H. B. 2069
(By Delegate Fragale)
[Introduced February 13, 1997; referred to the
Committee on Political Subdivisions then the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend chapter seven of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, by adding
thereto a new article, designated article fourteen-d,
relating to establishing civil service for the sheriff's
process servers in each county; and providing for criminal
penalties for violations of article.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That chapter seven of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended by
adding thereto a new article, designated article fourteen-d, to
read as follows:
ARTICLE 14D. CIVIL SERVICE FOR SHERIFF'S PROCESS SERVERS.
§7-14D-1. Appointments and promotions of sheriff's process servers.
Notwithstanding the provisions of article seven, chapter
seven of this code, all appointments and promotions of full-time
process server employees, as defined in section two of this
article, in the offices of sheriffs of counties of twenty-five
thousand population or more, may be made only according to
qualifications and fitness to be ascertained by examinations,
which, so far as practicable, shall be competitive, as
hereinafter provided. On and after the effective date of this
article, no person may be appointed, promoted, reinstated,
removed, discharged, suspended or reduced in status or pay as a
full-time process server employee, as defined in said section
two, of any county in the state of West Virginia subject to the
provisions hereof, in any manner or by any means other than those
prescribed in this article.
§7-14D-2. Definitions; population.
(a) For the purpose of this article:
(1) "Appointing officer" or "appointing sheriff" means the sheriff of the county in which the appointment of a process
server employee shall be made pursuant to this article; and
(2) "Process server employee" means persons appointed by a
sheriff whose sole duties as such process server employee are
within the scope of active operation and management of the
service of all types of civil process for the sheriff.
(b) For the purpose of this article, population shall be
determined by reference to the last preceding census taken under
the authority of the United States or of the Legislature of West
Virginia.
§7-14D-3. Civil service commission.
The civil service commission appointed in each county for
correctional officers under section three, article fourteen-b of
this chapter, shall be the designated civil service commission
for process server employees with like powers and duties as are
hereinafter set forth.
§7-14D-4. Clerk of commission.
The clerk of the county commission shall be ex officio clerk
of the civil service commission and shall supply to the
commission all necessary clerical and stenographic services for the work of the civil service commission.
§7-14D-5.
Office and supplies for commission; appropriations
required.
It shall be the duty of the county commission of every
county to cause suitable and convenient rooms and accommodations
to be assigned and provided, furnished, heated and lighted for
carrying on the work and examinations of the civil service
commission. The civil service commission may order from the
proper authorities the necessary stationery, postage stamps,
official seal and other articles to be supplied, and the
necessary printing to be done, for its official use. It shall
be the duty of the county commission and other county officials
of every county to aid the civil service commission in all proper
ways in carrying out the provisions of this article, and to allow
the reasonable use of public buildings, and to heat and light the
same, for holding examinations and investigations and in all
proper ways to facilitate the same.
The county commission of each county is hereby required to
appropriate sufficient funds for the purpose of carrying out the
provisions of this article.
§7
-14D-6. Powers and duties of commission.
The civil service commission in each county shall:
(a) Promulgate and enforce rules for carrying into effect
the provisions of this article. All rules so prescribed may,
from time to time, be added to, amended or rescinded.
(b) Keep minutes of its own proceedings and records of its
examinations and other official actions. All recommendations of
applicants for the position of process server employee received
by the commission or by the sheriff shall be kept and preserved
for a period of ten years, and all records, recommendations of
former employees excepted, and all written causes of removal,
filed with the commission, shall, subject to reasonable rules,
be open to public inspection.
(c) Make investigations, either sitting as a body or through
a single commissioner, concerning all matters touching the
enforcement and effect of the provisions of this article and the
rules promulgated hereunder or concerning the action of any
examiner or subordinate of the commission or any person in the
public service with respect to the execution of this article;
and, in the course of such investigations, each commissioner shall have the power to administer oaths and affirmations and to
take testimony.
