ENGROSSED
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE

FOR


Senate Bill No. 505

(By Senators Bowman, Jenkins, Bailey and Plymale)

____________

[Originating in the Committee on Government Organization;

reported February 26, 2003.]

____________


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 municipal fire chiefs; and authorizing retention of rank attained during service as fire chief when tenure as fire chief 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.
(a) 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.
(b) 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 of this chapter, 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.
(c) but until Until the office of any such fire chief is placed under the civil service provisions of this article by said the governing body, as aforesaid, the member of any such paid fire department now occupying such office or hereafter appointed to such office shall in all cases of removal, except for removal for good cause, revert to retain 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.
(d) 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.