Senate Bill No. 320
(By Senators Bowman, Minard, Love, Stollings, Barnes, Sharpe and
McKenzie)
____________
[Introduced January 23, 2008; referred to the Committee on
Government Organization; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
____________
A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto three new sections, designated §6-9-2a, §6-9-2b
and §6-9-2c; to amend said code by adding thereto a new
section, designated §7-5-7a; and to amend and reenact §8-12-5
of said code, all relating to authorizing the participation of
local governments in a purchasing card program to be
administered by the Auditor as chief inspector of public
offices; and creating offenses and criminal penalties.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto three new sections, designated §6-9-2a, §6-9-2b
and §6-9-2c; that said code be amended by adding thereto a new
section, designated §7-5-7a; and that §8-12-5 of said code be
amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
CHAPTER 6. GENERAL PROVISIONS RESPECTING OFFICERS.
ARTICLE 9. SUPERVISION OF PUBLIC OFFICERS.
§6-9-2a. Local Government Purchasing Card Program.
Notwithstanding any provisions of the code to the contrary,
the Auditor may authorize and administer a purchasing card program
for local governments under the auspices of the chief inspector
division. The purchasing card program shall be conducted so that
procedures and controls for the procurement and payment of goods
and services are made more efficient and so that the accounting and
reporting of such payments shall be uniform for all local
governments utilizing the program. The program shall permit local
governments to use a purchase charge card to purchase goods and
services. Notwithstanding any other code provisions to the
contrary, local government purchases may be made with the purchase
charge card for any payment authorized by the Auditor, including
regular routine payments, travel and emergency payments, and shall
be set at an amount to be determined by the Auditor
: Provided,
That purchasing cards may not be utilized for the purpose of
obtaining cash advances, whether the advances are made in cash or
by other negotiable instrument
: Provided, however, That purchasing
cards may be used for cash advances for travel purchases upon
approval of the Auditor. Selection of a charge card vendor to
provide local government purchasing cards shall be based upon
expressions of interest submitted by charge card vendors. The
Auditor shall contract with the successful institution for provision of local government purchasing cards. The selection
shall be based upon the combination of competence and qualification
in the provision of services and a determination of the best
financial arrangement for the program. The Auditor may propose
rules for promulgation to govern the implementation of the local
government purchase card program and may promulgate emergency rules
for emergency payments to effectuate the provision of such
services.
§6-9-2b. Local Government Purchasing Card Expenditure Fund
Created.
There is hereby created a local Government Purchasing Card
Expenditure Fund. Money received by the Auditor pursuant to an
agreement with vendors providing local government purchasing charge
cards and any interest or other return earned on the money shall be
deposited in the special revenue revolving local Government
Purchasing Card Expenditure Fund in the State Treasury to be
administered by the Auditor. The fund shall be used to pay all
expenses incurred by the Auditor in the implementation and
operation of the local government purchasing card program and may
be used to pay expenses related to the general operation of the
Auditor's office. The Auditor may also utilize the fund to provide
a proportionate share of rebate back to the general fund oflocal
governments based upon utilization of the program.
§6-9-2c. Fraudulent or unauthorized use of purchasing card prohibited; penalties.
It is unlawful for any person to use a local government
purchasing card, issued in accordance with the provisions of
section two-a of this article, to make any purchase of goods or
services in a manner which is contrary to the provisions of section
two-a of this article or the rules promulgated pursuant to that
section. Any person who violates the provisions of this section is
guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be confined
in a state correctional facility not less than one year nor more
than five years, or fined no more than five thousand dollars, or
both fined and imprisoned.
CHAPTER 7. COUNTY COMMISSIONS AND OFFICERS.
ARTICLE 5. FISCAL AFFAIRS.
§7-5-7a. Authorization for Purchase Card utilization.
Notwithstanding any other code provision to the contrary, any
county or county agency may participate in a purchasing card
program for local governments authorized and administered by the
State Auditor as an alternative payment method.
CHAPTER 8. MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS.
ARTICLE 12. GENERAL AND SPECIFIC POWERS, DUTIES AND ALLIED
RELATIONS OF MUNICIPALITIES, GOVERNING BODIES AND
MUNICIPAL OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES; SUITS AGAINST
MUNICIPALITIES.
§8-12-5. General powers of every municipality and the governing body thereof.
In addition to the powers and authority granted by: (i) The
Constitution of this state; (ii) other provisions of this chapter;
(iii) other general law; and (iv) any charter, and to the extent
not inconsistent or in conflict with any of the foregoing except
special legislative charters, every municipality and the governing
body thereof shall have plenary power and authority therein by
ordinance or resolution, as the case may require, and by
appropriate action based thereon:
(1) To lay off, establish, construct, open, alter, curb,
recurb, pave or repave and keep in good repair, or vacate,
discontinue and close, streets, avenues, roads, alleys, ways,
sidewalks, drains and gutters, for the use of the public, and to
improve and light the same, and have them kept free from
obstructions on or over them which have not been authorized
pursuant to the succeeding provisions of this subdivision; and,
subject to such terms and conditions as the governing body shall
prescribe, to permit, without in any way limiting the power and
authority granted by the provisions of article sixteen of this
chapter, any person to construct and maintain a passageway,
building or other structure overhanging or crossing the airspace
above a public street, avenue, road, alley, way, sidewalk or
crosswalk, but before any permission for any person to construct
and maintain a passageway, building or other structure overhanging or crossing any airspace is granted, a public hearing thereon shall
be held by the governing body after publication of a notice of the
date, time, place and purpose of the public hearing has been
published as a Class I legal advertisement in compliance with the
provisions of article three, chapter fifty-nine of this code and
the publication area for the publication shall be the municipality:
Provided, That any permit so granted shall automatically cease and
terminate in the event of abandonment and nonuse thereof for the
purposes intended for a period of ninety days, and all rights
therein or thereto shall revert to the municipality for its use and
benefit;
(2) To provide for the opening and excavation of streets,
avenues, roads, alleys, ways, sidewalks, crosswalks and public
places belonging to the municipality and regulate the conditions
under which any such opening may be made;
(3) To prevent by proper penalties the throwing, depositing or
permitting to remain on any street, avenue, road, alley, way,
sidewalk, square or other public place any glass, scrap iron,
nails, tacks, wire, other litter or any offensive matter or
anything likely to injure the feet of individuals or animals or the
tires of vehicles;
(4) To regulate the use of streets, avenues, roads, alleys,
ways, sidewalks, crosswalks and public places belonging to the
municipality, including the naming or renaming thereof, and to consult with local postal authorities, the Division of Highways and
the directors of county emergency communications centers to assure
uniform, nonduplicative addressing on a permanent basis;
(5) To regulate the width of streets, avenues and roads, and,
subject to the provisions of article eighteen of this chapter, to
order the sidewalks, footways and crosswalks to be paved, repaved,
curbed or recurbed and kept in good order, free and clean, by the
owners or occupants thereof or of the real property next adjacent
thereto;
(6) To establish, construct, alter, operate and maintain, or
discontinue, bridges, tunnels and ferries and approaches thereto;
(7) To provide for the construction and maintenance of water
drains, the drainage of swamps or marshlands and drainage systems;
(8) To provide for the construction, maintenance and covering
over of watercourses;
(9) To control and administer the waterfront and waterways of
the municipality and to acquire, establish, construct, operate and
maintain and regulate flood control works, wharves and public
landings, warehouses and all adjuncts and facilities for navigation
and commerce and the utilization of the waterfront and waterways
and adjacent property;
(10) To prohibit the accumulation and require the disposal of
garbage, refuse, debris, wastes, ashes, trash and other similar
accumulations whether on private or public property
: Provided, That, in the event the municipality annexes an area which has been
receiving solid waste collection services from a certificated solid
waste motor carrier, the municipality and the solid waste motor
carrier may negotiate an agreement for continuation of the private
solid waste motor carrier services for a period of time, not to
exceed three years, during which time the certificated solid waste
motor carrier may continue to provide exclusive solid waste
collection services in the annexed territory;
(11) To construct, establish, acquire, equip, maintain and
operate incinerator plants and equipment and all other facilities
for the efficient removal and destruction of garbage, refuse,
wastes, ashes, trash and other similar matters;
(12) To regulate or prohibit the purchase or sale of articles
intended for human use or consumption which are unfit for use or
consumption, or which may be contaminated or otherwise unsanitary;
(13) To prevent injury or annoyance to the public or
individuals from anything dangerous, offensive or unwholesome;
(14) To regulate the keeping of gunpowder and other
combustibles;
(15) To make regulations guarding against danger or damage by
fire;
(16) To arrest, convict and punish any individual for carrying
about his or her person any revolver or other pistol, dirk, bowie
knife, razor, slingshot, billy, metallic or other false knuckles or any other dangerous or other deadly weapon of like kind or
character;
(17) To arrest, convict and punish any person for importing,
printing, publishing, selling or distributing any pornographic
publications;
(18) To arrest, convict and punish any person for keeping a
house of ill fame, or for letting to another person any house or
other building for the purpose of being used or kept as a house of
ill fame, or for knowingly permitting any house owned by him or her
or under his or her control to be kept or used as a house of ill
fame, or for loafing, boarding or loitering in a house of ill fame,
or frequenting same;
(19) To prevent and suppress conduct and practices which are
immoral, disorderly, lewd, obscene and indecent;
(20) To prevent the illegal sale of intoxicating liquors,
drinks, mixtures and preparations;
(21) To arrest, convict and punish any individual for driving
or operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated or under the
influence of liquor, drugs or narcotics;
(22) To arrest, convict and punish any person for gambling or
keeping any gaming tables, commonly called "A, B, C," or "E, O,"
table or faro bank or keno table, or table of like kind, under any
denomination, whether the gaming table be played with cards, dice
or otherwise, or any person who shall be a partner or concerned in interest, in keeping or exhibiting the table or bank, or keeping or
maintaining any gaming house or place, or betting or gambling for
money or anything of value;
(23) To provide for the elimination of hazards to public
health and safety and to abate or cause to be abated anything which
in the opinion of a majority of the governing body is a public
nuisance;
(24) To license, or for good cause to refuse to license in a
particular case, or in its discretion to prohibit in all cases, the
operation of pool and billiard rooms and the maintaining for hire
of pool and billiard tables notwithstanding the general law as to
state licenses for any such business and the provisions of section
four, article thirteen of this chapter; and when the municipality,
in the exercise of its discretion, refuses to grant a license to
operate a pool or billiard room, mandamus may not lie to compel the
municipality to grant the license unless it shall clearly appear
that the refusal of the municipality to grant a license is
discriminatory or arbitrary; and in the event that the municipality
determines to license any business, the municipality has plenary
power and authority and it shall be the duty of its governing body
to make and enforce reasonable ordinances regulating the licensing
and operation of the businesses;
(25) To protect places of divine worship and to preserve peace
and order in and about the premises where held;
(26) To regulate or prohibit the keeping of animals or fowls
and to provide for the impounding, sale or destruction of animals
or fowls kept contrary to law or found running at large;
(27) To arrest, convict and punish any person for cruelly,
unnecessarily or needlessly beating, torturing, mutilating,
killing, or overloading or overdriving or willfully depriving of
necessary sustenance any domestic animal;
(28) To provide for the regular building of houses or other
structures, for the making of division fences by the owners of
adjacent premises and for the drainage of lots by proper drains and
ditches;
(29) To provide for the protection and conservation of shade
or ornamental trees, whether on public or private property, and for
the removal of trees or limbs of trees in a dangerous condition;
(30) To prohibit with or without zoning the location of
occupied house trailers or mobile homes in certain residential
areas;
(31) To regulate the location and placing of signs,
billboards, posters and similar advertising;
(32) To erect, establish, construct, acquire, improve,
maintain and operate a gas system, a waterworks system, an electric
system or sewer system and sewage treatment and disposal system, or
any combination of the foregoing (subject to all of the pertinent
provisions of articles nineteen and twenty of this chapter and particularly to the limitations or qualifications on the right of
eminent domain set forth in articles nineteen and twenty), within
or without the corporate limits of the municipality, except that
the municipality may not erect any system partly without the
corporate limits of the municipality to serve persons already
obtaining service from an existing system of the character proposed
and where the system is by the municipality erected, or has
heretofore been so erected, partly within and partly without the
corporate limits of the municipality, the municipality has the
right to lay and collect charges for service rendered to those
served within and those served without the corporate limits of the
municipality and to prevent injury to the system or the pollution
of the water thereof and its maintenance in a healthful condition
for public use within the corporate limits of the municipality;
(33) To acquire watersheds, water and riparian rights, plant
sites, rights-of-way and any and all other property and
appurtenances necessary, appropriate, useful, convenient or
incidental to any system, waterworks or sewage treatment and
disposal works, as aforesaid, subject to all of the pertinent
provisions of articles nineteen and twenty of this chapter;
(34) To establish, construct, acquire, maintain and operate
and regulate markets and prescribe the time of holding the same;
(35) To regulate and provide for the weighing of articles sold
or for sale;
(36) To establish, construct, acquire, maintain and operate
public buildings, municipal buildings or city halls, Auditoriums,
arenas, jails, juvenile detention centers or homes, motor vehicle
parking lots or any other public works;
(37) To establish, construct, acquire, provide, equip,
maintain and operate recreational parks, playgrounds and other
recreational facilities for public use and in this connection also
to proceed in accordance with the provisions of article two,
chapter ten of this code;
(38) To establish, construct, acquire, maintain and operate a
public library or museum or both for public use;
(39) To provide for the appointment and financial support of
a library board in accordance with the provisions of article one,
chapter ten of this code;
(40) To establish and maintain a public health unit in
accordance with the provisions of section two, article two, chapter
sixteen of this code, which unit shall exercise its powers and
perform its duties subject to the supervision and control of the
West Virginia Board of Health and State Bureau for Public Health;
(41) To establish, construct, acquire, maintain and operate
hospitals, sanitarians and dispensaries;
(42) To acquire, by purchase, condemnation or otherwise, land
within or near the corporate limits of the municipality for
providing and maintaining proper places for the burial of the dead and to maintain and operate the same and regulate interments
therein upon terms and conditions as to price and otherwise as may
be determined by the governing body and, in order to carry into
effect the authority, the governing body may acquire any cemetery
or cemeteries already established;
(43) To exercise general police jurisdiction over any
territory without the corporate limits owned by the municipality or
over which it has a right-of-way;
(44) To protect and promote the public morals, safety, health,
welfare and good order;
(45) To adopt rules for the transaction of business and the
government and regulation of its governing body;
(46) Except as otherwise provided, to require and take bonds
from any officers, when considered necessary, payable to the
municipality, in its corporate name, with such sureties and in a
penalty as the governing body may see fit, conditioned upon the
faithful discharge of their duties;
(47) To require and take from the employees and contractors
such bonds in a penalty, with such sureties and with such
conditions, as the governing body may see fit;
(48) To investigate and inquire into all matters of concern to
the municipality or its inhabitants;
(49) To establish, construct, require, maintain and operate
such instrumentalities, other than free public schools, for the instruction, enlightenment, improvement, entertainment, recreation
and welfare of the municipality's inhabitants as the governing body
may consider necessary or appropriate for the public interest;
(50) To create, maintain and operate a system for the
enumeration, identification and registration, or either, of the
inhabitants of the municipality and visitors thereto, or the
classes thereof as may be considered advisable;
(51) To require owners, residents or occupants of
factory-built homes situated in a factory-built rental home
community with at least ten factory-built homes, to visibly post
the specific numeric portion of the address of each factory-built
home on the immediate premises of the factory-built home of
sufficient size to be visible from the adjoining street:
Provided,
That in the event no numeric or other specific designation of an
address exists for a factory-built home subject to the
authorization granted by this subdivision, the municipality has the
authority to provide a numeric or other specific designation of an
address for the factory-built home and require that it be posted in
accordance with the authority otherwise granted by this section.
(52) To appropriate and expend not exceeding twenty-five cents
per capita per annum for advertising the municipality and the
entertainment of visitors;
(53) To conduct programs to improve community relations and
public relations generally and to expend municipal revenue for such purposes;
(54) To reimburse applicants for employment by the
municipality for travel and other reasonable and necessary expenses
actually incurred by the applicants in traveling to and from the
municipality to be interviewed;
(55) To provide revenue for the municipality and appropriate
the same to its expenses;
(56) To create and maintain an Employee Benefits Fund which
may not exceed one tenth of one percent of the annual payroll
budget for general employee benefits and which is set up for the
purpose of stimulating and encouraging employees to develop and
implement cost-saving ideas and programs and to expend moneys from
the fund for these purposes;
(57) To enter into reciprocal agreements with governmental
subdivisions or agencies of any state sharing a common border for
the protection of people and property from fire and for emergency
medical services and for the reciprocal use of equipment and
personnel for these purposes;
and
(58) To provide penalties for the offenses and violations of
law mentioned in this section, subject to the provisions of section
one, article eleven of this chapter, and such penalties may not
exceed any penalties provided in this chapter and chapter sixty-one
of this code for like offenses and violations;
and
(59) To participate in a purchasing card program for local governments authorized and administered by the State Auditor as an
alternative payment method.
No provision of this section shall apply to the West Virginia
Legislature.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is related to authorizing the
participation of local governments in a purchasing card program to
be administered by the Auditor as chief inspector of public
offices.
§§6-9-2a, 2b, 2c and §7-5-7a are new; therefore,
strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.