COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE

FOR

Senate Bill No. 343

(By Senators Laird, Kessler (Mr. President), Unger, Klempa, Nohe, Browning, Plymale, Yost, Jenkins and Beach)

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[Originating in the Committee on Government Organization;

reported January 27, 2012.]

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A BILL to amend and reenact §8-15-8a of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to the eligibility of volunteer or part-volunteer fire companies or departments to allocation from Municipal Pensions and Protection Fund and the Fire Protection Fund; providing a three-month grace period for volunteer fire companies or departments to comply with submission of data; requiring the State Fire Marshal to notify these volunteer fire companies or departments of the dates and grace period; and providing a three-month exemption to volunteer fire companies or departments whose records were destroyed from requirements to submit data.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

    That §8-15-8a of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:

ARTICLE 15. FIRE FIGHTING; FIRE COMPANIES AND DEPARTMENTS; CIVIL SERVICE FOR PAID FIRE DEPARTMENTS.

§8-15-8a. Eligibility for allocation from municipal pensions and              protection fund and the Fire Protection Fund.

    (a) In order to be eligible to receive revenues allocated from the municipal pensions and protection fund or the Fire Protection Fund, each volunteer or part volunteer fire company or department must meet the following requirements: listed in subdivisions (a) through (c) of this section.

    Each volunteer or part volunteer fire company or department must:

    (a) (1) Submit and maintain current submission of fire loss data to the State Fire Marshal, including verification, by notarized statement, if no fire loss has occurred;

    (b) (2) Complete or be in the process of receiving firefighters training, including section one of the West Virginia University fire service extension or its equivalent. Such The fire company or department must have at least ten members certified as having completed such the training or if a volunteer fire company or department has twenty or fewer members, fifty percent of the active volunteer members must have completed such training; and

    (c) (3) Comply with all applicable federal and state laws.

    (b) Each volunteer or part volunteer fire company or department shall have a grace period of one fiscal quarter, or three months, beyond the allocation date in which to comply with submission requirements to the State Fire Marshal. The State Fire Marshal shall notify each volunteer or part volunteer fire company or department of the due date for submitting the information required by this section and the grace period. The Fire Marshal shall use every means available to notify each volunteer or part volunteer fire company or department in order to ensure timely compliance with this section.

    (c) When the records of a volunteer or part volunteer fire company or department are destroyed by a means beyond the control of the volunteer or part volunteer fire company or department, then the affected volunteer or part volunteer fire company or department is exempt from the provisions of subdivision (1), subsection (a) of this section, for the three months period immediately following the destruction of the records.