COMMITTEE ON THE EXECUTIVE, MILITIA AND CIVIL OFFICERS RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
STATE OF NEW JERSEY CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1947
COMMITTEE ON THE EXECUTIVE, MILITIA AND CIVIL OFFICERS
Tuesday, July 29, 1947
(Morning session)
(The session began at 11:00 A. M.)
PRESENT: Barus, Eggers, Feller, Hansen, Miller, S., Jr., Smith, J. S., Van Alstyne, Walton and Young.
Chairman David Van Alstyne, Jr., presided.
CHAIRMAN DAVID VAN ALSTYNE, JR.: I am going to ask you to limit your remarks to ten minutes, if you can. Frankly, I am going to shut you off at 15. The purpose is not to stop your talking to us, or to prevent discussion. We have many persons to be heard, and it is done in order that some people who want to speak won’t have to wait so long. If, after we have gone through the roster, anybody who has been shut off wants to speak to us further, he will be permitted to do so. I’m only cutting the time down out of courtesy to other people. I’d like first to call on Attorney-General Van Riper.
MR. WALTER D. VAN RIPER: Thank you. You won’t have any difficulty with me about the ten minutes. I’ll be out in less than ten minutes. I’d just like to call the attention of the Committee to a situation here that I think I have a right to be interested in, because it is more or less in my department. That is that section of the draft which you have prepared, Section II, which provides for the appointment of county prosecutors. You have copied out of the present Constitution the language which is as follows: “County prosecutors shall be nominated and appointed by the Governor” – I’m not quoting accurately – “whose term of office shall be five years.” I would like to suggest to the Committee that that be amended so as to –
CHAIRMAN: Excuse me, Attorney-General, will you mind giving us the page so that we can follow you more closely?
MR. VAN RIPER: Yes, it’s page 12, Section II, with reference to the appointment of prosecutors. I would like to suggest to the Committee that the language be amended so as to provide, in line with what is the common practice today with all of our statutory officers, that their terms will be for five years and until their successors shall be appointed and qualify. Practically all state appointments today
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