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OVERVIEW New Jersey is the only state in the United States where elected county officials are called "freeholders." Most other states elect a county commission or county council. The term is a carryover from colonial days, when only those who owned a Freehold were enfranchised, with one or two "chosen" freeholders representing each municipality within a county. Eventually, the number of freeholders in each county was reduced by statute and is now determined by referendum, and cannot exceed nine members. Depending on the county, the executive and legislative functions may be performed by the Board of Chosen Freeholders or split into separate components. In some counties, members of the Board of Chosen Freeholders perform both legislative and executive functions on a commission basis, with each Freeholder assigned responsibility for a department or group of departments. In other counties ( Atlantic , Bergen , Essex , Hudson and Mercer ), there is a directly-elected County Executive who performs the executive functions while the Board of Chosen Freeholders retains a legislative and oversight role. In counties without an Executive, a County Administrator or County Manager may be hired to perform day-to-day administration of county functions. BOARD STRUCTURE BY COUNTY
POPULAR IMPRESSIONS Due to widespread ignorance about what exactly New Jersey freeholders do, a common Witticism is to refer to them as " Freeloaders ," as in "The Board of Chosen Freeloaders." This is not necessarily kind, but it does reflect a persistent public belief that this particular layer of government is redundant and unnecessary. |
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