Bill Text: NJ S2383 | 2012-2013 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires residential community release programs to file certain financial disclosure documents with DOC.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2012-12-17 - Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Law and Public Safety Committee [S2383 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2012-S2383-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Senator ROBERT M. GORDON
District 38 (Bergen and Passaic)
SYNOPSIS
Requires residential community release programs to file certain financial disclosure documents with DOC.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning residential community release programs and supplementing chapter 4 of Title 30 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. For the purposes of this act:
"Assessment and treatment center" means a residential community release program that provides eligible inmates with a comprehensive assessment of their needs and risks, an orientation to a treatment regimen, and a referral to a halfway house, substance use disorder treatment program, or mutual agreement program;
"Facility" means the physical location of a residential community release program as defined under this subsection.
"Residential community release program" means an assessment and treatment center, halfway house, or substance use disorder treatment program operating under the authority of the Department of Corrections, or any non-profit or for-profit subcontractor thereof that operates a residential community release program under the authority of the department.
"Service provider" means any owner or operator of a private non-profit, or subcontractor thereof, of a residential community release program.
b. Each service provider operating in this State shall file an initial disclosure statement with the Commissioner of Corrections within 90 days following the effective date of this act. Thereafter, annual disclosure statements shall be filed on or before April 30th of each year. The cover page of the disclosure statement shall prominently state the name of the service provider and the date of the disclosure statement. The disclosure statement shall contain the following information:
(1) the name and business address of the service provider and a statement of whether the service provider is a partnership, corporation, or other type of legal entity;
(2) the names and business addresses of the officers, directors, trustees, managing or general partners and any person having a 10 percent or greater equity or beneficial interest in the service provider and a description of that person's interest in or occupation with the service provider;
(3) the location and description of the physical property of the service provider's facility;
(4) the provisions that have been made or will be made, if any, to provide reserve funding or security which will enable the service provider to fully perform its obligation under contracts, including the establishment of escrow accounts, trusts or reserve funds, the manner in which the funds shall be invested and the names and experience of persons who will make the investment decisions;
(5) certified financial statements of the service provider, which include balance sheets and income statements for the two most recently completed fiscal years or for as long as the service provider has been in existence, whichever is less;
(6) a proposed method of housing inmates in an alternative location in the event that the service provider's contract is terminated for reasons of an actual closure of a facility, financial default by the service provider, or any other event in which the service provider is no longer capable of fully performing its obligations under a contract with the department;
(7) any other material information concerning the facility or the provider as required by the department or as the provider wishes to include;
(8) with respect to the service provider, any person named in response to paragraph (2) of this subsection or any other operator, if the residential community release program is managed on a day-to-day basis by a person other than the service provider:
(a) a description of the person's business experience, if any, in the operation or management of similar facilities;
(b) the name and address of any professional service firm, association, trust, partnership or corporation in which the person has a 10 percent or greater interest and which may provide goods, leases or services to the service provider of a value of $500 or more, within any year;
(c) a description of the goods, leases or services provided pursuant to paragraph (2) of this subsection and the probable or anticipated cost thereof to the service provider;
(d) a description of any matter in which the person has been convicted of a felony or pleaded nolo contendere or other disposition to a felony charge, or has been held liable or enjoined in a civil action which involved fraud, embezzlement, fraudulent conversion, or misappropriation of property; and
(e) a description of any matter in which the person is subject to a currently effective injunctive or restrictive court order or, within the past five years, had a State or federal license or permit suspended or revoked as a result of an action brought by a governmental agency or department, which arose out of or related to business activity, including actions affecting the operation of a residential community release program.
2. If operation of the service provider's facility has not yet commenced, the disclosure statement submitted to the Department of Corrections pursuant to P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill) shall contain a statement of the anticipated source and application of the funds used or to be used in the purchase or construction of the facility, including:
a. An estimate of the cost of purchasing or construction and equipping the facility, which includes related costs such as financing expenses, legal expenses, land costs, marketing and development costs, and other similar costs the provider expects to incur or become obligated for prior to the commencement of operations;
b. Description of any mortgage loan or other long-term financing intended to be used for the financing of the facility and the anticipated terms and costs of the financing;
c. A projection of estimated operating expenses of the facility, including a description of the assumptions used in calculating the expenses and separate allowances, if any, the replacement of equipment and furnishings, and any anticipated major structural repairs or additions;
d. Identification of assets pledged as collateral for any purpose; and
e. An estimate of annual payments of principal and interest required by any mortgage loan or other long-term financing.
3. A service provider shall amend its currently filed annual disclosure statement filed pursuant to P.L. , c. (C. )(pending before the Legislature as this bill) at any time if, in the opinion of the provider or the Department of Corrections, an amendment is necessary to prevent the disclosure statement from containing any material misstatement of fact or omission to state a material fact as required pursuant to this act.
4. No service provider or person acting on behalf of the service provider shall file with the Department of Corrections or make, publish, disseminate, circulate or deliver to the department a financial disclosure statement required pursuant to P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill) that contains an assertion, representation, or statement which is untrue, deceptive or misleading.
A person who knowingly violates the provisions of this section is guilty of a crime of the third degree.
5. a. In addition to the financial disclosure statement required to be filed pursuant to P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill) a service provider shall, by April 30 of each year, file with the Department of Corrections, in a form and manner prescribed by the Commissioner of Corrections an Internal Revenue Service Form 990 and all schedules and supporting documentation required to be submitted to the Internal Revenue Service in conjunction with Form 990 for the prior year.
If the service provider operates as a for-profit entity that does not file a Form 990 with the Internal Revenue Service, all governance, financial, and operating information that would otherwise be reported on Form 990 for the prior year, including the information that would be required to be submitted in the schedules and supporting documentation in conjunction with Form 990, shall, by April 30 of each year, be filed with the department, to the extent that such information exists with respect to a for-profit service provider.
b. The information submitted to the department pursuant to subsection a. of this section shall be posted on the department's Internet web site.
6. Any service provider that fails to file a disclosure statement, or an Internal Revenue Service Form 990 or equivalent operating information as required by P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill) within the time frames specified by this act, shall be subject to a civil penalty of $10,000 for each month that the service provider fails to submit such information, which shall be recovered in a civil action by a summary proceeding in the name of the municipality pursuant to "The Penalty Enforcement Law of 1999," P.L.1999, c.274 (C.2A:58-10 et seq.). At the discretion of the Commissioner of Corrections, a service provider's authority to operate in this State may be revoked while such default continues.
7. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill requires the owners and operators of residential community release programs, also known as halfway houses, to annually submit a financial disclosure form with the Department of Corrections (DOC). Specifically, the bill requires each halfway house owner and operator to file an initial disclosure statement with the Commissioner of Corrections within 90 days following the effective date of the bill. Thereafter, annual disclosure statements are to be filed on or before April 30th of each year.
Under the provisions of the bill, financial disclosures are to include the names and business addresses of the officers, directors, trustees, managing or general partners and any person having a 10 percent or greater equity or beneficial interest in the service provider and a description of that person's interest in or occupation with the service provider. The bill requires that the following information be provided for each such person listed under the disclosure statement:
(1) a description of the person's business experience, if any, in the operation or management of similar facilities;
(2) the name and address of any professional service firm, association, trust, partnership or corporation in which the person has a 10 percent or greater interest and which may provide goods, leases or services to the service provider of a value of $500.00 or more, within any year;
(3) a description of the goods, leases or services provided by the person and the probable or anticipated cost thereof to the halfway house;
(4) a description of any matter in which the person was convicted of a crime or subject to a civil action which involved fraud, embezzlement, fraudulent conversion, or misappropriation of property; and
(5) a description of any matter in which the person is subject to a currently effective injunctive or restrictive court order or, within the past five years, had a State or federal license or permit suspended or revoked as a result of an action brought by a governmental agency or department, which arose out of or related to business activity, including actions affecting the operation of a residential community release program.
In addition, the bill requires that the disclosure statements include information relating to the financial standings of the residential community release program. This information is to include the program's obligations under other contracts, as well as balance sheets and income statements. The bill further requires that financial disclosure statements include a proposed method of housing inmates in an alternative location should the service provider no longer be capable of fully performing its obligations under a contract with the DOC.
If construction of a residential community release program has not yet commenced the initial disclosure statement is to include a description of the cost of purchasing or constructing the facility, as well as a description of any mortgage used to finance the facility.
In addition to the financial disclosure statement, the bill requires that all residential community release programs file the program's Internal Revenue Service Form 990 with the DOC by April 30 of each year. If the residential community release program operates as a for-profit entity that does not file a Form 990 with the Internal Revenue Service, the bill requires the program to file the same information that is required under a Form 990.
Finally, the bill imposes civil and criminal penalties for non-compliance. A person is guilty of a crime of the third degree if that person knowingly files information in the disclosure form which is untrue, deceptive or misleading. Crimes of the third degree are punishable by three to five years of imprisonment, a fine of up to $15,000, or both. In addition, failure on the part of the residential community release program to file the disclosure statement or Internal Revenue Service Form 990 within the designated time frame is to result in a civil penalty of $10,000 for each month that the information is delinquent. In addition, the commissioner may revoke the residential community release program's ability to operate while the default continues.
