Senate Bill No. 435
(By Senators Bowman, Bailey, Barnes, Boley, Foster, Jenkins,
Kessler, McCabe, Minard, Stollings, Sypolt, White and Yoder)
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[Originating in the Committee on Government Organization;
reported February 1, 2007.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §7A-1-4 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended; and to amend and reenact §7A-4-1 of said
code, all relating to clarifying the constitutional authority
for the creation of a metro government; increasing the time
frame for a charter review committee to conclude its study;
and providing plans for metro government formation.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §7A-1-4 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted; and that §7A-4-1 of said code be amended
and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1. GENERAL PROVISIONS.
§7A-1-4. Authority to consolidate.
(a) A municipality, county or metro government in this state
is authorized to form a consolidated local government with another
municipality, county or metro government upon approval by the voters of the affected areas.
(b) The Legislature has the constitutional authority to permit
municipalities to consolidate pursuant to section thirty-nine-a,
article VI of the West Virginia Constitution permitting home rule
for municipalities. Pursuant to section thirteen, article IX of
the West Virginia Constitution permitting reformation of county
commissions, the Legislature has the authority to permit counties
to consolidate and municipalities and counties to consolidate to
create a new executive or legislative tribunal, or both, in the
form of a metro government that performs both the duties of a
municipality and a county.
ARTICLE 4. CHARTER REVIEW COMMITTEE.
§7A-4-1. Study by charter review committee and draft of proposed
charter.
(a) The charter review committee shall study matters relating
to the feasibility of consolidation.
(b) The charter review committee shall further address in the
charter the powers and authority of the proposed consolidated local
government, including, but not limited to:
(1) The territory encompassed by the consolidated local
government, including all affected municipalities, counties and
metro governments, or parts thereof, to be included in the
boundaries of the consolidated local government;
(2) The fiscal impact of the proposed consolidation on the affected municipalities, counties and metro governments including:
(A) The cost of providing services by the consolidated local
government;
(B) Projected revenues available to the consolidated local
government based upon proposed classifications and tax structures;
and
(C) Projected economies of scale resulting from consolidation;
(3) The name of the proposed consolidated local government;
(4) The seat of the proposed consolidated local government;
(5) The representation plan based upon population for the
territory encompassed by the consolidation consistent with state
and federal law to include consideration of under represented areas
and minorities;
(6) The creation of the governing body of the proposed
consolidated local government, including an odd number of governing
officers of not less than five, their qualifications for holding
office, titles, powers, duties, terms of office, manner of
election, compensation, method of removal, role of constitutional
officers in new government and other pertinent matters consistent
with state and federal law;
(7) The effective date of the charter once consolidation is
approved by the electorate;
(8) A procedure for the efficient and timely transition of
specified services, functions and responsibilities from each affected municipality, county and metro government and its
respective departments and agencies to the consolidated local
government to occur within two years from the date the charter
becomes effective; and
(9) The method by which a consolidated local government may
dissolve after existing for a minimum of six years.
(c) The charter review committee shall complete its study and
draft a proposed charter within
one year two years from the date of
its organizational meeting.
(d) With regard to a proposed metro consolidation, the metro
charter review committee may utilize one of the plans for
organizing a municipal government described in section two, article
three, chapter eight of this code in the charter for the metro
government, but is not limited to these forms of government.