some unincorporated places as early as the 1850 census, though usage continued to evolve through the 1890 census, in which, for the first time, the Census mixed-in unincorporated places with incorporated places in its products with "town" as its label. This made it very confusing to determine which of the "towns" were or were not incorporated. The 1900 through 1930 censuses did not report data for unincorporated places. For the 1940 census, the Census Bureau compiled a separate report of unofficial, unincorporated communities of 500 or more people. The Census Bureau officially recognized "unincorporated places" in the 1950 census, when these types of places were only recognized outside urbanized areas. In 1960, the Census Bureau for the first time recognized unincorporated territory inside urbanized areas, but with a population of at least 10,000. For the 1980 census, the designation was changed to "census-designated places". From 1950 through the 1990 Census, the Census Bureau had population requirements for unincorporated places or CDPs. This minimum population requirement was dropped with the 2000 census.
Villages
A Village in the context of New Jersey local government, refers to one of five types and one of eleven forms of municipal government.
The Village Act of 1891 defined the form of government to consist of a five-member board of trustees to be elected to three-year staggered terms. One member serves as president, one member serves as treasurer. This act was repealed by the State Legislature in 1961.
The Village Act of 1989 changed the essence of the Village form of government, essentially eliminating it in all but name. As of January 1, 1990, every village operating under the Village Form of government had to operate according to the laws pertaining to the Township form. Essentially, the Village form of government is now identical to the Township form, except that the Township Committee and Mayor in the Township form correspond to the Board of Trustees and the President of the Board in the Village form.
Only one municipality, tiny Loch Arbour, still has a village form of government. Loch Arbour has a five-member Board of Trustees elected at-large for three-year staggered terms of office in partisan elections. Loch Arbour’s Board of Trustees elects one of its members to serve as President for a one-year term of office.
Though there are four municipalities with the Village type of government, Loch Arbour is New Jersey's only remaining municipality that retains the traditional Village form of government. New Jersey's three other villages -- Ridgefield Park (now with a Walsh Act form), Ridgewood, (now with a Faulkner Act Council-Manager charter) and, most confusingly, South Orange (now the Township of South Orange Village) -- have all migrated to other, non-Village forms.
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