ENROLLED
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
H. B. 2723
(By Delegates Morgan, Martin, Argento, Beach,
Caputo, Eldridge, Andes and C. Miller)
[Passed April 11, 2009; in effect ninety days from passage.]
AN ACT to amend and reenact §8-13-13 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to authorizing municipalities to
file liens for delinquent service fees; requiring municipal
ordinances to have assessment and collection procedures for
the service fees; requiring administrative procedures by
municipalities for imposition of liens; and requiring the
right to appeal to circuit court.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §8-13-13 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 13. TAXATION AND FINANCE.
PART III. SPECIAL CHARGES FOR MUNICIPAL SERVICES.
§8-13-13. Special charges for municipal services.
(a) Notwithstanding any charter provisions to the contrary, a
municipality which furnishes any essential or special municipal
service, including, but not limited to, police and fire protection,
parking facilities on the streets or otherwise, parks and recreational facilities, street cleaning, street lighting, street
maintenance and improvement, sewerage and sewage disposal, and the
collection and disposal of garbage, refuse, waste, ashes, trash and
any other similar matter, has plenary power and authority to
provide by ordinance for the installation, continuance, maintenance
or improvement of the service, to make reasonable regulations of
the service, and to impose by ordinance upon the users of the
service reasonable rates, fees and charges to be collected in the
manner specified in the ordinance.
(b) Any sewerage and sewage disposal service and any service
incident to the collection and disposal of garbage, refuse, waste,
ashes, trash and any other similar matter is subject to the
provisions of chapter twenty-four of this code.
(c) A municipality shall not have a lien on any property as
security for payments due under subsection (a) of this section
except as provided in subsection (d) of this section.
(d) A municipality has authority to enact an ordinance,
pursuant to this section, permitting it to file a lien on real
property located within the municipal corporate limits for unpaid
and delinquent fire, police or street fees.
The ordinance must
provide an administrative procedure for the municipality's
assessment and collection of the fees. The administrative
procedure must require that, before any lien is filed, the
municipality will give
notice to the property owner, by certified
mail, return receipt requested, that the municipality will file the
lien unless the delinquency is paid
by a date stated in the notice, which must be no less than ninety days from the date the notice is
mailed
.
The administrative procedure must
include the right to
appeal to the circuit court of the county in which the real
property is located. The circuit court shall consider the appeal
under its general authority, including but not limited to
subsection (f), section two, article two of chapter fifty-one of
this code.
(e) Notwithstanding the provisions of section four, article
eleven of this chapter, any ordinance enacted or substantially
amended under the provisions of this section shall be published as
a Class II legal advertisement in compliance with the provisions of
article three, chapter fifty-nine of this code. The publication
area for the publication is the
municipality.
(f) In the event thirty percent of the qualified voters of the
municipality, by petition duly signed by them in their own
handwriting and filed with the recorder of the municipality within
forty-five
days after the expiration of the publication, protest
against the ordinance as enacted or amended, the ordinance shall
not become effective until it is ratified by a majority of the
legal votes cast by the qualified voters of the municipality at a
regular municipal election or special municipal election, as the
governing body directs. Voting shall not take place until after
notice of the submission is given by publication as provided in
subsection (e) of this section.
(g) The powers and authority granted to municipalities and to
the governing bodies of municipalities in this section are in addition and supplemental to the powers and authority named in any
charters of the municipalities.
(h) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this section, if
rates, fees and charges provided in this section are imposed by the
governing body of a municipality for the purpose of replacing, and
in amounts approximately sufficient to replace in its general fund
amounts appropriated to be paid from ad valorem taxes upon property
within the municipality, pursuant to an election duly called and
held under the Constitution and laws of the state to authorize the
issuance and sale of the municipality's general obligation bonds
for public improvement purposes, the call for the election shall
state that the governing body of the municipality proposes to
impose rates, fees and charges in specified amounts under this
section for the use of one or more of the services specified in
subsection (a) of this section, which shall be related to the
public improvement proposed to be made with the proceeds of the
bonds, no notice, publication of notice, or referendum or election
or other condition or prerequisite to the imposition of the rates,
fees and charges shall be required or necessary other than the
legal requirements for issuance and sale of the general obligation
bonds.