The New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act: what every meeting needs
Every local public body in New Jersey, from the municipal governing body to a planning board or board of education, follows the same law: a yearly schedule of regular meetings, written notice at least 48 hours ahead of most other meetings, minutes promptly open to the public, and a closed list of matters that may be discussed in closed session.
Clarivis is software that helps a board follow these steps: it counts the notice deadline for each special meeting, suggests a notice time for each regular meeting and drafts the minutes for your board to correct and approve; it does not post the notice, notify the newspapers or file it with the clerk for you.
Request a pilotChecklist, stage by stage
What the law asks at each point in a meeting’s life. Each stage links to the full guide, with the statute quoted.
Each year
- Within 7 days after the body's annual organization or reorganization meeting (or by January 10 if it holds none), the schedule of the year's regular meetings, with the time, date and location of each, is posted, mailed to the two newspapers and submitted to the clerk or clerks the body files its notices with. A change to the schedule is handled the same way within 7 days. (N.J.S.A. 10:4-18)
Between meetings
- A gathering, in person or by phone or video, that is open to all the members and held to discuss or act as a unit on the body's business is a meeting, unless fewer than an effective majority attend. It needs notice and minutes. (N.J.S.A. 10:4-8(b))
Before each meeting
- A regular meeting whose location is in the yearly schedule needs no further notice. (N.J.S.A. 10:4-8(d), last sentence)
- Any other meeting, such as a special meeting, gets written notice at least 48 hours ahead, counting every hour, giving the time, date, location, the agenda as far as it is known, and whether formal action may be taken. A rescheduled meeting gets the same notice unless a revised schedule that gives its location has gone out; whether that is enough is not settled. The exceptions are an emergency meeting, which gets notice as soon as possible instead, and, as Clarivis reads the law, a meeting held only for closed-session matters, for which sending the same notice is still the safe course. (N.J.S.A. 10:4-8(d), N.J.S.A. 10:4-9(a))
- That notice is prominently posted in at least one public place set aside for notices, at least two newspapers the body has designated (one of them the official newspaper, where one has been designated) are notified of it, and it is filed. A body of a single municipality files it with the municipal clerk. A regional body, such as a regional board of education, files with its own clerk or chief administrative officer and with the clerk of every municipality or county it covers. (N.J.S.A. 10:4-8(d))
- Posting the notice online is allowed, but never replaces those three steps. (N.J.S.A. 10:4-9.2)
At the meeting
- At the start, the chair announces, and the minutes record, how notice of the meeting was given. (N.J.S.A. 10:4-10)
- The municipal governing body and the board of education set aside part of every meeting for public comment. (N.J.S.A. 10:4-12(a))
- Before the public is excluded, the body adopts a resolution in public stating the general nature of the subject and, as precisely as possible, when and in what circumstances the discussion can be made public, and only a matter the law lists is discussed in closed session. (N.J.S.A. 10:4-13)
Members joining by phone or video
- During a declared emergency, a body may meet, vote and take public comment by electronic equipment. Outside one, the Act does not say whether a member may attend or vote remotely, so check any other law, your charter or ordinance and the body's own rules. (N.J.S.A. 10:4-9.3(a))
After the meeting
- Minutes show the time and place, the members present, the subjects considered, the actions taken and each member's vote. (N.J.S.A. 10:4-14)
- Minutes are promptly available to the public, to the extent that making them public is not inconsistent with the closed-session rules. The Act sets no number of days. (N.J.S.A. 10:4-14)
- Planning board and zoning board of adjustment minutes also name the people who appeared and addressed the board, and those who appeared by attorney, and give the action taken and any findings, with the reasons for them. (N.J.S.A. 40:55D-9)
New Jersey guides
- New Jersey meeting notice: the yearly schedule, the 48-hour notice and where it goesThe yearly schedule, 48 hours' notice, posting, two newspapers and the clerk
- The yearly meeting schedule in New Jersey: what a public body posts within 7 days of reorganizingPosted, mailed and submitted within 7 days of reorganizing, or by January 10
- New Jersey meeting minutes: what they must show and when they must be availableContents, each member's vote, promptly available
- Closed session in New Jersey: the nine matters, the resolution, and the minutesThe nine matters, the resolution, disclosure
- What counts as a meeting in New Jersey: effective majority, phone and video, and what is left outEffective majority, phone and video, and what the law leaves out
- Online and phone meetings in New Jersey: what the law says in an emergency and what it leaves openAllowed in a declared emergency; advice, not a rule, the rest of the time