§ 40:11A-22 — Municipal parking authorities

(1) The municipality for which a parking authority shall have been created shall have the power from time to time, by or pursuant to ordinance duly adopted or by instruments or other action authorized by such an ordinance and for such period and upon such terms, with or without consideration, as may be provided in such ordinance and accepted by the authority: (a) To pledge to the authority, and covenant and agree with the authority to pay to or on the order of the authority, all or any part of any funds theretofore or thereafter received by the municipality for or with respect to the parking or storage of motor vehicles, in streets or otherwise, including funds collected in parking meters located in or along streets or otherwise; (b) To sell, lease, lend, donate, grant or convey to the authority, or permit the authority to use, maintain or operate as part of its projects or to manage, any parking project or undertaking constructed or owned by the municipality, or any meters, equipment or other real or personal property owned by the municipality, which may be necessary or useful and convenient for the purposes of the authority and accepted by the authority; (c) To appropriate money for all or any part of the cost of acquisition or construction of any parking project of the authority and, in accordance with the limitations and any exceptions thereto and in the manner or mode of procedure prescribed by the local bond law, to incur indebtedness, borrow money and issue its negotiable bonds for the purpose of financing such project and appropriation, and to pay the proceeds of such bonds to the authority; (d) To covenant and agree with the authority to pay to or on the order of the authority annually or at shorter intervals as a subsidy for the promotion of its purposes not exceeding such sums of money as may be stated in such ordinance; (e) To unconditionally guarantee the punctual payment of the principal of and interest on any bonds of the authority; and (f) Upon authorization by it in accordance with law of the performance of any act or thing which it is empowered by law to authorize and perform and after appropriation of the moneys (if any) necessary for such performance, to covenant and agree with the authority to do and perform such act or thing and as to the time, manner and other details of its doing and performance. (2) Any guaranty of bonds of an authority made pursuant to this section shall be evidenced by endorsement thereof on such bonds, executed in the name of the municipality and on its behalf by such officer thereof as may be designated in the ordinance authorizing such guaranty, and such municipality shall thereupon and thereafter be obligated to pay the principal of and interest on said bonds in the same manner and to the same extent as in the case of bonds issued by it. Any such guaranty of bonds of the authority may be made, and any ordinance authorizing such guaranty may be adopted, notwithstanding any statutory or other debt limitations, including particularly any limitation or requirement under or pursuant to the local bond law, but the principal amount of bonds guaranteed pursuant to said ordinance shall be included in the gross debt of such municipality for the purpose of determining the indebtedness of such municipality under or pursuant to the local bond law. The principal amount of bonds guaranteed pursuant to said ordinance and included in gross debt shall be deducted and is hereby declared to be and to constitute a deduction from such gross debt under and for all the purposes of the local bond law (a) from and after the date of adoption of the ordinance authorizing such guaranty and until the end of the fifth fiscal year beginning next thereafter, and (b) in any annual debt statement filed pursuant to the local bond law as of the end of said fifth fiscal year or any subsequent fiscal year if the municipality shall not have been required to make any payment in such fiscal year on account of the principal of or interest on any of the bonds guaranteed pursuant to said ordinance. (3) Any contract, covenant or agreement with an authority or pledge to an authority made by a municipality pursuant to this section regarding funds received by the municipality for or with respect to the parking or storage of motor vehicles in streets or otherwise as referred to in paragraph (1)(a) hereof, whether or not including funds collected in parking meters in or along streets or otherwise, may include or be supplemented with provisions, on such terms as may be authorized on behalf of the municipality and accepted by the authority, for or with respect to: (a) The acquisition, installation, relocation, maintenance, repair, replacement, operation and disposition by the authority of all or any such parking meters in accordance with the applicable law, ordinances and regulations as to the parking of vehicles in the municipality; (b) The collection by the authority of all or any funds generated in all or any such parking meters, and the accounting for, and deposit, custody, safeguarding, allocation, use, application and disposition of, any such funds; (c) The enforcement by the authority, on behalf of the municipality or otherwise, of all or any of the applicable law, ordinances and regulations as to the parking of vehicles in the municipality, whether upon streets or on lands or other facilities owned or maintained by the municipality or the authority or elsewhere; (d) In order to implement such enforcement of applicable law, ordinances and regulations as aforesaid, the appointment by or on behalf of the municipality upon designation as required by the authority of persons to serve, under the supervision and direction of the authority, as parking enforcement officers of the municipality with full power and authority, in such manner and to such extent as may be approved on behalf of such municipality, (1) to issue summonses for violations of any provision of said law, ordinances or regulations, (2) to serve and execute all process with respect to any such violation issuing out of the police court of the municipality by whatsoever name the same shall be known, and (3) to cause any vehicle parked, stored or abandoned in violation of any provision of said law, ordinances or regulations to be towed away from the scene of such violation and collect from the owner of such vehicle the costs of the towing and subsequent storage of said vehicle before surrendering said vehicle to such owner; and (e) The allocation and financing of the costs and expense of any of the foregoing. (4) Every municipality which shall make any contract, covenant or agreement with an authority or pledge to an authority pursuant to this section is hereby authorized and directed to do and perform any and all acts or things necessary, convenient or desirable to carry out and perform the same and to provide for the payment or discharge of any obligation thereunder in the same manner as other obligations of such municipality. Every authority is hereby empowered to accept, and make and enter into, any of the contracts, covenants, agreements or contractual provisions referred to in this section and is hereby authorized and directed to do and perform any and all acts and things necessary, convenient or desirable to carry out and perform the same. Any such contract, covenant, agreement, or pledge, and any instrument making or evidencing the same, may be pledged or assigned by the authority to secure its bonds and thereafter may not be modified except as provided by the terms of such instrument or by the terms of such pledge or assignment. L. 1948, c. 198, s. 22; amended by L. 1958, c. 22, s. 9; 1967, c. 119; 1973, c. 268, s. 2; 1987, c. 291, s. 1.