Whenever any work to be performed or materials to be furnished in or about any improvement or works to be made under the provisions of this article shall involve an expenditure of a sum of money exceeding the amount under which a contracting unit may award contracts or make purchases or agreements without public advertising pursuant to the provisions of section 3 of P.L. 1971, c. 198 (C. 40A:11-3), the municipal bodies or boards of the contracting municipalities, by their official action taken in joint meeting as herein provided, shall designate a time when they will meet at their usual place of meeting to receive proposals in writing, for doing the work or furnishing the materials, and such joint meeting shall order the chairman and secretary thereof to give notice by advertisement inserted in one or more newspapers circulating in one or more of the contracting municipalities in each county in which the contracting municipalities are situate, at least 10 days before the time of such meeting, of the work to be done or materials to be furnished, of which at the time of such order they shall cause to be filed in the office of such joint meeting particular specifications. Not more than one proposal shall be received from any one person, directly or indirectly, for the same contract, work, or materials, and all proposals received shall be publicly opened by the chairman in the presence and during a session of such joint meeting, and of all others who choose to attend the meeting. The joint meeting may reject any and all proposals and direct its chairman and secretary to advertise for new proposals and accept such as shall, in the opinion of a majority of the municipalities represented in the joint meeting, be deemed most advantageous for the municipalities.

The proposal so accepted shall be reduced to a contract in writing, and a satisfactory bond to be approved by the joint meeting shall be required and given for its faithful performance, but all contracts when awarded shall be awarded to the lowest responsible bidder offering satisfactory security.

This section shall not prevent the joint meeting from having any work done by its own employees, nor shall it apply to repairs, or to the furnishing of materials, supplies or labor, or to the hiring of teams or vehicles, when the safety or protection of public property or the public convenience requires, or the exigency of the public service will not admit of such advertisement. In such case, however, the joint meeting shall, by resolution, passed by the affirmative vote of four-fifths of all contracting municipalities represented in such joint meeting, declare the exigency or emergency to exist, and set forth in the resolution the nature thereof and the approximate amount to be so expended.

This section shall not apply to any engineer or agent of the jointly contracting municipalities engaged in supervising or directing the work of the improvement.

Nothing in this section shall prohibit the joint meeting from entering into a joint agreement pursuant to section 10 of P.L. 1971, c. 198 (C. 40A:11-10) for the purchase of work related to sewage sludge disposaL. All such agreements shall be entered into by resolution of the joint meeting and shall be subject to the requirements of P.L. 1971, c. 198 (C. 40A:11-1 et seq.).

Amended by L. 1962, c. 103, s. 1, eff. July 6, 1962; L. 1985, c. 452, s. 4, eff. Jan. 14, 1986; L. 1986, c. 159, s. 1, eff. Dec. 1, 1986.