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Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2002
Most of the State departments are administered by boards appointed by
the Governor. Board members generally are not paid, although necessary
expenses are customarily granted and some very adequate salaries are given
to a few -- such as the three public utility commissioners, who draw $12,000 annually. Each board usually selects the active department head, although the Governor appoints both the boards and the commissioners of
education and aviation. Thirteen other department heads are appointed
by the Governor subject to senatorial confirmation and in most cases with
terms longer than the Governor's. Only two department heads are appointed by the Governor to hold office at his pleasure. The heads of five
important departments are elected by the two houses of the legislature in
joint session.
Confirmation of appointments by the senate is anything but an empty
form in New Jersey. Gubernatorial recommendations have not infrequently
been turned down, often under the principle of senatorial courtesy which
requires that the nominee be acceptable to the senator from his home
county. Political horse trading becomes almost imperative when the Governor must bargain with a hostile senate, a common situation in New
Jersey.
One of the most important executive departments has developed from
the old State prison and the first hospital for the insane, which opened in
1848. This, the department of institutions and agencies, administers 17 institutions for the insane, feebleminded, tubercular, delinquent, and epileptic, and for old soldiers; and two agencies: the commission for the blind
and the board of children's guardians. Mental hygiene clinics operated under this department provide the services of expert psychiatrists for the ordinary citizen who cannot afford to pay private practitioners. New Jersey's
work in this field has placed it well ahead of most other States.
An administrative curiosity in New Jersey is the department of agriculture. The State board of agriculture consists of eight members chosen by a
convention of delegates from the chief farm organizations of the State, an
unusual example of functional representation.
An obvious result of New Jersey's location between New York and
Philadelphia has been the necessity for working agreements with her
neighboring States on interstate construction projects and port development, the management of water supply and garbage disposal. New Jersey
operates, jointly with New York, the Palisades Interstate Park, and is also
a partner in the Port of New York Authority, builder of four great bridges
and two vehicular tunnels linking the two States, and a model for similar
publicly owned corporations throughout the country. At Camden the State
joined with Pennsylvania in building the Delaware River bridge to Philadelphia. It was thus natural that New Jersey took the lead in 1935 in a
step for permanent commissions on interstate cooperation, to operate both
regionally and nationally.
One of nine States with civil service systems, New Jersey shares with
Massachusetts the distinction of being one of the two States in which
jurisdiction of the commission has been extended to all county and local
units operating under civil service. Only 10 of the 21 New Jersey counties
and only 22 municipalities have adopted the civil service system, but these
include the largest population areas and well over half of the full-time
employees in local units of the State.
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