3. a. There is established in the Executive Branch of the State Government a public body corporate and politic, with corporate succession, to be known as the State Transfer of Development Rights Bank. For the purpose of complying with the provisions of Article V, Section IV, paragraph 1 of the New Jersey Constitution, the bank is allocated within the office of the State Agriculture Development Committee within the Department of Agriculture, but notwithstanding that allocation, the bank shall be independent of any supervision or control by the committee or the department or by any officer or employee thereof, except as otherwise expressly provided in this act. The bank is constituted as an instrumentality of the State exercising public and essential governmental functions, and the exercise by the bank of the powers conferred by this act is deemed to be an essential governmental function of the State.

b. (1) The bank shall be governed by a board of directors consisting of ten voting members, or the designees thereof, as follows: the Secretary of Agriculture, who shall serve as chairperson and who shall vote only in the event there is a tie vote; the State Treasurer; the Commissioner of Environmental Protection; the Commissioner of Transportation; the Commissioner of Banking; the Commissioner of Community Affairs; the President of the State Board of Agriculture; the Chairman of the State Planning Commission; the President of the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions; and one member of the general public, who shall be a farmer actively engaged in agriculture in New Jersey and who shall be appointed by the Governor, with the advice and consent of the Senate.

(2) All members of the board, except the member of the general public, shall serve ex officio. The term of the member of the general public shall be for four years, with reappointment possible for a second term only.

(3) A majority of the membership of the board shall constitute a quorum except that no action may be taken by the board except upon the affirmative vote of a majority of the total membership of the board. Designees of the nine ex officio members shall have the power to vote in the absence of members.

c. (1) Upon request of the board, the State Agriculture Development Committee shall provide that appropriate staff be made available to assist and advise the board in performing its functions, duties, and responsibilities pursuant to this act.

(2) Officials of State agencies serving on the board shall, to the maximum extent practicable and without remuneration from the board, avail the board of the expertise of their agencies in the areas of land use and planning, banking, law, agriculture, natural resource protection, historic site preservation, and other areas of expertise required by the board to adequately address the broader public and planning purposes of transfer of development rights and of the State Transfer of Development Rights Bank.

(3) Funding necessary to provide the board with direct staff assistance or professional services that cannot be made available through existing State agency staff as provided in this subsection shall be made available as provided for pursuant to section 8 of this act.

L.1993,c.339,s.3.