Court Opinion

ID: 9857544
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 15:11:53.689634+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:48:01.837043
License: Public Domain

Weintraub, C. J., and Haneman, J.
(dissenting). The majority opinion holds that although the offices of commissioners of a municipal parking authority were not abolished by the adoption of a plan of government under the Optional Municipal Charter Law (Faulkner Act), N. J. S. A. 40 :69A-1 et seq., nonetheless the terms of the commissioners did come to end. We agree the offices were not abolished, but cannot agree the incumbencies were terminated.
The critical provision of the Faulkner Act is N. J. S. A. 40:69A-207 which reads:
“At 12 o’clock noon on the effective date of an optional plan adopted pursuant to this act, all offices then existing in such municipality shall he abolished and the terms of all elected and appointed officers shall immediately cease and determine; provided, that nothing in this section shall be construed to abolish the office or terminate the term of office of any member of the board of education, trustees of the free public library, commissioners of a local housing authority, municipal magistrates or of any official or employee now protected by any tenure of office law, or of any policeman, fireman, teacher, principal or school superintendent whether or not protected by a tenure of office law. If the municipality is operating under the provisions of Title 11 of the Revised Statutes (Civil Service) at the time of the adoption of an optional plan under this act, nothing herein contained shall affect the tenure of office of any person holding *241any position or office coming within the provisions of said Title 11 as it applies to said officers and employees. If the municipal clerk has, prior to the effective date of the optional plan, acquired a protected tenure of office pursuant to law, he shall become the first municipal clerk under the optional plan.” (Emphasis added)
We find nothing there to suggest that a term of office shall end notwithstanding the office itself survives. In the first italicized portion we find the phrase “all offices then existing in such municipality shall he abolished and the terms of all elected and appointed officers shall immediately cease and determine.” We do not know why, after providing for the abolition of an office, the Legislature went to the trouble of adding that the term of the incumbent shall cease. We would think that if an office is abolished, the term of the holder necessarily ends. Perhaps for fear that a dislodged incumbent might claim the new office if it were the same as or very similar to the office the statute abolished, the draftsman spelled out the consequence of the abolition of the office, i. e., the termination of the holder’s incumbency. Whatever the reason, there is no evidence of an intent to end the term as to an office that is not destroyed.
In the proviso which follows the portion to which we just referred, we have the language that “nothing in this section shall be construed to abolish the office or terminate the term” of offices which are then enumerated. The use of “or” rather than “and” does not indicate an intent that as to some offices the term of the incumbent shall end while the office continues unscathed. We must remember that this is only a proviso and that in the enacting part from which the proviso carves out certain exclusions there is nothing which affirmatively states a purpose to end a term rather than both office and term, and nothing which intimates a test whereby it may be discovered in what instances the term shall go and the office remain. Nor does the proviso provide such a result with respect to any office to which it applies.
Since neither the enacting portion nor the proviso would thus separate term from office, it strikes us as strange to infer *242the Legislature intended a severance merely because “or” rather than “and” was used in the proviso. It seems to us that the disjunctive was used merely because it is the usual mode of expression when the enacting part speaks of two things and the proviso wishes to protect against both. Here an awkwardness arises because the enacting part does not really deal with two distinct things. As we have said, the term of the incumbent necessarily ends with the abolition of the office, and hence the language relating to the termination of the incumbent’s term was added, not to create a second consequence, but probably to avoid a dispute as to the full impact of the abolition of the office. But whatever a grammarian may think of the use of “or” in this setting, we cannot see how it can be a springboard for a thought nowhere expressed, i. e., that a term shall end even though the office is unaffected.
The argument seems to be that the Faulkner Act contemplates a “clean sweep” which can be furthered only by the result reached by the majority. The trouble is that the Faulkner Act does not elsewhere reveal a guiding concept as to what is swept away. The act of course envisions change. But change of what? We believe the change intended relates to the structure of government and that while faces may be changed in the process, the change of faces is only incidental. Indeed the Preliminary Statement (1948) of the Commission on Municipal Government which proposed the statute is replete with statements of a purpose to improve the structure of local government. The appropriate medium 'for a change of faces as such would be a recall election coupled with the abolition of tenure laws. It would be quite devious and expensive as well to seek a change in government, not to achieve a better mechanism, but to effect a change of faces prior to the next scheduled election. We cannot attribute any such purpose to the Faulkner Act.1
*243Since we cannot detect anywhere an intent to change faces to that end alone, we cannot find by implication that a term of office shall end notwithstanding the office continues. Nor can we find that intent by laying the Parking Authority Law, N. J. S. A. 40 :11A-1 et seq., alongside the Eaulkner Act. On the contrary the clear policy of the parking statute runs the other way, for it contemplates a large measure of independence. So the commissioners of the Authority are given staggered five-year terms of office which are not correlated with the terms in the governing body of the municipality itself, N. J. S. A. 40 :11A-4, and a commissioner of an Authority may not be an officer or employee of the municipality, N. J. S. A. 40:11A-5. If the Legislature intended the Parking Authority to be amenable to the will of the governing body of the municipality, it would have provided that the commissioners of the Parking Authority shall hold office at the pleasure of the appointing authority or at least that their terms shall coincide with the terms of the appointing authority. That a high degree of independence was intended of course does not mean that a Parking Authority should be hostile to its creator, but it does mean that in the process of cooperation the commissioners shall be able to disagree and to prevail within the ambit of their allotted responsibility until such time as faces are changed in the only way the statute *244permits them to be changed, i. e., by the appointment of others at the end of the staggered terms of the incumbents.
We would therefore affirm the judgment.
For reversal and remandmeni — Justices Jacobs, Francis, Proctor, Hall and Soi-iettino — 5.
For affirmance —■ Chief Justice Weintraub, and Justice Haneman — 2.

 We find no support for the majority's view that the Faulkner Act adopted the approach of the Walsh Act. The Walsh Act expressly abolishes terms of office while leaving offices themselves intact. So *243it provides in N. J. 8. A. 40:71-9 that upon the adoption of the act and the organization of the commissioners first elected:
“* * * the governing body or bodies and all other boards and bodies whether state or local municipal agencies then existing in the municipality, except the board of education and the district court or courts, shall be ipso facto abolished and the terms of all eouncilmen, aider-men and all other officers, whether elective or appointive, shall immediately cease and determine * * (Emphasis added)
Thus the Walsh Act abolishes only the offices within the governing body and other boards and bodies. As to other offices, the statute ends the term of the incumbent notwithstanding the office itself is not abolished. If the Walsh Act intends by this provision to authorize a change of faces to that end alone, the fact remains that the Faulkner Act is differently worded.