NJ FIRST ACT

Residency Requirement: New Jersey First Act

 

Please review the full statute for more details. Each employee hired by the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District on or after the effective date of this law [May 17, 2011] is advised, by copy of this notice, that he or she is solely responsible for complying with the requirements of the law for residency requirement with NJ First Act.

 

N.J.S.A. 52:14-7 Residency requirement for State officers, employees; exceptions.

a. Every person holding an office, employment, or position:

(1) In the Executive, Legislative, or Judicial Branch of this State, or

(2) With an authority, board, body, agency, commission, or instrumentality of the State, including any State college, university, or other higher education institution, and, to the extent consistence with law, any interstate agency to which New Jersey is a party, or

(3) With a county, municipality, or other political subdivision of the State, or an authority, board, body, agency, district, commission, or instrumentality of the county, municipality, or subdivision or

(4) With a school district or an authority, board, body, agency, commission, or instrumentality of the district, shall have his or her principal residence in this State and shall execute such office, employment, or position….

 

For the purposes of this subsection, a person may have at most one principal residence, and the state of a person’s principal residence means the state (1) where the person spends the majority of his or her nonworking time, and (2) which is most clearly the center of his or her domestic life, and (3) which is designated as his or her legal address and legal residence for voting. The fact that a person is domiciled in this State shall not by itself satisfy the requirement of principal residency hereunder….

 

A person, regardless of the office, employment, or position, who holds an office, employment, or position in this State on the effective date of P.L. 2011, c.70 [May 17, 2011] but does not have his or her principal residence in this State on that effective date shall not be subject to the residency requirement of this subsection while the person continues to hold office, employment, or position without a break in public service of greater than seven days….

 

Any person may request an exemption from the provisions of this subsection on the basis of critical need or hardship from a five-member committee hereby established to consider applications for such exemptions…. The decision on whether to approve an application from any person shall be made by a majority vote of the members of the committee, and those voting in the affirmative shall so sign the approved application. If the committee fails to act on an application within 30 days after the receipt thereof, no exemption shall be granted and the residency requirement of this subsection shall be operative.

 

d. Any person holding or attempting to hold an office, employment, or position in violation of this section shall be considered as illegally holding or attempting to hold the same; provided that a person holding an office, employment, or position in this State shall have one year from the time of taking the office, employment, or position to satisfy the requirement of principal residency, and if thereafter such person fails to satisfy the requirement of principal residency as defined herein with respect to any 365-period, that person shall be deemed unqualified for holding the office, employment, or position. The Superior Court shall, in a civil action in lieu of prerogative writ, give judgment of ouster against such person, upon the complaint of any officer or citizen of the State, provided that any such complaint shall be brought within one year of the alleged 365-day period of failure to have his or her principal resident in this State.

 

Amended 1953, c.49, s.3; 1987, c.13; 2011, c.70, s2.

 

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