Senate Bill No. 505
(By Senators Bowman, Jenkins, Bailey and Plymale)
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[Introduced February 12, 2003; referred to the Committee on
Government Organization.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section eleven, article fifteen,
chapter eight of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to providing that
municipal fire chiefs retain their regular rank which they
held at the time of appointment to fire chief or that they
attained during their service as fire chief when they are
removed as fire chief or their tenure as same ends.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section eleven, article fifteen, chapter eight of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 15. FIRE FIGHTING; FIRE COMPANIES AND DEPARTMENTS; CIVIL
SERVICE FOR PAID FIRE DEPARTMENTS.
PART IV. CIVIL SERVICE FOR PAID FIRE DEPARTMENTS.
§8-15-11. Qualifications for appointment or promotion to positions in paid fire departments to be ascertained by
examination; provisions exclusive as to appointments,
etc.; rights of certain chiefs;"appointing officer"
defined.
All appointments and promotions to all positions in all paid
fire departments shall be made only according to qualifications and
fitness to be ascertained by examinations, which, so far as
practicable, shall be competitive, as hereinafter provided. No
individual shall may be appointed, promoted, reinstated, removed,
discharged, suspended or reduced in rank or pay as a paid member of
any paid fire department, regardless of rank or position, in any
manner or by any means other than those prescribed in the following
sections of this article: Provided, That in all municipalities in
which the office of fire chief of a paid fire department was not
covered by the provisions of former article six-a of this chapter
on the first day of January, one thousand nine hundred forty-nine,
such the office in such the municipality shall be excepted from the
civil service provisions of this article fifteen until such the
time as the governing body of said the municipality shall, by
appropriate ordinance or resolution adopted by a majority of its
members, elect to place the office of fire chief under the civil
service provisions of this article; but until the office of any
such fire chief is placed under the civil service provisions of
this article by said governing body as aforesaid, the member of any paid the fire department now occupying such that office or
hereafter appointed to such that office shall in all cases of
removal, except for removal for good cause, revert to the status he
or she held in such the paid fire department at the time of his or
her appointment to the office of such fire chief or which he or she
attained during his or her term as fire chief. The term
"appointing officer" as used in the following sections of this
article shall be construed to mean the municipal officer in whom
the power of appointment of members of a paid fire department is
vested by charter provision or ordinance of the municipality.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to
provide that municipal
fire chiefs retain their regular rank which they held at the time
of appointment to fire chief or that they attained during their
service as fire chief when they are removed as fire chief or their
tenure as same ends.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.