Senate Bill No. 418

(By Senators Love, White, Hunter, Caruth, McKenzie and Unger)

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[Introduced January 30, 2006; referred to the Committee

on Finance.]

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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated §31-20-30, relating to allowing the Executive Director of the West Virginia Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority to establish a relocation assistance program for nonprobationary correctional officers who volunteer to relocate from an adequately staffed regional jail to a regional jail that is persistently understaffed; and providing certain subjects be addressed in the program.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated §31-20-30, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 20. WEST VIRGINIA REGIONAL JAIL AND CORRECTIONAL FACILITY AUTHORITY.

§31-20-30. Relocation assistance program.
(a) The Executive Director of the West Virginia Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority is authorized to propose rules for legislative approval in accordance with the provisions of article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code, establishing a relocation assistance program for nonprobationary officers who volunteer to relocate to jails that are understaffed.
(b) The program shall, at a minimum, include provisions:
(1) Establishing criteria to be used to determine the duration and the degree of corrections officer staffing deficiencies at each regional jail facility to determine which facilities are suffering staffing deficiencies;
(2) Establishing the minimum distance an employee is required to move his or her residence to be eligible for relocation expense reimbursement;
(3) Establishing the minimum criteria an employee is required to meet to be eligible to relocate to a new facility; and
(4) Establishing which relocation expenses are reimbursable by the agency and the method by which the employee will be reimbursed.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to allow the Executive Director of the West Virginia Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority to establish a relocation assistance program for nonprobationary correctional officers who volunteer to relocate from an adequately staffed regional jail to a regional jail that is understaffed.

This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.

This bill was recommended for introduction and passage during the 2006 Regular Session of the Legislature by the Legislative Oversight Committee on the Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority.