WEST virginia legislature
2020 regular session
Introduced
Senate Bill 64
By Senator Beach
[Introduced January
8, 2020; referred
to the Committee on Government Organization; and then to the Committee on the
Judiciary]
A BILL to amend and reenact §7-3-3 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to expanding county commissions’ ability to dispose of county or district property; and adding the ability of county commissions to dispose of the property to a nonprofit community or senior center organization without conducting a public sale.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
ARTICLE 3. COUNTY PROPERTY.
§7-3-3. Sale of county or district property.
(a) Except as may be
prohibited by law or otherwise, the county commission of a county is authorized
by law to sell or dispose of any property, either real or personal, belonging
to the county or held by it for the use of any district thereof. The property
shall be sold either at an on-site public auction or by utilizing an
Internet-based public auction service, and such the sale shall
be conducted by the president of the county commission, but before making any
such the sale, notice of the time, terms, manner and either the
location of the sale or the Internet-based public auction service to be
utilized, together with a brief description of the property to be sold, shall
be published as a Class II legal advertisement in compliance with the
provisions of §59-3-1 et seq. of this code, and the publication area for
such the publication shall be is the county:
Provided, That this section shall does not apply to the sale of
any one item of property of less value than $1,000.
(b) The provisions of
subsection (a) of this section concerning sale at public auction shall do
not apply to a county commission selling or disposing of its property for a
public use to:
(1) The United States of America, its instrumentalities, agencies or political subdivisions;
(2) The State of West Virginia, or its political subdivisions, including county boards of education, volunteer fire departments, and volunteer ambulance services; or
(3) Any nonprofit community or senior center organization, or any authority, commission, instrumentality, or agency established by act of the State of West Virginia or any of its political subdivisions.
(4) For all sales made pursuant to this subsection, county commissions are not required to exclusively consider the present commercial or market value of the property; and
(5) A sale under the
provisions of this subsection shall may not be for less than $1.
(c) For all real property
conveyed or sold by a county commission to a volunteer fire department,
volunteer ambulance service, or any other authority, commission,
instrumentality, or agency, under the provisions of subsection (b) of this
section, such the real property shall revert back to the county
commission if the volunteer fire department, volunteer ambulance service,
authority, commission, instrumentality, or agency proposes to dispose of the
property, unless the county commission explicitly disclaims this reversionary
right in writing in the deed of conveyance.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to expand county commissions’ ability to dispose of county or district property to a nonprofit community or senior center organization without conducting a public sale.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.