An Act concerning online parking payment services and amending and supplementing the "Local Public Contracts Law," P.L.1971. c.198.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 2 of P.L.1971, c.198 (C.40A:11-2) is amended to read as follows:
C.40A:11-2 Definitions.
2. As used herein the following words have the following definitions, unless the context otherwise indicates:
(1) "Contracting unit" means:
(a) Any county;
(b) Any municipality; or
(c) Any board, commission, committee, authority, or agency, which is not a State board, commission, committee, authority, except as provided pursuant to P.L.2013, c.4, or agency, and which has administrative jurisdiction over any district other than a school district, project, or facility, included or operating, in whole or in part, within the territorial boundaries of any county or municipality which exercises functions which are appropriate for the exercise by one or more units of local government, including functions exercised in relation to the administration and oversight of a tourism district located in a municipality in which authorized casino gaming occurs, and which has statutory power to make purchases and enter into contracts awarded by a contracting agent for the provision or performance of goods or services.
The term shall not include a private firm that has entered into a contract with a public entity for the provision of water supply services pursuant to P.L.1995, c.101 (C.58:26-19 et al.).
"Contracting unit" shall not include a private firm or public authority that has entered into a contract with a public entity for the provision of wastewater treatment services pursuant to P.L.1995, c.216 (C.58:27-19 et al.).
"Contracting unit" shall not include a duly incorporated nonprofit association that has entered into a contract with the governing body of a city of the first class for the provision of water supply services or wastewater treatment services pursuant to section 2 of P.L.2002, c.47 (C.40A:11-5.1).
"Contracting unit" shall not include an entity that has entered into a contract for management and operation services with a local hospital authority established pursuant to P.L.2006, c.46 (C.30:9-23.15 et al.).
(2) "Governing body" means:
(a) The governing body of the county, when the purchase is to be made or the contract or agreement is to be entered into by, or on behalf of, a county;
(b) The governing body of the municipality, when the purchase is to be made or the contract or agreement is to be entered into by, or on behalf of, a municipality; or
(c) Any board, commission, committee, authority, or agency of the character described in subsection (1) (c) of this section.
(3) "Contracting agent" means the governing body of a contracting unit, or appointed membership of a State authority authorized to enter into a cooperative purchasing agreement pursuant to P.L.2013, c.4, or its authorized designee, which has the power to prepare the advertisements, to advertise for and receive bids, and, as permitted by P.L.1971, c.198 (C.40A:11-1 et seq.), to make awards for the contracting unit in connection with purchases, contracts or agreements.
(4) "Purchase" means a transaction, for a valuable consideration, creating or acquiring an interest in goods, services, and property, except real property or any interest therein.
(5) (Deleted by amendment, P.L.1999, c.440)
(6) "Professional services" means services rendered or performed by a person authorized by law to practice a recognized profession, whose practice is regulated by law, and the performance of which services requires knowledge of an advanced type in a field of learning acquired by a prolonged formal course of specialized instruction and study as distinguished from general academic instruction or apprenticeship and training. Professional services may also mean services rendered in the provision or performance of goods or services that are original and creative in character in a recognized field of artistic endeavor.
(7) "Extraordinary unspecifiable services" means services which are specialized and qualitative in nature requiring expertise, extensive training, and proven reputation in the field of endeavor.
(8) (Deleted by amendment, P.L.1999, c.440)
(9) "Work" includes services and any other activity of a tangible or intangible nature performed or assumed pursuant to a contract or agreement with a contracting unit.
(10) "Homemaker-home health services" means at home personal care and home management provided to an individual or members of the individual's family who reside with the individual, or both, necessitated by the individual's illness or incapacity. "Homemaker-home health services" includes, but is not limited to, the services of a trained homemaker.
(11) "Recyclable material" means those materials which would otherwise become municipal solid waste, and which may be collected, separated, or processed and returned to the economic mainstream in the form of raw materials or products.
(12) "Recycling" means any process by which materials which would otherwise become solid waste are collected, separated, or processed and returned to the economic mainstream in the form of raw materials or products.
(13) "Marketing" means the sale, disposition, assignment, or placement of designated recyclable materials with, or the granting of a concession to, a reseller, processor, materials recovery facility, or end user of recyclable material, in accordance with a district solid waste management plan adopted pursuant to P.L.1970, c.39 (C.13:1E-1 et seq.) and shall not include the collection of such recyclable material when collected through a system of routes by local government unit employees or under a contract administered by a local government unit.
