ENROLLED
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
H. B. 2742
(By Mr. Speaker, Mr. Kiss, and Delegates Douglas,
Mezzatesta, Michael, Doyle, Varner and Martin)
[Passed March 12, 1999; in effect ninety days from passage.]
AN ACT to authorize a roundhouse authority in Berkeley County;
to be created as public corporation; acquisition of
property; membership and management; general powers;
promulgation of rules to regulate traffic and penalties;
right of eminent domain; tax exemptions; indebtedness;
disposition of surplus; contributions, participation; and
dissolution of authority.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
BERKELEY COUNTY ROUNDHOUSE AUTHORITY.
§1. Regional roundhouse authority authorized.
The county commissions of interested counties and governing
bodies of the municipalities within the region of Berkeley County
are hereby authorized to create and establish the Berkeley County
roundhouse authority for the purpose of acquiring, establishing,
constructing, equipping, improving, financing, maintaining and
operating the historic Baltimore and Ohio Railroad roundhouse
property located in the city of Martinsburg, for various uses: Provided, That no municipality or county may participate in the
authority unless and until its governing body provides.
§2. Authority to be a public corporation.
The Berkeley County roundhouse authority when created and
established, and the members thereof, shall constitute a public
corporation and as such, shall have perpetual succession, may
contract and be contracted with, sue and be sued, and have and
use a common seal.
§3. Authority empowered and authorized to acquire, operate,
etc., roundhouse property.
The authority is hereby empowered and authorized to acquire,
establish, construct, equip, improve, finance, maintain and
operate for purposes it considers appropriate, the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad roundhouse located in the city of Martinsburg with
appurtenant facilities and any other property necessary for the
purposes of the authority.
§4. Management of authority vested in board; appointment
and terms of members; vote of members, valuation of
property contributed to the authority.
The management and control of the authority, its property,
operations, business and affairs shall be lodged in a board of
not less than five nor more than twenty-one individuals who shall
be known as members of the authority board and who shall be
appointed for terms of three years. Each participating county and
municipality may initially appoint three members. Thereafter,
the authority may vary representation on the authority board depending on the number of municipalities and counties that
choose to participate and to contribute moneys or property to the
authority, except that the county shall retain the right to
appointment of a majority of members of the board. Each member
shall serve at the will and pleasure of his or her appointing
body.
When property is contributed, the contributing municipality
or county and the authority shall agree in writing at the time
the contribution is made as to the fair market value of such
property.
§5. Substitution of members.
If any member of the authority board dies, resigns, is
removed or for any other reason ceases to be a member of the
authority, the municipality or the county commission which the
member represented shall appoint another individual to fill the
unexpired portion of the term of the member.
§6. Qualification of members.
Each member of the authority board shall be a resident of
the municipality or county that appointed the member.
§7. Compensation of members.
No member of the authority board shall receive any
compensation, whether in the form of salary, per diem allowance
or otherwise, for or in connection with his or her services as a
member. Each member shall be entitled to reimbursement by the
authority for all reasonable and necessary expenses actually
incurred in the performance of his or her duties as a member.
§8. Powers of authority generally.
The authority shall have the following powers:
(1) To make and adopt all necessary bylaws and rules for its
organization and operations not inconsistent with law;
(2) To elect its own officers, to appoint committees and to
employ and fix the compensation for personnel necessary for its
operation;
(3) To enter into contracts with any person, including both
public and private corporations, or governmental department or
agency, and generally to do any and all things necessary or
convenient for the purpose of acquiring, establishing,
constructing, equipping, improving, financing, maintaining and
operating the roundhouse property with appurtenant facilities and
other property necessary for the purposes of the authority;
(4) To delegate any authority given to it by law to any of
its officers, committees, agents or employees;
(5) To apply for, receive and use grants-in-aid, donations
and contributions from any source or sources, including, but not
limited to, the federal government and any department or agency
thereof, and this state subject to any constitutional and
statutory limitations with respect thereto, and to accept and use
bequests, devises, gifts and donations from any person;
(6) To acquire lands and hold title thereto in its own name;
(7) To purchase, own, hold, sell and dispose of personal
property and to sell, lease or otherwise dispose of any real
property which it may own;
(8) To borrow money and execute and deliver negotiable
notes, mortgage bonds, other bonds, debentures and other
evidences of indebtedness therefor, and give security therefor as
shall be requisite, including giving a mortgage or deed of trust
on its properties and facilities or assigning or pledging the
gross or net revenues therefrom;
(9) To raise funds by the issuance and sale of revenue bonds
in the manner provided by the applicable provisions of sections
nine through seventeen, article sixteen of chapter eight of the
West Virginia code, it being hereby expressly provided that for
the purpose of the issuance and sale of revenue bonds, the
authority is a "governing body" as that term is used in said
article only;
(10) To establish, charge and collect reasonable fees and
charges for services or for the use of any part of its property
or facilities, or for both services and use;
(11) To expend its funds in the execution for the powers
herein given;
(12) To apply for, receive and use loans, grants, donations,
technical assistance and contributions and from participating
municipalities and counties; and
(13) To prescribe by bylaw the manner of financial
participation by participating municipalities and counties.
§9. Rules and regulations to control vehicular and pedestrian
traffic; violation of rule and regulations a misdemeanor; penalty.
(a) The county commission of Berkeley County is hereby
empowered and authorized, upon request of the authority, to adopt
and promulgate rules to: (1) Control the movement and
disposition of vehicular and pedestrian traffic within the
property of the authority; (2) regulate and control vehicular
parking within the property by the installation of parking meters
or by other methods; and (3) impose reasonable charges for the
use of the parking space so metered or otherwise allocated, so as
to provide maximum opportunity for the public use thereof.
(b)Violation of any rule adopted pursuant to subsection (a)
of this section shall constitute a misdemeanor and the offender,
upon conviction in the manner provided by law, may be fined not
less than two dollars nor more than ten dollars for each
violation. Magistrates shall have concurrent jurisdiction with
statutory courts of record having criminal jurisdiction for the
trial of offenses under this section.
§10. Indebtedness of authority.
The authority may incur any proper indebtedness, issue any
obligations and give any security therefor that it may consider
necessary and advisable in connection with carrying out its
purposes.
No indebtedness or obligation incurred by the authority
shall give any right against any member of the governing body of
any participating municipality or county or any member of the
authority board. No indebtedness of any nature of the authority
shall constitute an indebtedness of the governing body of any participating municipality or county or be a charge against any
property of any participating municipality or county. The rights
of creditors of the authority shall be solely against the
authority as a corporate body and shall be satisfied only out of
property held by it in its corporate capacity.
§11. Agreements in connection with obtaining funds.
The authority may, in connection with obtaining moneys or
property for its purposes, enter into any agreement with any
person, including the federal government, or any department,
agency or subdivision thereof, containing such provisions,
covenants, terms and conditions as the authority may consider
advisable.
§12. Authority to have right of eminent domain.
Whenever it shall be considered necessary by the authority,
in connection with the exercise of its powers herein conferred,
to take or acquire any lands, structures or buildings or other
rights, either in fee or as easements, for the purposes herein
set forth, the authority may purchase the same directly or
through its agents from the owner or owners thereof, or failing
to agree with the owner or owners thereof, the authority may
exercise the power of eminent domain in the manner provided for
condemnation proceedings in chapter fifty-four of the West
Virginia code, and such purposes are hereby declared to be public
uses for which private property may be taken or damaged.
§13. Property, bonds and obligations of authority exempt from
taxation.
The authority shall be exempt from the payment of any taxes
or fees to the state or any subdivisions thereof or any
municipality or to any officer or employee of the state or of any
subdivision thereof or of any municipality.
The property of the authority shall be exempt from all
municipal and county taxes. Bonds, notes, debentures and other
evidences of indebtedness of the authority are declared to be
issued for a public purpose and to be public instrumentalities,
and, together with interest thereon, shall be exempt from
taxation.
§14. Authority may lease facilities.
The authority may lease all or part of the property and all
or any part of the appurtenances and facilities therewith to any
available lessee, subject to all constitutional and statutory
limitations with respect thereto, at such rental and upon such
terms and conditions as the authority shall consider proper.
§15. Disposition of surplus of authority.
If the authority should realize a surplus, whether from
operating the property or leasing it for operation, over and
above the amount required for the equipping, improvement,
maintenance and operation of the property and for meeting all
required payments on its obligations, it shall set aside such
reserve for future equipping, improvements, maintenance,
operations and contingencies as it shall consider proper and
shall then apply the residue of the surplus, if any, to the
payment of any recognized and established obligations not then due, and after all such recognized and established obligations
have been paid off and discharged in full, the authority shall,
at the end of each fiscal year, set aside the reserve for future
equipping improvements, maintenance, operations and
contingencies, as aforesaid, and then pay the residue of such
surplus, if any, to the participating counties and municipalities
in direct proportion to their contribution for moneys and
property.
§16. Contributions to authority; funds and accounts of
authority.
Contributions of moneys may be made to the authority from
time to time by the participating municipalities and counties and
persons that shall desire to do so. All such moneys and all
other moneys received by the authority shall be deposited in a
banking institution or banking institutions as the authority may
direct and shall be withdrawn therefrom in a manner as the
authority may direct. The authority shall keep strict account of
all of its receipts and expenditures and shall make an annual
report thereon to the participating municipalities and counties
contributing moneys or property, and the report shall contain an
itemized account of its receipts and disbursements for the
preceding fiscal year, and publish the same as a Class II-O legal
advertisement in compliance with the provision of article three,
chapter fifty-nine of the code of West Virginia, in a newspaper
of general circulation within Berkeley County. The books, records
and accounts of the authority shall be subject to audit and examination by the office of the state tax commissioner and by
any other proper public official or body in the manner provided
by law.
The participating counties and municipalities are hereby
authorized to convey to the authority any and all real and
personal property to which they hold title and which property
will enhance the authority's ability to own, manage and operate
the aforesaid B&O Railroad roundhouse property with appurtenant
facilities and other property necessary to the purposes of the
authority.
§17. Dissolution of authority; disposition of assets after
payment of debts.
In the event full and adequate provision is made for the
payment of all of the debts of the authority, the participating
municipalities or counties or any combination thereof which have
contributed at least sixty percent of the total value of all
moneys and property (the value of which property is determined as
specified in section four of this article) contributed to the
authority by the participating municipalities and counties may by
resolution provide for the dissolution of the authority and for:
(1) The conveyance of the real and tangible personal property
contributed to it to the participating municipalities and
counties that contributed the same; (2) equitable distribution
among the contributing municipalities and counties of any real
and tangible personal property purchased or condemned by the
authority or of the proceeds of sale thereof, or the fair value thereof; and (3) the equitable distribution of all moneys on hand
to the participating municipalities and counties in direct
proportion to the contribution of moneys by them.
§18. Employees to be covered by workers' compensation.
All eligible employees of the authority shall be considered
to be within the workers' compensation system of this state and
premiums on their compensation shall be paid by the authority as
required by law.
§19. Liberal construction of act.
The purposes of this act are to provide for the acquisition,
establishment, construction, equipping, improvements, financing,
maintenance and operation of the roundhouse property in a prudent
and economical manner, and this act shall be liberally construed
as giving to the authority created and established hereunder full
and complete power reasonably required to give effect to the
purposes hereof. The provisions of this act are in addition to
and not in derogation of any power granted to or vested in
municipalities and county commissions under any constitutional,
statutory or charter provisions which may now or hereafter be in
effect.