S 3685 New Jersey Senate · 2024-2025 Regular Session

Requires municipalities to accept complaints and provide certain municipal announcements by electronic means.

This bill requires New Jersey municipalities to establish electronic systems for receiving public complaints and distributing key municipal information, such as meeting notices, budgets, emergency alerts, and road closures. Municipalities must provide an online complaint form (or the state will supply one for those without a website) and allow residents to sign up for electronic alerts via email, text, or social media. Implementation depends on available funding, as the bill explicitly states it cannot impose unfunded costs on municipalities. The law applies to all municipalities and takes effect immediately.

Issues: ✓ Technology

Sub-Topics: Social Media

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Sep 2024

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Sep 30, 2024 Last action Dec 5, 2024

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Introduced Version → Reprint SCU 12/5/24 1R · 3 edits

MINOR

The Senate committee reprint added a new Section 13 providing that actions taken under a related pending bill would not be subject to the New Jersey Tort Claims Act, effectively granting tort immunity for those actions. The bill's explanatory statement describing its purpose and unfunded mandate provisions was removed. Remaining changes are minor formatting adjustments.

Scope change

The bill's scope was expanded by adding Section 13, which links this bill to a separate pending bill and provides tort immunity for actions taken under that other legislation. This goes beyond the original bill's focus on requiring municipal electronic complaint and notification systems.

ENFORCEMENT

New Section 13 provides that any action undertaken pursuant to a related pending bill (referenced by placeholder P.L. number) shall not be deemed an exercise of a government function and shall not be subject to the New Jersey Tort Claims Act, giving municipalities or other actors immunity from tort liability for actions under that separate legislation.

TECHNICAL

The entire STATEMENT section was removed. This section had explained that the bill requires municipalities to have electronic complaint and notification systems, and noted that implementation would only be required if State funding is made available due to unfunded mandate constitutional provisions.

Minor line-break and formatting changes throughout subsections b and 2 (definition of municipal announcement), with no substantive content change.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Dec 5, 2024

Upper · Passed

Reported out of Senate Committee with Amendments, 2nd Reading

upper

Sep 30, 2024

Introduced

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee

upper

2 primary · 0 co-sponsors