N.J.A.C. 4A:10-2 Enforcement
Every section of N.J.A.C. 4A:10-2, Enforcement: 4 rules with full text, amendment history and citing decisions.
- 4A:10-2.1General provisions
Ten thousand dollars is the ceiling on a fine. Where there is evidence of a violation of, or noncompliance with, Title 11A or these rules, the Commission conducts an investigatory hearing or other review as appropriate. The remedies come after that finding, not before it, and there are seven of them. The Commission may issue an order of compliance. It may assess costs, charges and fines not exceeding $10,000. It may order the appointment of an eligible from an outstanding list. In State service it may consolidate personnel functions. It may bring a civil action in the Superior Court, recommend criminal prosecution, or take other action allowed by law or rule. Salary disapproval runs on its own separate procedure.
- 4A:10-2.2Failure to appoint from complete certification
An examination begun because someone was appointed provisionally, or because the appointing authority asked for one, has to end in an appointment from the complete certification it produces. Backing out has a deadline and a price. The early exit is to tell the Chairperson, by the date of the examination or within 30 days of the initial announcement, whichever comes first, that the position has been vacated and the provisional appointee terminated. The Chairperson may then cancel the examination, permit no permanent appointment to be made, or take other appropriate action. After that window the only route is a petition to the Commission for permission not to appoint, for a valid reason such as fiscal constraints. The Commission may grant the petition and still order the appointing authority to reimburse the cost of the selection process, with 20 days to respond to the amount assessed. The Commission may also apply the enforcement remedies in 4A:10-2.1, after notice and an opportunity to respond.
- 4A:10-2.3Enforcement action
Standing here is unusually wide. An action to enforce Title 11A, these rules, or an order of the Chairperson or the Commission may be brought in the Superior Court by the Commission, by a party in interest, or by any resident. A resident need not be an employee, an applicant, or a party to whatever went wrong. The Commission may also join an action someone else has already filed rather than starting its own. The section itself sets out no deadline, no procedure and no remedy; it is a grant of access to the court, and the enforcement powers the Commission exercises administratively sit in a different section.
- 4A:10-2.4Criminal violation
Thirty nine words that turn a rules breach into a criminal charge. Purposefully or knowingly violating any provision of Title 11A or Title 4A, or an order of the Chairperson or the Commission, is a crime of the fourth degree, and conspiring to do so carries the same grade. State of mind is what marks this off from the administrative route: the Commission's enforcement powers under 4A:10-2.1 operate on evidence of a violation, with no showing of purpose or knowledge needed. Nothing in the section names a penalty, a procedure or a prosecuting body, and the Commission's own power there stops at recommending prosecution.