[HISTORY: Adopted by the Mayor and Council of the Borough of Palisades Park 2-21-2006 by Ord. No. 1463. Amendments noted where applicable.]
There is hereby established a municipal Community Affairs Committee, hereinafter referred to as "the Committee."
The Commission shall consist of seven members.
A. 
The members of the Committee shall be appointed by the Mayor with the advice and consent of the Council. Each member shall be a citizen of the United States and resident and a qualified voter of the Borough of Palisades Park. One member shall be appointed for one year, one member for two years, one member for three years, two members for four years and two members for five years. At the expiration of each of the above terms, the new member or members shall be appointed for a term of five years. All terms shall start from January 1 of the year of the appointment. Vacancies in the membership, occurring for whatever cause, shall be promptly filled by appointment by the Mayor with the advice and consent of the governing body for the unexpired term thereof. Members shall serve for their respective terms and until their successors are appointed and qualify.
B. 
Each member shall be chosen with a special view to his/her qualifications, willingness and fitness for service on the Committee. The member shall be willing to create and promulgate policies to make it easier for people in the Borough to understand and get through the methods of government.
C. 
Neither the Mayor nor a member of the Borough Council shall be appointed as a member of the Committee.
D. 
Each member and officer of the Committee shall, before assuming office, take and subscribe an oath that he will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of his office.
E. 
The members and officers of the Committee shall serve without compensation, but each shall receive reimbursement for his actual disbursements for his expenses in performing his duties.
F. 
The Mayor shall choose annually the Committee Chairman, without the consent of Council. The Mayor shall be ex officio a member, but he or she shall not have voting privileges.
G. 
A majority of the members shall constitute a quorum of the Board.
A. 
Insofar as may be practicable, the employees and assistants required by the Commission shall be recruited from the public officers and employees of the Borough. The Borough Attorney shall be the counsel to the Committee. Borough employees serving the Committee shall do so without compensation other than their regular compensation as employees of the Borough. The Committee may, from time to time, ask the Mayor for the use of certain services by employees of the Borough, and the Mayor shall designate which of the Borough's employees, if any, shall render such services.
B. 
To the extent that the Committee shall deem it necessary to carry on its functions, and to the extent that it shall consider the services of existing employees of the Borough insufficient for its purposes, it may employ a part-time secretary which will be appointed by the Mayor without the consent of the Council.
To effectuate its purposes, the Committee shall have the following powers:
A. 
To sue and be sued.
B. 
To assemble in the Municipal Building.
C. 
To adopt suitable by-laws for rules of procedure in the management of its affairs.
A. 
The Committee shall have the following additional powers:
(1) 
To inquire into, survey and publicize the extent, advantages and utility of the Borough's diversity.
(2) 
To draft information pamphlets.
(3) 
To conduct seminars and education programs to further its purposes.
(4) 
To study and analyze the various people of the Board and, to the extent it deems necessary for its purposes, with a view to publicizing the opportunities for the people of the Borough. In this connection, the reports, records, statistics, compendia and similar documents of existing federal, state, county, municipal and other governmental and public agencies, as well as of responsible private institutions, boards, agencies and similar bodies interested in the compilation of the information relating to industry, shall be resorted to, wherever possible, in order to avoid unnecessary original research and gathering of source material.
(5) 
To advertise the advantages and opportunities of the Borough.
(6) 
To solicit the several industries to educate and employ people of the Borough.
B. 
The Committee shall make an annual report to the Mayor and Borough Council, setting forth in detail its operations and transactions for the preceding 12 months. A copy of the report shall be filed in the office of the Borough Clerk and be open to public inspection during the regular business hours of the Clerk's office.
C. 
Nothing in this chapter provided and no authority given to or exercised by the Committee shall impair or invalidate in any way any funded indebtedness of the Borough, nor impair the provisions of law regulating the payment into sinking funds of revenues derived from Borough property, or dedicating the revenues derived from any Borough property to a specific purpose.
D. 
The creation of the Committee shall not be deemed to limit in any manner the Mayor and Council's right to deal with any issues independently of the Committee.
E. 
The Mayor and Borough Council may appropriate annually, during the life of the Committee, such sums as may be reasonably necessary to conduct the normal operations of the Committee. The Committee shall annually present to the Chief Financial Officer of the Borough its budget for operations for the ensuing year, reflecting therein all unexpended balances on hand from previous appropriations received from the Borough, at the same time and in the same manner and form as is required by several departments of the Borough's government, and the budget so submitted shall be acted upon as in the case of the budgets of such several Borough departments, and, being so acted upon, shall be made a part of the Borough's budget. A copy of the proposed budget shall be filed in the Committee's office and be open to public inspection during the regular business hours of the Committee's office. The Committee shall keep and maintain at its office complete and accurate records of its accounts, and separate accounts shall be kept for its normal functions, which shall be open to public inspection during the regular business hours of the Committee's office. The Commission shall not exceed its budget, and moneys received from the Borough shall be expended only for the purposes for which they have been appropriated.