(14) "Municipal solid waste" means, as appropriate to the circumstances, all residential, commercial, and institutional solid waste generated within the boundaries of a municipality or the formal collection of such solid wastes or recyclable material in any combination thereof when collected through a system of routes by local government unit employees or under a contract administered by a local government unit.
(15) "Distribution" (when used in relation to electricity) means the process of conveying electricity from a contracting unit that is a generator of electricity or a wholesale purchaser of electricity to retail customers or other end users of electricity.
(16) "Transmission" (when used in relation to electricity) means the conveyance of electricity from its point of generation to a contracting unit that purchases it on a wholesale basis for resale.
(17) "Disposition" means the transportation, placement, reuse, sale, donation, transfer, or temporary storage of recyclable materials for all possible uses except for disposal as municipal solid waste.
(18) "Cooperative marketing" means the joint marketing by two or more contracting units of the source separated recyclable materials designated in a district recycling plan required pursuant to section 3 of P.L.1987, c.102 (C.13:1E-99.13) pursuant to a written cooperative agreement entered into by the participating contracting units thereof.
(19) "Aggregate" means the sums expended or to be expended for the provision or performance of any goods or services in connection with the same immediate purpose or task, or the furnishing of similar goods or services, during the same contract year through a contract awarded by a contracting agent.
(20) "Bid threshold" means the dollar amount set in section 3 of P.L.1971, c.198 (C.40A:11-3), above which a contracting unit shall advertise for and receive sealed bids in accordance with procedures set forth in P.L.1999, c.440 (C.40A:11-4.1 et al.).
(21) "Contract" means any agreement, including, but not limited to, a purchase order or a formal agreement, which is a legally binding relationship enforceable by law, between a vendor who agrees to provide or perform goods or services and a contracting unit which agrees to compensate a vendor, as defined by and subject to the terms and conditions of the agreement. A contract also may include an arrangement whereby a vendor compensates a contracting unit for the vendor's right to perform a service, such as, but not limited to, operating a concession.
(22) "Contract year" means the period of 12 consecutive months following the award of a contract.
(23) "Competitive contracting" means the method described in sections 1 through 5 of P.L.1999, c.440 (C.40A:11-4.1 through 40A:11-4.5) of contracting for specialized goods and services in which formal proposals are solicited from vendors, formal proposals are evaluated by the purchasing agent or counsel or administrator, and the governing body awards a contract to a vendor or vendors from among the formal proposals received.
(24) "Goods and services" or "goods or services" means any work, labor, commodities, equipment, materials, or supplies of any tangible or intangible nature, except real property or any interest therein, provided or performed through a contract awarded by a contracting agent, including goods and property subject to N.J.S.12A:2-101 et seq.
(25) "Library and educational goods and services" means textbooks, copyrighted materials, student-produced publications and services incidental thereto, including, but not limited to, books, periodicals, newspapers, documents, pamphlets, photographs, reproductions, microfilms, pictorial or graphic works, musical scores, maps, charts, globes, sound recordings, slides, films, filmstrips, video and magnetic tapes, other printed or published matter, and audiovisual and other materials of a similar nature, necessary binding or rebinding of library materials, and specialized computer software used as a supplement or in lieu of textbooks or reference material.
(26) "Lowest price" means the least possible amount that meets all requirements of the request of a contracting agent.
(27) "Lowest responsible bidder or vendor" means the bidder or vendor: (a) whose response to a request for bids offers the lowest price and is responsive; and (b) who is responsible.
(28) "Official newspaper" means any newspaper designated by the contracting unit pursuant to R.S.35:1-1 et seq.
(29) "Purchase order" means a document issued by the contracting agent authorizing a purchase transaction with a vendor to provide or perform goods or services to the contracting unit, which, when fulfilled in accordance with the terms and conditions of a request of a contracting agent and other provisions and procedures that may be established by the contracting unit, will result in payment by the contracting unit.
(30) "Purchasing agent" means the individual duly assigned the authority, responsibility, and accountability for the purchasing activity of the contracting unit, and who has such duties as are defined by an authority appropriate to the form and structure of the contracting unit, pursuant to P.L.1971, c.198 (C.40A:11-1 et seq.), and who possesses a qualified purchasing agent certificate.
(31) "Quotation" means the response to a formal or informal request made by a contracting agent by a vendor for provision or performance of goods or services when the aggregate cost is less than the bid threshold. Quotations may be in writing or taken verbally if a record is kept by the contracting agent.
(32) "Responsible" means able to complete the contract in accordance with its requirements, including, but not limited to, requirements pertaining to experience, moral integrity, operating capacity, financial capacity, credit, and workforce, equipment, and facilities availability.
