COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 292
(By Senators Miller, Bailey, Whitlow, Schoonover and Withers)
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[Originating in the Committee on Agriculture;
reported February 16, 1994.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact article twelve-a, chapter nineteen
of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred
thirty-one, as amended, relating to the transfer of
institutional farms, equipment, agricultural products and
all other assets, except sewage and water facilities and
pipelines, from the farm management commission to the land
division of the department of agriculture; legislative
findings; definitions; creating the institutional farm
advisory council; powers and duties of the council; powers
and duties of the land division and the commissioner of the
department of agriculture; and effect of transfer on farm
management commission employees.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article twelve-a, chapter nineteen of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be
amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 12A. LAND DIVISION.
§19-12A-1. Legislative findings and declarations.
The Legislature hereby finds that in order to ensure
economic and efficient land use; increase and improve
agricultural production; provide food for residents of state
operated institutions; provide a means of delivering vocational
training; provide a means of delivering a therapeutic work
incentive program for inmates; and serve as stewards and
caretakers for West Virginia agricultural and forested lands,
state-owned farms should be transferred from the farm management
commission to the land division of the department of agriculture.
The Legislature finds that the operation of all
institutional farms under one management system with a single
integrated farm plan is the most efficient method of providing
the food the residents of state operated institutions need and
promotes the health and welfare of all citizens of this state.
The Legislature declares that the department of agriculture
is the logical agency to oversee the operation of all of these
institutional farms; that the operation of these farms under the
department of agriculture is in the best interest of the citizens
of the state; and that the purchase of products from these farms
by state institutions is in the best interest of the citizens of
the state.
§19-12A-2. Definitions.
For the purpose of this article:
"Agricultural products" means livestock and livestock
products, poultry and poultry products, fruits and fruit
products, vegetables and vegetable products, grains and hays and
the products derived therefrom, tobacco, syrups, honey and otherproducts derived from the business of farming; including such
other products as may be manufactured, derived or prepared from
agricultural products, raw or processed, which are used as food
for man or animals.
"Commissioner" means the commissioner of the West Virginia
department of agriculture or his/her designee.
"Council" means the institutional farm advisory council.
"Farm equipment" means any equipment used for agricultural
production, owned or controlled by the farm management commission
and transferred to the land division of the department of
agriculture.
"Farm facility" means any processing plant, milking parlor,
farm equipment storage building, barn, silo, grain storage
building, swinery or any other building owned by an institution,
used in its farming operations and transferred from the farm
management commission to the land division of the department of
agriculture, except sewage treatment facilities, water storage
tanks and easements for pipelines to the facilities and tanks
which facilities, tanks and easements shall be retained and
maintained by the institutions.
"Institution" means any facility operated by the department
of health and human resources or the division of corrections for
care, treatment, confinement or rehabilitation of residents.
"Institutional farm" means any land owned by the farm
management commission and which was formerly operated as a farm,
is now being operated as a farm or could be converted to a farm
with agricultural production, and is transferred to the land
division of the department of agriculture as provided in thisarticle.
§19-12A-3. Institutional farm advisory council; composition;
terms; meetings; duties.
There is hereby created an institutional farm advisory
council and shall consist of an appointee from the division of
forestry, an appointee from the West Virginia University college
of agriculture and forestry, an appointee from the division of
corrections, a private farmer who has been in the farming
business at least five years and a private citizen of this state,
who by training or experience is knowlegeable about the field of
agriculture. The farmer and the citizen shall be appointed by
the commissioner. The terms for the members shall be three years
and they may be reappointed. The commissioner shall serve as
chairperson and shall only have voting privileges in the event of
a tie vote.
No business shall be transacted by the council in the
absence of a quorum. The institutional farm advisory council
shall hold meetings at least twice per year or at the call of the
commissioner or at the request of a majority of the membership.
Members of the institutional farm advisory council shall only
receive payment for actual expenses incurred.
The institutional farm advisory council shall advise the
commissioner on matters relating to the operation of the
institutional farms. The commissioner shall secure the approval
of the institutional farm advisory council when leasing lands to
private parties; transferring land to the public land
corporation; leasing any oil, gas or mineral resource; selling
timber; and consult the council on any matter affecting theinstitutional farms.
§19-12A-4. Transfer of institutional farms, equipment and all
other assets and agricultural products to the land division
of the department of agriculture; uninterrupted continuance
of operation.
(a) On the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred
ninety-four, the farm management commission shall transfer all
institutional farms and all easements, mineral rights,
appurtenances, farm equipment, agricultural products, inventories
and farm facilities thereon, or attached thereto, except sewage
treatment facilities, water storage tanks and easements for
pipelines to the facilities and tanks which facilities, tanks and
easements shall be retained and maintained by the institutions,
to the land division of the department of agriculture, as set
forth below:
(1) The Lakin state hospital institutional farm, located at
Lakin, Mason county, which shall include not less than nine
hundred fifty acres;
(2) The Weston state hospital institutional farm, located at
Weston, Lewis county, which shall include not less than three
hundred fifty acres;
(3) The Huttonsville correctional center institutional farm,
located at Huttonsville, Randolph county, which shall include not
less than five thousand two hundred acres, including all of the
tract of land commonly known as Becky's Creek farm;
(4) The Hopemont state hospital institutional farm, located
at Terra Alta, Preston county, which shall include not less than
five hundred acres;
(5) The West Virginia industrial school for boys
institutional farm, located at Pruntytown, Taylor county, which
shall include not less than one thousand five hundred eighty-
seven acres;
(6) The Pinecrest state hospital institutional farm, located
at Beckley, Raleigh county, which shall include not less than two
hundred acres;
(7) The West Virginia penitentiary institutional farm,
located at Moundsville, Marshall county, which shall contain not
less than one hundred acres;
(8) The Andrew S. Rowan memorial home institutional farm,
located at Sweet Springs, Monroe county, which shall include not
less than six hundred fifty acres;
(9) The West Virginia children's home institutional farm,
located at Elkins, Randolph county, which shall include not less
than one hundred fifty acres.
