Senate Bill No. 436
(By Senators Wiedebusch, Dittmar and Manchin)
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[Introduced February 19, 1996; referred to the Committee
on Natural Resources; and then to the Committee on Finance
.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section one, article seven, chapter
twenty of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to natural
resources; law enforcement; conservation officers; powers
and duties of emergency and special conservation officers;
and subsistence allowances for conservation officers.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section one, article seven, chapter twenty of the code
of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 7. LAW ENFORCEMENT, MOTORBOATING, LITTER.
PART I. LAW ENFORCEMENT, PROCEDURES AND PENALTIES.
§20-7-1. Chief conservation officer; conservation officers;
special and emergency conservation officers;
subsistence allowance; expenses.
The department's law-enforcement policies, practices and
programs shall be under the immediate supervision and direction
of the department law-enforcement officer selected by the
director and designated as chief conservation officer as provided
in article one hereof.
Under the supervision of the director, the chief
conservation officer shall organize, develop and maintain law-
enforcement practices, means and methods geared, timed and
adjustable to seasonal, emergency and other needs and
requirements of the department's comprehensive natural resources
program. All department personnel detailed and assigned to law-
enforcement duties and services hereunder shall be known and
designated as conservation officers and shall be under the
immediate supervision and direction of the chief conservation
officer. All such conservation officers shall be trained,
equipped and conditioned for duty and services wherever and
whenever required by department law-enforcement needs.
The chief conservation officer, acting under supervision of the director, is authorized to select and appoint emergency
conservation officers for a limited period of time for effective
enforcement of the provisions of this chapter when considered
necessary because of emergency or other unusual circumstances.
The emergency conservation officers shall be selected from
qualified civil service personnel of the department, except in
emergency situations and circumstances when the director may
designate such officers, without regard to such requirements and
qualifications, to meet law-enforcement needs. Emergency
conservation officers shall exercise all powers and duties
prescribed in section four of this article for full-time salaried
conservation officers except the provisions of subdivision
subsections (8), (9) and (10), section four of this article.
The chief conservation officer, acting under supervision of
the director, is also authorized to select and appoint as special
conservation officers any full-time civil service employee who is
assigned to, and has direct responsibility for management of, an
area owned, leased or under the control of the department and who
has satisfactorily completed a course of training established and
administered by the chief conservation officer, when such action
is deemed necessary because of law-enforcement needs. The powers and duties of a special conservation officer, appointed under
this provision, shall be the same within his assigned area as
prescribed for full-time salaried conservation officers, except
the provisions of subsections (9) and (10), section four of this
article. The jurisdiction of such person appointed as a special
conservation officer, under this provision, shall be limited to
the department area or areas to which he or she is assigned and
directly manages.
The chief conservation officer, acting under supervision of
the director, is also authorized to appoint as special
conservation officers any full-time civil service forest fire
control personnel who have satisfactorily completed a course of
training established and administered by the chief conservation
officer. The jurisdiction of forest fire control personnel
appointed as special conservation officers shall be limited to
the enforcement of the provisions of article three of this
chapter.
The chief conservation officer, with the approval of the
director, shall have the power and authority to revoke any such
appointment of an emergency conservation officer or of a special
conservation officer at any time.
Conservation officers shall be subject to seasonal or other
assignment and detail to duty whenever and wherever required by
the functions, services and needs of the department.
The chief conservation officer shall designate the area of
primary residence of each conservation officer, including himself
or herself. Since the area of business activity of the
department is actually anywhere within the territorial confines
of the state of West Virginia, actual expenses incurred shall be
paid whenever the duties are performed outside the area of
primary assignment and still within the state.
Conservation officers shall receive, in addition to their
base pay salary, a minimum monthly subsistence allowance for
their required telephone service, dry cleaning of required
uniforms, the required use of their home as an office and meal
expenses while performing their regular duties in their area of
primary assignment in the amount of one hundred thirty dollars
each month. This subsistence allowance does not apply to special
or emergency conservation officers appointed under this section.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to redefine the powers and duties of emergency and special conservation officers and to
provide a monthly subsistence allowance for regular conservation
officers.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.