WEST virginia Legislature
2017 regular session
By
[
Referred to Political Subdivisions then the Judiciary.
A BILL to amend and
reenact §7-1-14 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended; and to amend
and reenact §8-12-5 of said code, all relating to prohibiting counties and
municipalities from adopting ordinances or regulations that base restrictions
on the breed of a dog.
Be it enacted by the
Legislature of West Virginia:
That §7-1-14 of the
Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted; and that §8-12-5
of said code be amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
CHAPTER
7. COUNTY COMMISSIONS AND OFFICERS.
Article 1. COUNTY
COMMISSIONS GENERALLY.
§7-1-14. Custody and
care of animals abandoned, neglected or cruelly treated; animals causing public
nuisance, health risk or safety hazard; authority of county commission.
(a)
Notwithstanding any provision of this code to the contrary, any county
commission may adopt ordinances, rules and regulations providing for the
custody and care of animals that have been abandoned, neglected or cruelly
treated for the protection of any such animal and to prevent it from becoming a
public nuisance or risk to public health or safety or the environment.
(b) Any
such ordinance, rule or regulation may require each owner to provide for each
of his or her animals:
(1)
Adequate food which provides sufficient quantity and nutritive value to
maintain each animal in good health;
(2)
Adequate water which provides easy access to clean, fresh, potable water of a
drinkable temperature in sufficient volume and suitable intervals to maintain
normal hydration for each animal;
(3)
Adequate shelter to protect the animal from the elements and other animals;
(4)
Adequate space in the primary enclosure for the particular animal depending
upon its age, size, species and weight which is regularly cleaned to prevent an
unsanitary accumulation of urine and feces;
(5)
Adequate exercise to assure that the animal maintains normal muscle tone and
mass for the age, species, size and condition of the animal; and
(6)
Veterinary care when needed or to prevent suffering or disease transmission.
(c) Any
such ordinance, rule or regulation may limit the number of animals owned, kept
or maintained by an individual, group or organization, whether public or
private based on the person's ability to provide for the animals as set forth in
subsection (b) of this section: Provided, That no such ordinance, rule or regulation may create
restrictions based on the breed of a dog.
(d) Any
such ordinance, rule or regulation shall provide appropriate penalties for
violations and shall authorize humane officers to take possession of any animal
that is not properly cared for as required by such ordinance, rule or
regulation.
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: Provided, That with respect to any firearm a
municipality may only arrest, convict and punish someone if they are in
violation of an ordinance authorized by subsection five-a of this article, a
state law proscribing certain conduct with a firearm or applicable federal law;
(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: Provided,
That an ordinance or regulation may not make restrictions based on the breed of
a dog;
(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;
(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.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is
to prohibit municipalities and counties from enacting ordinances or regulations
that base restrictions on the breed of a dog.
Strike-throughs indicate language
that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring
indicates new language that would be added.