SB145 SUB1
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE

FOR

Senate Bill No. 145

(By Senator Rowe)

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[Originating in the Committee on Judiciary;

reported February 22, 2001.]

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A BILL to amend and reenact section eight, article twenty-nine, chapter thirty of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to requiring any law- enforcement agency hiring a graduate of an approved law- enforcement training academy to pay a percentage of the cost of such training to the law-enforcement agency that had sponsored and funded the graduate's training.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section eight, article twenty-nine, chapter thirty of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
 ARTICLE 29. LAW-ENFORCEMENT TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION.
§30-29-8. Compensation for employees attending law-enforcement training academy; limitations; agreements to reimburse employers for wages and expenses of employees trained but not continuing employment; law-enforcement agency to pay proportional cost of graduate's cost of training upon hiring a graduate sponsored by a different agency.

(a) A West Virginia law-enforcement agency shall pay compensation to employees, including wages, salaries, benefits, tuition and expenses for the employees' attendance at a law- enforcement training academy. The compensation paid to the employees of a law-enforcement agency for attendance at a law- enforcement training academy as provided in this section shall not include overtime compensation under the provisions of section three, article five-c, chapter twenty-one of this code and shall be at the regular rate to which the employee would be entitled for a workweek of forty hours in regular employment with the agency. In consideration for such compensation, the county commission or municipal government may require of its employees by written agreement entered into with each of them in advance of such attendance at a training academy that, if an employee should voluntarily discontinue employment any time within one year immediately following completion of the training curriculum, he or she shall be obligated to pay to such county commission or municipal government a pro rata portion of the sum of such compensation equal to that part of such year which the employee has chosen not to remain in the employ of the county commission or municipal government.
(b) Any West Virginia law-enforcement agency, including any state institution of higher education, that, within the three-year period immediately following the completion of the training curriculum, hires a graduate of an approved law-enforcement training academy whom that agency did not sponsor at the academy, shall pay to the sponsoring law-enforcement agency a pro rata portion of the total cost of training expended by the sponsoring agency. The costs of training shall include wages or benefits paid to the employee during such training, tuition, and expenses for required travel, clothing and equipment . The portion of the total costs payable by the hiring agency shall be based on the proportion that the number of days remaining in the three-year period from the date of hire by the non-sponsoring agency bears to the entire three year period. The sponsoring agency shall provide an accurate accounting to the hiring agency of the costs for the graduate's training: Provided, That the sponsoring agency may elect to waive reimbursement of costs or any part thereof as provided by this section. The provisions of this subsection shall not apply with respect to any law-enforcement officer who is involuntarily terminated from employment by his or her sponsoring agency.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require nonsponsoring police agencies that hire graduate recruits within 36 months from the date they graduated from an approved law-enforcement training academy, to pay a proportional cost of the training to the sponsoring police agency that funded the training, based on the number of days remaining in the 36 month period after graduation.