(d) Have power to subpoena and require the attendance of
witnesses and the production of books and papers pertinent to the
investigations and inquiries herein authorized, and examine them
and the public records as it shall require in relation to any
matter which it has the authority to investigate. The fee of the
witness for attendance and travel shall be the same as for
witnesses before the circuit courts of this state and shall be
paid from the appropriation for the incidental expenses of the
commission. All officers in the public service and their
deputies, clerks, subordinates and employees shall attend and
testify when required to do so by the commission. Any
disobedience to, or neglect of, any subpoena issued by the
commissioners, or any one of them, to any person, shall be held
a contempt of court, and shall be punished by the circuit court
of the county in which the civil service commission is located,
or the judge thereof in vacation, as if the subpoena has been
issued by the court. The judge of the circuit court shall, upon
the application of any one commissioner, in any case, cause the process of that court to issue to compel any person or persons
disobeying or neglecting any subpoena to appear and to give
testimony and produce evidence before the commissioner, or any
one of them, and shall have the power to punish any contempt.
(e) Prepare a position classification and promotion plan.
(f) Make an annual report to the county commission and
sheriff showing its own actions, its rules, including all
exceptions thereto in force, and the practical effects thereof,
and any suggestions it may have for the more effectual
accomplishment of the purposes of this article. The report shall
be available for public inspection five days after it has been
delivered to the county commission and sheriff.
§7-14D-7. Rules of commission; notice and distribution thereof;
probationary period for appointees.
The civil service commission in each county shall promulgate
rules providing for competitive examinations for the position of
process server employee in each county subject to the provisions
of this article, for appointments to the position of process
server employee and for promotions and for other matters as are
necessary to carry out the purposes of this article. Due notice of the contents of all rules and of any modifications thereof
shall be given, by mail, in due season to the appointing officer,
and rules and any modifications thereof shall also be printed for
public distribution. All original appointments on and after the
effective date of this article to any position of process server
employee in any county subject to the provisions of this article
shall be for a probationary period of one year but at any time
during the probationary period the probationer may be discharged
for just cause in the manner provided in section seventeen of
this article. If, at the close of this probationary period, the
conduct or capacity of the probationer has not been satisfactory
to the appointing sheriff, the probationer shall be notified, in
writing, that the probationer will not receive absolute
appointment, whereupon the probationer's employment shall cease;
otherwise, the probationer's retention in the position of process
server employee beyond the probationary term shall be equivalent
to the probationer's absolute appointment.
§7-14D-8. Form of application; age requirements; exceptions.
The civil service commission in each county shall require
persons applying for admission to any competitive examination provided for under this article or under the rules of the
commission to file in its office, within a reasonable time prior
to the proposed competitive examination a formal application in
which the applicant shall state under oath or affirmation:
(a) The applicant's full name, residence and post-office
address;
(b) The applicant's United States citizenship, age and the
place and date of applicant's birth;
(c) The applicant's health and physical capacity for the
position of process server employee;
(d) The applicant's business, employments and residences for
at least three previous years; and
(e) The other information as may reasonably be required,
relative to the applicant's qualifications and fitness for the
position of process server employee.
Blank forms for the applications shall be furnished by the
commission, without charge, to all persons requesting the same.
The commission may require, in connection with the application,
certificates of citizens, or others, having pertinent knowledge
concerning the applicant, as the good of the service may require.
No application for original appointment shall be considered
on and after the effective date of this article, if the person
applying is less than eighteen years of age or more than
fifty-five years of age at the date of his or her application.
§7-14D-9.
Character and notice of competitive examinations;
qualifications of applicants; competitive
examinations to be prescribed by state civil
service commission; posting eligible list;
exceptions as to and training of process server
employees serving on effective date of article.
All competitive examinations for appointments or promotions
to all positions of process server employee shall be practical in
their character, and shall relate to such matters, and include
such inquiries, as will fairly and fully test the comparative
merit and fitness of the person or persons examined to discharge
the duties of the position sought by him or her. The state civil
service commission shall prepare and prescribe, from time to
time, the competitive examination to be given by the civil
service commission of each county. All competitive examinations
shall be open to all applicants who have fulfilled the preliminary requirements specified in other sections of this
article.
Adequate public notice of the date, time and place of every
competitive examination held under the provisions of this
article, together with information as to the position to be
filled, shall be given at least two weeks prior to the
competitive examination. The commission shall post, in a public
place at its office, the eligible list, containing the names and
grades of those who have passed the competitive examinations for
positions as process server employee, under this article, and
shall indicate thereon appointments as may be made from the list.
