ENROLLED
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 89
(Senator Kessler, original sponsor)
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[Passed March 4, 2010; in effect ninety days from passage.]
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AN ACT to amend and reenact §8-14-6 and §8-14-17 of the Code of
West Virginia, 1931, as amended, all relating to paid police
departments; and establishing that chiefs or deputy chiefs of
police are to return to their previously held position within
the paid police department following expiration of term as
chief or deputy chief.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §8-14-6 and §8-14-17 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931,
as amended, be amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 14. LAW AND ORDER; POLICE FORCE OR DEPARTMENTS; POWERS,
AUTHORITY AND DUTIES OF LAW-ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS
AND POLICEMEN; POLICE MATRONS; SPECIAL SCHOOL ZONE
AND PARKING LOT OR PARKING BUILDING; POLICE
OFFICERS; CIVIL SERVICE FOR CERTAIN POLICE
DEPARTMENTS.
PART V. CIVIL SERVICE FOR CERTAIN POLICE DEPARTMENTS.
§8-14-6. Qualifications for appointment or promotion to positions
in certain paid police departments to be ascertained by
examination; provisions exclusive as to appointments,
etc.; definitions.
(a) All appointments and promotions to all positions in all
paid police departments of Class I and Class II cities 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, except the chief or deputy chiefs of
police, if the position of deputy chief of police has been
previously created by the city council of that Class I or Class II
city, may be appointed, promoted, reinstated, removed, discharged,
suspended or reduced in rank or pay as a paid member of a paid
police department, regardless of rank or position, of any Class I
or Class II city in any manner or by any means other than those
prescribed in the following sections of this article:
Provided,
That an individual appointed chief or deputy chief of police who
held a position as a member of a paid police department in that
police department before the appointment as chief or deputy chief
of police shall be reinstated to the officer's previous rank
following his or her term as chief or deputy chief of police.
(c) The term "member of a paid police department", whenever
used in the following sections of this article, means an individual
employed in a paid police department who is clothed with the police power of the state in being authorized to carry deadly weapons,
make arrests, enforce traffic and other municipal ordinances, issue
summons for violations of traffic and other municipal ordinances,
and perform other duties which are within the scope of active,
general law enforcement.
(d) The term "appointing officer", as used in the following
sections of this article, means the Class I or Class II city
officer in whom the power of appointment of members of a paid
police department is vested by charter provision or ordinance of
the city.
§8-14-17. Vacancies filled by promotions; eligibility for
promotion; rights of chief.
(a) Vacancies in positions in a paid police department of a
Class I or Class II city shall be filled, so far as practicable, by
promotions from among individuals holding positions in the next
lower grade in the department.
(b) Promotions shall be based upon experience and by written
competitive examinations to be provided by the Policemen's Civil
Service Commission:
Provided, That except for the chief or deputy
chiefs of police, if the position of deputy chief of police has
been previously created by the city council of that Class I or
Class II city, no individual is eligible for promotion from the
lower grade to the next higher grade until the individual
has completed at least two years of continuous service in the next
lower grade in the department immediately prior to the examination:
Provided, however, That notwithstanding the provisions of section
six of this article, any member of a paid police department of a
Class I or Class II city now occupying the office of chief or
deputy chief of police of that paid police department, or hereafter
appointed to the office of chief or deputy chief of police, except
as hereinafter provided in this section, is entitled to all of the
rights and benefits of the civil service provisions of this
article, except that he or she may be removed from the office of
chief or deputy chief of police without cause, and the time spent
by the member in the office of chief or deputy chief of police
shall be added to the time served by the member during the entire
time he or she was a member of that paid police department prior to
his or her appointment as chief or deputy chief of police, and
shall in all cases of removal, except for removal for good cause,
retain the regular rank within that paid police department which he
or she held at the time of his or her appointment to the office of
chief or deputy chief of police or which he or she has attained
during his or her term of service as chief or deputy chief of
police.
(c) The provisions of this section apply and inure to the
benefit of all individuals who have ever been subject to the
provisions of this article. The commission may determine in each
instance whether an increase in salary constitutes a promotion.