52:14B-3 Additional requirements for rule-making.

3. In addition to other rule-making requirements imposed by law, each agency shall:

(1) adopt as a rule a description of its organization, stating the general course and method of its operations and the methods whereby the public may obtain information or make submissions or requests;

(2) adopt rules of practice setting forth the nature and requirements of all formal and informal procedures available, including a description of all forms and instructions used by the agency, and if not otherwise set forth in an agency's rules, a table of all permits and their fees, violations and penalties, deadlines, processing times and appeals procedures. A complete list of the agency's permits, fees, violations, penalties, deadlines, processing times, and appeals procedures shall also be made available for public viewing through publication on the agency's Internet website;

(3) make available for public viewing, through publication on the agency's Internet website, and through any other means, all final agency orders, decisions, and opinions, in accordance with the provisions of chapter 73 of the laws of 1963 as amended and supplemented (C.47:1A-1 et seq.);

(4) make available for public viewing, through publication on the agency's Internet website, all of the agency's rule-making and public hearing notices, publicity documents, press releases, final and non-confidential agency reports, and rule-making petitions received by the agency pursuant to subsection (f) of section 4 of P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-4); and

(5) publish in the New Jersey Register a quarterly calendar setting forth a schedule of the agency's anticipated rule-making activities for the next six months. The calendar shall include the name of the agency and agency head, a citation to the legal authority authorizing the rule-making action and a synopsis of the subject matter and the objective or purpose of the agency's proposed rules.

In a manner prescribed by the Director of the Office of Administrative Law, each agency shall appropriately publicize that copies of its calendar are available to interested persons for a reasonable fee. The amount of the fee shall be set by the director.

An agency shall notify the Director of the Office of Administrative Law when it wishes to amend its calendar of rule-making activities. Any amendment which involves the addition of any rule-making activity to an agency's calendar shall provide that the agency shall take no action on that matter until at least 45 days following the first publication of the amended calendar in which the announcement of that proposed rule-making activity first appears.

The provisions of this paragraph shall not apply to rule-making:

(a) required or authorized by federal law when failure to adopt rules in a timely manner will prejudice the State;

(b) subject to a specific statutory authorization requiring promulgation in a lesser time period;

(c) involving an imminent peril subject to provisions of subsection (c) of section 4 of P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-4);

(d) for which the agency has published a notice of pre-proposal of a rule in accordance with rules adopted by the Director of the Office of Administrative Law; or

(e) for which a comment period of at least 60 days is provided.

A proposed rule falling within any of the exceptions to the provisions of this subsection shall so indicate in the notice of proposal.

L.1968, c.410, s.3; amended 2001, c.5, s.1; 2013, c.259, s.3.