40:69A-25 Reversion to prior law.

1-25. Any municipality may, subject to the provisions of section 1-23 of this act, abandon its optional plan and revert to the form of government under which it was governed immediately prior thereto, upon the filing of a petition and referendum as follows:

(a) Upon petition of the registered voters of the municipality signed by the same number thereof as required in section 1-19, for an election to submit the question of abandonment and reversion as herein provided, the municipal clerk shall provide for submission of the question in like manner as provided in section 1-20.

(b) The form of the question shall be as follows:

shall.......(Name of municipality)....................... abandon its present form of government and revert to its prior form of government, known as................(Popular Name of Plan)....... as provided by......(Statutory Reference of Prior Plan).........

(c) If a majority of those voting on the question vote in the affirmative the municipality shall revert to its prior form of government as of 12 m. of the fifty-ninth day following the election of officers under the form of government to which the municipality will revert. The first officers under such form of government shall be elected at the next regular municipal or general election, as appropriate to the form of government to which the municipality will revert, occurring not less than 60 days following the referendum. It shall be the duty of the municipal clerk to perform all the duties respecting such election as would be required of a municipal clerk for elections under the form of government to which the municipality will revert. Whenever a municipality has reverted to any form of government other than the commission form of government law (R.S.40:79-1 et seq.), or the municipal manager form of government (R.S.40:70-1 et seq.), at a later date than the one fixed for the filing of nominating petitions at the primary election for the general election, the candidates to be first elected shall be nominated by direct petition in the manner provided by law for nomination, by direct petition for a general election.

Any law to the contrary notwithstanding, persons holding office at the time of a referendum approving reversion shall continue to hold office until the municipality reverts to the previous form of government. Vacancies existing at the holding of the referendum or which occur between the holding of the referendum and the reversion of the municipality to its previous form of government, shall be filled by appointment pursuant to procedures for the filing of vacancies appropriate to the "Optional Municipal Charter Law."

If a majority of those voting on the question vote in the negative, the question of abandonment and reversion shall not again be submitted for five years.

(d) The reversion to a prior form of government shall take effect as provided in sections 17-57 through 17-59 of this act for transition to an optional plan hereunder.

(e) No petition shall be filed nor referendum held pursuant to this section which would provide for the reversion of a municipality to a form of government which it is not currently authorized to adopt by law.

L.1950,c.210,s.1-25; amended 1967, c.17; 1970, c.100; 1980, c.82; 1991, c.430, s.3; 2005, c.136, s.64.