2026 LEGAL DEFENSE FUND SEMINAR

January 21, 2026

9:00am to 3:00pm

Hightstown Firehouse, 140 N Main Street, Highstown, NJ

This seminar is free for Legal Defense Fund Paid Members Only!

 

CEU’s have been approved for contact hours in the following:

Municipal Clerk – 2 Records; 1 Prof Dev; 1 Ethics

QPA – 3 Office Admin/General Duties; 1 Ethics

Municipal Financial Officer – 3 Office Management & Ancillary; 1 Ethics

County Finance Officer - 3 Office Management & Ancillary; 1 Ethics

Public Works Manager – 2 Government; 1 Management; 1 Ethics

Tax Collector – 3 General/Secondary; 1 Ethics

 

PROGRAM:

9:00am – 10:00am Registration (Coffee and Refreshments will be available)

10:00 – 11:00am Municipal Ethics Law

Susan Jacobucci, CMFO and Administrator, DCA Director of Local Government Services (Retired)

Public officials are under the proverbial microscope regarding all of their activities. This program provides public officials with an outline of ethical conduct. We will define ethical behavior, provide examples of work situations where a thorough understanding of workplace ethics may be applied, and identify ways in which you can determine if your decisions and behavior are meeting the appropriate standards. In addition, the course discusses the code of conduct that is at the heart of ethical behavior and why it is such an important component of the trust that citizens must have in their government.

11:00 – 11:15am Break

11:15am – 12:15pm Using AI Safely as a Tool

Marc Pfeiffer, Associate Director of Bloustein Local Rutgers University

This session will provide hands-on instructions on using AI Chatbots as an "assistant." Chatbots are remarkable tools that can assist in our work. Like a human assistant, they can be very helpful, but there are Pros and cons, and dos and don’ts to consider and ways to manage the risks that AI present about their use. Marc Pfeiffer from Rutgers will walk us through how to use them and what they can do to assist Municipal Clerks in their work. To demonstrate how it works, he will live and unrehearsed, take suggestions from the audience to show how they work. He will also talk about dos and don’ts to safely and effectively use this new tool.

12:15pm – 1:00pm Lunch (Provided)

1:00pm – 3:00pm Welcoming Public Notices to the 21st Century

Michele Seigfried, RMC/CMC, Municipal Clerk of Robbinsville Township and Legislative Chair for the MCANJ

Jason R. Martucci, Legislative & Regulatory Affairs Officer, Division of Local Government Services, Department of Community Affairs

With newspapers going out of print, P.L. 2025-72 was enacted to allow municipalities to put legal ads on their websites. This seminar will prepare municipal clerks to fully comply with the new requirements. Learn how to handle tax sale notices, sunshine notices, designating official newspapers, liquor license advertisements and more. We will cover archiving your notices and the wording for the twice-monthly newspaper notice. Learn about continuing to publish in newspapers and cost considerations for your budget. Bring your questions as a Q&A session will follow the presentation!

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER