Senate Bill No. 414

(By Senators Sharpe, Snyder, Mitchell, Kessler, Oliverio, McCabe, Ross, Sprouse, Minear, McKenzie, Hunter, Anderson, Minard, Walker, Ball and Love)

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[Introduced February 4, 2000; referred to the Committee on Government Organization; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact sections one, two and three, article four-b, chapter twelve of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, all relating to providing for the creation and administration by the state auditor of a statewide computer donation program; development of procedural rules; and replacing legislative rules with a progress and administration report to the Legislature regarding the program.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That sections one, two and three, article four-b, chapter twelve of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 4B. COMPUTER DONATION PROGRAM.
§12-4B-1. Legislative findings.
The Legislature finds that:
(a) Public schools, juvenile detention centers, and municipal and county public safety offices are always in need of computers, telecommunications devices and other technological equipment, while the acquisition of such is a costly enterprise;
(b) The state auditor State agencies must frequently purchase such computers, telecommunications devices and other technological equipment as is necessary for their interaction with national and international financial services industries, similar agencies, institutions and to improve services to the citizens of our state;
(c) The purchase by the state auditor agencies of modern computers, telecommunications devices and other technological equipment frequently results in the surplus of such existing equipment;
(d) Surplus equipment is generally obsolete or no longer useful for its intended use, and as such may no longer be used effectively by agency employees;
(e) Although the computers, telecommunications devices or other technological equipment is are no longer useful in interacting with the financial services industry, for their high speed or complex intended use, they may still be useful items for a less complex and or less high-speed dependent use;
(f) Heretofore, the state auditor has some agencies have stripped the equipment for spare parts for other machines or sent such to state surplus property where appropriate storage is neither practical nor feasible, and that this these continued practice does practices do not necessarily result in the equipment's highest and best remaining use; and
(g) Rather than break down the equipment for spare parts or send obsolete machines to the surplus property unit of the state purchasing division where they may languish with lack of use, it would be in the best interest of the state that any obsolete computers, telecommunications devices or technological equipment be donated by the state auditor's office agencies to public schools, juvenile detention centers, and municipal and county public safety offices.
§12-4B-2. Computer donation program created.
(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of this code to the contrary, the state auditor is hereby authorized within his or her agency to create a statewide computer donation program for public schools, juvenile detention centers, and municipal and county public safety offices in this state. This program authorizes the state auditor's office to donate all collected equipment to those entities which would otherwise be transferred to the surplus property unit of the purchasing division to those aforementioned public school, municipal and county entities.
(b) The statewide computer donation program shall be administered by a director as appointed or employed by the state auditor. The auditor may either appoint the director from existing staff from his or her office, or may employ a director from existing funds.
(c) The director shall: (i) Make contact with the intended recipients of the donated equipment to apprise them of equipment available for donation; (ii) develop application forms and provide information so that intended recipients would know how to apply for the available equipment, what equipment is available and seek such assistance and information as would further assist in the dissemination of the equipment; (iii) develop donation forms and procedures for agencies to donate equipment as well as keep records and accounts that indicate the what equipment was donated, by what agency the equipment was donated, the age of the equipment, the donating agency's reason or reasons for declaring it obsolete, and to which public school, juvenile detention center, or municipal or county public safety office the equipment was donated.
§12-4B-3. Reports to the legislative.
The state auditor shall propose legislative rules in accordance with the provisions of article three-a, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code develop procedural rules which shall detail the regulations for the public notice of the program, the method of receiving requests for participation in the program, any compliance and reporting information required of participants in the program, and the method of selecting recipients of equipment. The rules shall provide for fair and impartial selection of equipment recipients. The rules shall be presented for approval to the legislative oversight commission on education accountability by the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-nine The state auditor shall once yearly report to the legislative oversight commission on education accountability on donations made to the public schools and report once yearly to the legislative joint committee on government organization regarding the donations made to municipal or county public safety offices.



NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide a process whereby the state auditor will donate outdated computer and like technological equipment for use by schools, detention centers, municipal and county public safety offices.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.