7. a. A joint meeting or regional service agency, both as defined in section 3 of P.L.2007, c.63 (C. 40A:65-3), shall be a public body corporate and politic constituting a political subdivision of the State exercising public and essential governmental functions to provide for the public health and welfare, and qualifies as a “local unit,” as defined in section 3 of the “Local Fiscal Affairs Law,” N.J.S. 40A:5-3 The joint meeting or regional service agency shall have the following powers and authority, which may be exercised by the management committee to the extent provided in the joint contract:

(1) To sue and be sued;

(2) To acquire and hold real and personal property by deed, gift, grant, lease, purchase, condemnation or otherwise;

(3) To enter into any and all contracts or agreements and to execute any and all instruments;

(4) To do and perform any and all acts or things necessary, convenient or desirable for the purposes of the joint meeting or regional service agency or to carry out any powers expressly provided in section 7 of P.L.1960, c.3 (C. 40:48B-2.1);

(5) To sell real and personal property owned by the joint meeting or regional service agency at public sale;

(6) To operate all services, lands, public improvements, works, facilities or undertakings for the purposes and objects of the joint meeting or regional service agency;

(7) To enter into a contract or contracts providing for or relating to the use of its services, lands, public improvements, works, facilities or undertakings, or any part thereof, by local units who are not members of the joint meeting or regional service agency, and other persons, upon payment of charges therefor as fixed by the management committee;

(8) To receive such State or federal aids or grants as may be available for the purposes of the joint meeting or regional service agency and to make and perform such agreements and contracts as may be necessary or convenient in connection with the application for, procurement, acceptance or disposition of such State or federal aids or grants; and

(9) To acquire, maintain, use and operate lands, public improvements, works or facilities in any municipality in the State, except where the governing body of such municipality, by resolution adopted within 60 days after receipt of written notice of intention to so acquire, maintain, use or operate, shall find that the same would adversely affect the governmental operations and functions and the exercise of the police powers of such municipality.

b. If the governing body of a municipality in which a joint meeting or regional service agency has applied for the location and erection of sewage treatment or solid waste disposal facilities refuses permission therefor or fails to take final action upon the application within 60 days of its filing, the joint meeting or regional service agency may, at any time within 30 days following the date of such refusal or the date of expiration of said period of 60 days, apply to the Department of Environmental Protection, which is authorized, after hearing the joint meeting or regional service agency and the municipality interested, to grant the application for the erection of the sewage treatment or disposal or solid waste treatment or disposal facilities, notwithstanding the aforesaid refusal or failure to act of the governing body, upon being satisfied that the topographical and other physical conditions existing in the local units comprising the joint meeting or regional service agency are such as to make the erection of such facilities within its boundaries impracticable as an improvement for the benefit of the whole applying joint meeting or regional service agency.

L.1960, c.3, s.7; amended 1973, c.208, s.13; 2019, c.433, s.2.