(33) "Responsive" means conforming in all material respects to the terms and conditions, specifications, legal requirements, and other provisions of the request.
(34) "Public works" means building, altering, repairing, improving or demolishing any public structure or facility constructed or acquired by a contracting unit to house local government functions or provide water, waste disposal, power, transportation, and other public infrastructures.
(35) "Director" means the Director of the Division of Local Government Services in the Department of Community Affairs.
(36) "Administrator" means a municipal administrator appointed pursuant to N.J.S.40A:9-136 and N.J.S.40A:9-137; a business administrator, a municipal manager, or a municipal administrator appointed pursuant to the "Optional Municipal Charter Law," P.L.1950, c.210 (C.40:69A-1 et seq.); a municipal manager appointed pursuant to "the municipal manager form of government law," R.S.40:79-1 et seq.; or the person holding responsibility for the overall operations of an authority that falls under the "Local Authorities Fiscal Control Law," P.L.1983, c.313 (C.40A:5A-1 et seq.).
(37) "Concession" means the granting of a license or right to act for or on behalf of the contracting unit, or to provide a service requiring the approval or endorsement of the contracting unit, and which may or may not involve a payment or exchange, or provision of services by or to the contracting unit.
(38) "Index rate" means the rate of annual percentage increase, rounded to the nearest half-percent, in the Implicit Price Deflator for State and Local Government Purchases of Goods and Services, computed and published quarterly by the United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis.
(39) "Proprietary" means goods or services of a specialized nature, that may be made or marketed by a person or persons having the exclusive right to make or sell them, when the need for such goods or services has been certified in writing by the governing body of the contracting unit to be necessary for the conduct of its affairs.
(40) "Service or services" means the performance of work, or the furnishing of labor, time, or effort, or any combination thereof, not involving or connected to the delivery or ownership of a specified end product or goods or a manufacturing process. Service or services may also include an arrangement in which a vendor compensates the contracting unit for the vendor's right to operate a concession.
(41) "Qualified purchasing agent certificate" means a certificate granted by the director pursuant to section 9 of P.L.1971, c.198 (C.40A:11-9).
(42) "Mistake" means, for a public works project, a clerical error that is an unintentional and substantial computational error or an unintentional omission of a substantial quantity of labor, material, or both from the final bid computation.
(43) “Parking project” shall have the same meaning as provided in section 3 of P.L.1948, c.198 (C.40:11A-3).
(44) “Online parking payment service” means a public-facing Internet website, Internet web application, or computer or mobile application that allows a user to submit payment for parking a motor vehicle at a publicly available parking project.
2. Section 13 of P.L.1971, c.198 (C.40A:11-13) is amended to read as follows:
C.40A:11-13 Specifications.
13. Specifications. Any specifications for the provision or performance of goods or services under P.L.1971, c.198 (C.40A:11-1 et seq.) shall be drafted in a manner to encourage free, open, and competitive bidding. In particular, no specifications under P.L.1971, c.198 (C.40A:11-1 et seq.) may:
(a) Require any standard, restriction, condition, or limitation not directly related to the purpose, function, or activity for which the contract is awarded;
(b) Require that any bidder be a resident of, or that the bidder's place of business be located in, the county or municipality in which the contract will be awarded or performed, unless the physical proximity of the bidder is requisite to the efficient and economical performance of the contract, except that no specification for a contract for the collection and disposal of municipal solid waste shall require any bidder to be a resident of, or that the bidder's place of business be located in, the county or municipality in which the contract will be performed;
(c) Discriminate on the basis of race, religion, sex, national origin, creed, color, ancestry, age, marital status, affectional or sexual orientation, familial status, liability for service in the Armed Forces of the United States, or nationality;
(d) Require, with regard to any contract, the furnishing of any "brand name," but may in all cases require "brand name or equivalent," except that if the goods or services to be provided or performed are proprietary, such goods or services may be purchased by stipulating the proprietary goods or services in the bid specification in any case in which the resolution authorizing the contract so indicates, and the special need for such proprietary goods or services is directly related to the performance, completion, or undertaking of the purpose for which the contract is awarded;
(e) Fail to include any option for renewal, extension, or release which the contracting unit may intend to exercise or require, or any terms and conditions necessary for the performance of any extra work, or fail to disclose any matter necessary to the substantial performance of the contract; or
(f) Require that any bidder submit a financial statement if either a guarantee, by certified check, cashier's check, or bid bond, or a surety company certificate is also required to be furnished by the bidder, unless any law or regulation of the United States imposes a condition upon the awarding of a monetary grant to be used for the purchase, contract, or agreement, which condition requires that a financial statement be submitted.
