Clarification Issued to Bergen County Pay-to-Play Ordinance

Yesterday, Bergen County posted a clarification to its recently enacted pay-to-play ordinance on its website. The clarification is intended to resolve “confusion” among vendors relating to the phrase “any candidate for elective office in the County of Bergen or holder of elective office in the County of Bergen”. The County has now made it clear that the above phrase is limited those persons who run for or are elected to, any county office in Bergen County, which includes:

• County Freeholder
• County Sheriff
• County Executive
• County Clerk
• County Surrogate

The phrase does not include:

• Candidates for elective office on a municipal level in Bergen County
• Candidates for Governor
• Candidates for Assembly
• Candidates for Senate
• Candidates for Congress whose districts include Bergen County

The treatment of contributions to party committees and continuing political committees has not changed.