The Municipal Judge shall prepare or have prepared a budget
for the Municipal Court which shall be submitted to the governing
body of the Township of Hope by November 1 of each year. The budget
shall set forth, based on income and expenses for the prior twelve-month
period ending September 30, an estimate of all expenses and revenues
for the upcoming calendar year, and shall be in a form that is consistent
with Municipal budgets. The proposed budget shall be circulated by
the Township of Hope to the governing body of every other participating
Municipality.
Insurance coverage and/or bond shall be obtained that protects
the Joint Municipal Court and its personnel from claims against them
arising out of workers' compensation, bodily injury, property
damage, personal injury, civil rights violations or defalcations by
Court personnel and such coverage as may be necessary, which claims
arise in whole or in part from participating members' cases.
The coverage may be provided through policies issued to the members
and/or through separate policies issued to the Joint Municipal Court.
Improvements to the existing court facility that are required
to render the court facility in compliance with state and/or assignment
Judge mandates shall be undertaken as soon as possible, and the cost
for said improvement shall be shared equally by all five Municipalities.
All other expenses for administering the Joint Municipal Court, including
salaries for the Judge and Court personnel, and costs of materials
and equipment for the court, will be shared by all five Municipalities
in accordance with this section:
A. The legally permitted Municipal share of all fines, assessments,
costs or other charges collected by the Court (hereinafter "Municipal
Income") shall be forwarded monthly to Hope Township and credited
to the Court account and applied to the expenses of maintaining and
operating the Court. The Court administration shall simultaneously
submit a monthly summary of all income and disbursements to each Municipality.
B. All other received fines, assessments, court costs and other charges
shall be distributed as required by law.
C. To the extent that the annual expenses necessary to maintain and
operate the Court are the greater or lesser than the Municipal Income
received, they shall be allocated among these members pursuant to
the following formula: The percentage share of each Municipality shall
be a total of the fines divided by the amount of the fine generated
by that Municipality.
D. Each Municipality shall pay monthly to Hope Township its estimated
share of anticipated deficit as established by the budget described
in Article 2-6.5 of the Code of the Township of Hope.
E. On or about February 1 of each year, Hope Township shall submit to
each Municipality a final accounting for the prior fiscal/calendar
year with any credit due to be applied to future contributions.
The governing bodies of the Township of Hope, the Township of
Liberty, the Township of Blairstown, the Township of White and the
Township of Hardwick are hereby authorized to enter into a contract
with each other embodying the provisions of this chapter pursuant
to the Uniform Shared Services and Consolidation Act, N.J.S.A. 40A:65-1
et seq., in accordance with the terms of the Act. In the event of
any discrepancy between this chapter and said Act, including any amendments
thereto, the Act shall take precedence.