(g) As used in this subsection:
"asphalt price index" means the asphalt price index as determined and published by the New Jersey Department of Transportation;
"basic asphalt price index" means the asphalt price index for the month preceding the month in which the bids are opened;
"department" means the New Jersey Department of Transportation;
"fuel price index" means the fuel price index as determined and published by the New Jersey Department of Transportation; and
"pay item" means a specifically described item of work for which the bidder provides a per-unit or lump-sum price in a bid specification determined and published by the New Jersey Department of Transportation.
In addition to the requirements of paragraphs (a) through (f) of this section, any bid specification for the provision or performance of goods or services under P.L.1971, c.198 (C.40A:11-1 et seq.) that includes the purchase or use of 1,000 or more tons of hot mix asphalt shall include a pay item for an asphalt price adjustment reflecting changes in the cost of asphalt cement. The pay item for asphalt price adjustment shall apply to each ton of hot mix asphalt purchased or used by the contracting unit. Any bid specification prepared pursuant to P.L.1971, c.198 (C.40A:11-1 et seq.) that includes the purchase or use of less than 1,000 tons of hot mix asphalt shall include a pay item for an asphalt price adjustment applicable to any quantity of hot mix asphalt exceeding 1,000 tons that may be purchased or used in the work in the event that performance of the work, including change orders, requires more than 1,000 tons of hot mix asphalt. As set forth in section 7 of P.L.1971, c.198 (C.40A:11-7), no contract shall be divided to disaggregate the quantity of hot mix asphalt or equivalent asphalt cement-based paving product to be purchased or used for the purpose of avoiding compliance with this paragraph.
The asphalt price adjustment shall be calculated in accordance with the formula and relevant instructions published in the most recent edition of the "New Jersey Department of Transportation Standard Specifications for Road and Bridge Construction." All invoices for payment shall be accompanied by the calculation of any asphalt price adjustment and a showing of the current month's asphalt price index and the basic asphalt price index.
Every bid specification prepared pursuant to P.L.1971, c.198 (C.40A:11-1 et seq.) shall be eligible for a fuel price adjustment. Fuel that is eligible for a fuel price adjustment shall be the sum of the quantities of the eligible pay items in the contract multiplied by the fuel usage factors as determined by the department. The types of fuel furnished shall be at the discretion of the contractor.
The fuel requirement for items not determined by the department to be eligible, and for pay items in the bid specifications calling for less than 500 gallons of fuel, shall not be eligible for a fuel price adjustment. If more than one pay item has the same nomenclature but with different thicknesses, depths, or types, each individual pay item must require 500 gallons or more of fuel to be eligible for a fuel price adjustment. If more than one pay item has the same nomenclature, similar pay items shall be combined, and the combination must require 500 gallons or more of fuel to be eligible for the fuel price adjustment.
Fuel price index adjustments shall not be made in those months for which the monthly fuel price index has changed by less than five percent from the basic fuel price index.
Any specification which knowingly excludes prospective bidders by reason of the impossibility of performance, bidding or qualification by any but one bidder, except as provided herein, shall be null and void and of no effect and shall be readvertised for receipt of new bids, and the original contract shall be set aside by the governing body.
Any specification for a contract for the collection and disposal of municipal solid waste shall conform to the uniform bid specifications for municipal solid waste collection contracts established pursuant to section 22 of P.L.1991, c.381 (C.48:13A-7.22).
Any specification for a contract for an online parking payment service shall stipulate that parking fees shall not be charged to a user of the online parking payment service during a time period when parking is prohibited or is free at a parking project.
Any specification may include an item for the cost, which shall be paid by the contractor, of creating a file to maintain the notices of the delivery of labor or materials required by N.J.S.2A:44-128.
Any prospective bidder who wishes to challenge a bid specification shall file such challenges in writing with the contracting agent no less than three business days prior to the opening of the bids. Challenges filed after that time shall be considered void and having no impact on the contracting unit or the award of a contract.
C.40A:11-13b Online parking payment service fees.
3. Any contract entered into by a municipality, or a parking authority, as that term is defined in section 3 of P.L.1948, c.198 (C.40:11A-3), for an online parking payment service shall stipulate that parking fees shall not be charged to a user of the service during a time period when parking is prohibited or is free at a parking project.
4. This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to all contracts and agreements entered into, renewed, modified, or amended on or after the date this act takes effect.
Approved January 12, 2026.