(b) The commissioner of agriculture and the institutional
farm advisory council shall ensure that the operation of the
institutional farms shall not be interrupted or discontinued.
(c) On the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred
ninety-four, all other assets, money, bank accounts and funds
held or under the control of the farm management commission,
including its special revenue account, shall be transferred to
the department of agriculture's special revenue account.
§19-12A-5. Powers and duties of the commissioner of agriculture
and the land division of the department of agriculture.
(a) The land division of the department of agriculture shall
manage the institutional farms, equipment and other property,transferred to it by the farm management commission, in the most
efficient way to produce food products for state institutions,
and shall implement the intent of the Legislature as set forth by
this article. In the event of surplus, the commissioner may
market food products through any available commercial channel to
secure the highest return. If the food product is useable but
not marketable, the commissioner may donate the food product to
senior citizens or other public or private groups.
(b) The commissioner of agriculture is specifically
authorized and empowered, in addition to all other powers and
authority provided elsewhere, to:
(1) Lease to public or private parties, for agricultural
production, experimentation or public necessity, any land
easements, equipment or other property: Provided, That no
property shall be leased for any use in any manner that would
render the land toxic for agricultural use, nor shall toxic or
hazardous materials, as identified by the commissioner of
agriculture, be used or stored upon the property, unless all
applicable state and federal permits necessary are obtained.
Any lease for an annual consideration of one thousand
dollars or more shall be by sealed bid and the land division
shall give notice of the bid procedure by publication as a Class
II-0 legal advertisement, in compliance with the provisions of
article three, chapter fifty-nine of this code, and the
publication area for such publication shall be the county in
which the property to be leased is located;
(2) Transfer to the public land corporation any land
designated by the institutional farm advisory council and thecommissioner to be disposed of and which land shall be sold,
exchanged or otherwise transferred pursuant to sections four and
five, article one-a, chapter twenty of this code:
Provided,
That
the net proceeds of the sale of these lands shall be deposited in
the general revenue fund of the state:
Provided, however,
That
no sale may be concluded until on or after the fifteenth day of
March, one thousand nine hundred ninety-five, except with respect
to: (A) Properties located at institutions closed on or before
the effective date of this section; or (B) properties conveyed to
or from the department of agriculture or any other entity in
order to facilitate the construction of a regional jail or
correctional facility by the regional jail and correctional
facilities authority or the state building commission, with the
decision to execute any such conveyance being solely within the
discretion of, and at the direction of, the regional jail and
correctional facilities authority;
(3) Develop the lands of the department of agriculture for
the public use including forestation, recreation, wildlife, stock
grazing, agricultural production, experimentation, rehabilitation
and/or other conservation activities;
(4) Contract or lease for the development of timber, oil,
gas or mineral resources, including coal by underground mining or
by surface mining where reclamation as required by specifications
of the division of energy will increase the beneficial use of
such property. Any such contract or lease shall be by sealed
bid, as provided in subdivision (1) of this subsection;
(5) Seek and receive grants or moneys from other sources in
order to accomplish the purposes of this article; and
(6) Exercise all other powers and duties necessary to
effectuate the purposes of this article.
(c) Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision (4),
subsection (b) of this section, no timberland may be leased,
sold, exchanged or otherwise disposed of unless the division of
forestry of the department of commerce, labor and environmental
resources, certifies that there is no commercially salable timber
on the timberland, an inventory is provided, an appraisal of the
timber is provided, and the sale, lease, exchange or other
disposition is accomplished by the sealed bid procedure provided
in subdivision (1) of said subsection.
(d) State institutions are required to purchase commodities
or products produced on the institutional farms when prices are
competitive and when products produced are similar to products
purchased by the institutions from other sources. State
institutions shall purchase a proportionate amount of these
products based on the dietary needs of each institution.
(e) The commissioner of agriculture and the commissioner of
corrections may make cooperative joint agreements, that are
mutually beneficial to both agencies, concerning the use of
inmates for job training, therapy and the preservation of these
institutional farms.
(f) The commissioner, in consultation with the institutional
farm advisory council, shall promulgate rules, in accordance with
chapter twenty-nine-a of this code, to implement the provisions
of this article.
(g) All funds collected by virtue of this article, whether
from the sale of food, the disposition of assets other than land,the leasing of land or minerals, or from any other source, shall
be paid into a special revenue account to be used for purposes of
this article.
(h) The commissioner shall direct the land division to
prepare an annual report and before the fifteenth day of January
of each year, present this report to the Legislature.
§19-12A-6. Effect of transfer on employees.
Nothing contained in this transfer from the farm commission
to the land division of the department of agriculture, pursuant
to this article, shall be construed to abridge the rights of farm
employees. The employees shall remain under the procedures and
protections of sections ten and ten-a, article six, chapter
twenty-nine of this code, subject to the limitations set forth in
subsection (d), section two, article two, chapter five-f of this
code.