Faulkner Act - History

History

The Faulkner Act was created to provide municipalities with greater flexibility than provided in New Jersey's traditional forms of government (City, Township, Borough, Town and Village) and to expand on the reforms provided in the Walsh Act and the 1923 Municipal Manager Law.

As originally enacted in 1950, the Faulkner Act provided for three forms of government: Mayor-Council, Council-Manager and Small Municipality. Within each form, letter codes designated predefined aspects of each form and its individual arrangement of options, such as partisan or nonpartisan elections, concurrent or staggered terms, all at large or a combination of ward and at large seats.

In 1981, the Faulkner Act was significantly amended. The letter codes were eliminated, and the number of varieties within each plan was greatly increased. The Council-Manager plan was amended to include the option of having a mayor chosen by the electorate. A new form, Mayor-Council-Administrator, was added. Municipalities were also given greater flexibility to amend their Faulkner Act charter without having to place the entire charter on the ballot.

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