Senate Bill No. 579
(By Senator Caruth)
____________
[Introduced February 5, 2008; referred to the Committee on
Government Organization; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
____________
A BILL to amend and reenact §16-13-18 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to appointment of additional
members of a West Virginia community's sanitary board who are
nonresidents when the sanitary sewer system serving the
community borders another state and the sanitary sewer system
is located in that state.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §16-13-18 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 13. SEWAGE WORKS AND STORMWATER WORKS.
§16-13-18. Supervision of works by sanitary board; organization
of board; qualifications, terms and compensation of
members; authorizing appointment of nonresident
board members.
The governing body shall provide by ordinance the organization
of the board, and that the custody, administration, operation and
maintenance of such works shall be under the supervision and
control of a sanitary board, created as herein provided.
Such The sanitary board shall be composed of either the mayor
of the municipality, or the city manager thereof, if
said the
municipality
shall have has a city manager form of government, and
two persons appointed by the governing body:
Provided, That,
in
the event of If there is an acquisition or merger of an existing
works, the governing body may increase the membership to a maximum
of four members in addition to the mayor or city manager of the
municipality served by the board.
During the construction period, one of the members must be a
registered professional engineer. The engineer member of the board
need not be a resident of said municipality. After the construction
of the plant has been completed, the engineer member may be
succeeded by a person not an engineer.
No An officer or employee
of the municipality, whether holding a paid or unpaid office,
shall
be is not eligible to appointment on
said the sanitary board until
at least one year after the expiration of the term of his or her
public office. The appointees shall originally be appointed for
terms of two and three years respectively, and upon the expiration
of each term and each succeeding term, an appointment of a
successor shall be made in like manner for a term of three years. Vacancies shall be filled for an unexpired term in the same manner
as the original appointment. Each member shall give such bond, if
any, as may be required by ordinance. The mayor or city manager
shall act as chairman of the sanitary board, which shall elect a
vice chairman from its members and shall designate a secretary and
treasurer (but the secretary and the treasurer may be one and the
same), who need not be a member or members of the sanitary board.
The vice chairman, secretary and treasurer shall hold office as
such at the will of the sanitary board.
The members of the sanitary board shall receive compensation
for their services, either as a salary or as payments for meetings
attended, as the governing body may determine, and shall be
entitled to payment for their reasonable expenses incurred in the
performance of their duties. The governing body shall fix the
reasonable compensation of the secretary and treasurer in its
discretion, and shall fix the amounts of bond to be given by the
treasurer. All compensation, together with the expenses in this
section referred to, shall be paid solely from funds provided under
the authority of this article. The sanitary board
shall have power
to may establish bylaws, rules and regulations for its own
government.
Notwithstanding any provision of this Code to the contrary, if
a West Virginia community borders another state, and any part of
the sanitary sewer system serving that community is located in the other state, the West Virginia community's sanitary board may
authorize the appointment of two members to be appointed by the
local government of the area of the other state in which the
sanitary sewer system is located, making the membership of that
West Virginia community's sanitary board four members plus the
mayor or city manager.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to authorize the appointment
of additional members of a West Virginia community's sanitary board
who are nonresidents, when the sanitary sewer system serving the
community borders another state and sanitary sewer system serving
that community is located in the other state.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.