All process server employees who are employed as process
server employees on the effective date of this article, shall be
considered to have been appointed under the provisions of this
article without regard to their age, and without competitive
examination. The civil service commission shall, however,
establish or prescribe a training program for process server
employees who are employed as such on the effective date of this
article, giving due consideration to available training personnel
and programs. The process server employees shall attend any training program so established and certified by the West
Virginia state tax department.
However, persons who have: (1) Completed a basic tax course
or accounting course or equivalent within the past three years
prior to appointment; or (2) who have been employed as a process
server employee for the sheriff for three years out of the last
five years prior to appointment may be certified as a process
server employee without basic training if in the judgment of the
commission such persons are otherwise qualified.
§7-14D-10. Refusal to examine or certify; review thereof.
The commission may refuse to examine an applicant, or after
examination to certify as eligible, one who is found to lack any
of the established preliminary requirements for the examination
or position of process server employee for which the applicant
applies; or who is addicted to the habitual use of intoxicating
liquors or drugs; or who has been convicted of a felony; or who
has been guilty of infamous or notoriously disgraceful conduct;
or who has been dismissed from public service for delinquency or
misconduct; or who has made a false statement of any material
fact, or practiced or attempted to practice any deception or fraud in his or her application, in any examination, or in
securing his or her eligibility; or who refuses to comply with
the rules of the commission.
If any applicant feels aggrieved by the action of the
commission in refusing to examine the applicant, or after
examination in refusing to certify the applicant as eligible, the
commission shall, at the request of the applicant, appoint a
date, time and place for a public hearing, at which time the
applicant may appear, by himself or herself or by counsel or in
person and with counsel, and the commission shall then review its
refusal to make the examination or certification, and testimony
shall be taken. The commission shall subpoena any competent
witnesses requested by the applicant. After the review, the
commission shall file in its records the testimony taken and
shall make and record findings of fact and therefrom make a
decision by written order, which decision shall be subject to
judicial review in the circuit court of the county wherein the
commission sits. Under no circumstances may the provisions of
this article be construed, in the case of a refusal to examine an
applicant for promotion or to certify an applicant as eligible for promotion, as depriving the applicant of his or her right to
seek a writ of mandamus, if the application for the writ is made
within twenty days from the date of the order following the
hearing, refusing to examine or to certify the applicant as
eligible for promotion.
§7-14D-11. Appointments from eligible list.
On and after the effective date of this article, every
position of process server employee, unless filled by promotion,
reinstatement or reduction, shall be filled only in the manner
specified in this section. The appointing sheriff shall notify
the civil service commission of any vacancy in a position of
process server employee which the sheriff desires to fill, and
shall request the certification of persons eligible. The
commission shall forthwith certify, from the eligible list, the
names of the three persons thereon who received the highest
averages at preceding competitive examinations held under the
provisions of this article within a period of three years next
preceding the date of the prospective appointment. The
appointing sheriff shall, thereupon, with sole reference to the
relative merit and fitness of the candidates, make an appointment from the three names so certified. However, should he or she
make objection to the commission to one or more of these persons
for any of the reasons stated in section ten of this article,
and should the objection be sustained by the commission after a
public hearing along the lines of the hearing provided for in
said section ten of this article, if any hearing is requested,
the commission shall thereupon strike the name of that person
from the eligible list, and certify the next highest name for
each person so stricken. As each subsequent vacancy occurs, in
the same or another position, precisely the same procedure shall
be followed, but after any name has been three times rejected for
the same or another position in favor of a name or names below it
on the same list, the name shall be stricken from the list. When
there are a number of positions of the same kind to be filled at
the same time, each appointment shall, nevertheless, be made
separately and in accordance with the foregoing provisions. When
an appointment is made under the provisions of this section, it
shall be, in the first instance, for the probationary period of
twelve months, as provided in section seven of this article.
§7-14D-12. Noncompetitive examination for filling vacancy; provisional appointment.
Whenever there are urgent reasons for filling a vacancy in
any position for process server employee and there is no list of
persons eligible for appointment after a competitive examination,
the appointing sheriff may nominate a person to the civil service
commission for noncompetitive examination; and if the nominee is
certified by the commission as qualified, after the
noncompetitive examination, the nominee may be appointed
provisionally to fill that vacancy until a selection and
appointment can be made after competitive examination in the
manner prescribed in section eleven of this article; but the
provisional appointment may not continue for a longer period than
three months, nor may successive provisional appointments be made
to the same position, under the provisions of this section.
§7-14D-13. Vacancies filled by promotions; eligibility for
promotion.
Vacancies in positions of process server employee on and
after the effective date of this article, shall be filled, so far
as practicable by promotion from among persons holding positions
in the next lower grade. Promotions shall be based upon merit and fitness to be ascertained by competitive examinations to be
provided by the civil service commission and upon the superior
qualifications of the persons promoted, as shown by their
previous service and experience. However, no person shall be
eligible for promotion from the lower grade to the next higher
grade until that person shall have completed at least two years'
service in the next lower grade.
§7-14D-14.No inquiry shall be made concerning political or
religious opinions or affiliations of applicants, etc.
No question in any form of application or in or during any
examination shall be so framed as to elicit information
concerning the political or religious opinions or affiliations
of any applicant; nor shall inquiry be made concerning the
opinions or affiliations; and all disclosures thereof shall be
discountenanced. No discrimination shall be exercised,
threatened or promised by any person in the sheriff's office
against, or in favor of, an applicant, eligible process server
employee in the office of any sheriff of any county subject to
the provisions of this article because of his or her political or religious opinions or affiliations.
§7-14D-15. Political activity of process server employees
prohibited; petition for vacating appointment;
action on petition; appeal.
(a) On and after the effective date of this article, no
process server employee covered by the provisions of this article
shall act as an election official in any municipal, county or
state election, or engage in any political activity of any kind,
character or nature whatsoever, except to cast his or her vote at
any election. Any process server employee violating the
provisions of this section shall have his or her appointment
vacated and shall be removed, in accordance with the pertinent
provisions of this section.
(b) Any three residents of the county may file their written
petition with the civil service commission thereof setting out
therein the grounds upon which a process server employee of the
county should be removed for a violation of subsection (a) of
this section. Notice of the filing of the petition shall be
given by the commission to the accused process server employee,
which notice shall require the accused to file a written answer to the charges set out in the petition within thirty days of the
date of the notice. The petition and answer thereto, if any,
shall be entered upon the records of the civil service
commission. If the answer is not filed within the time stated,
or any extension thereof for cause which in the discretion of the
civil service commission may be granted, an order shall be
entered by the commission declaring the appointment of the
process server employee vacated. If the answer is filed within
the time stated, or any extension thereof for cause which in the
discretion of the civil service commission may be granted, the
accused process server employee may demand within that period a
public hearing on the charges, or the civil service commission
may, in its discretion and without demand therefor, set a date
and time for a public hearing on the charges which hearing shall
be within thirty days of the filing of said answer, subject,
however, to any continuances which may in the discretion of the
civil service commission be granted. A written record of all
testimony taken at the hearing shall be made, kept and preserved
by the civil service commission, which record shall be sealed and
not be open to public inspection if no appeal be taken from the action of the commission. The commission, at the conclusion of
the hearing, or as soon thereafter as possible, but not later
than fifteen days, make findings of fact, and shall enter an
order setting forth its findings and decision. In the event that
charges are sustained, the order shall also declare the
appointment of the process server employee to be vacated and
thereupon the sheriff shall immediately remove the process server
employee from his or her office and from the payroll of the
county. Notice of the action of the commission shall be given by
registered letter to the process server employee, county
commission and the sheriff. If the sheriff fails to immediately
comply with the order of the commission, the sheriff shall be
punished for contempt, upon application of the commission to the
circuit court of the county.
(c) An appeal from the ruling of the commission may be had in
the same manner and within the same time as specified in section
seventeen of this article for an appeal from a ruling of a
commission after hearing held in accordance with the provisions
of this section and section seventeen.
§7-14D-16.
Removal, discharge, suspension or reduction in rank or pay; appeal; reduction in force; mandatory
retirement age.
(a) On and after the effective date of this article, no
process server employee of any county shall be removed,
discharged, suspended or reduced in rank or pay except for just
cause, which shall not be religious or political, except as
provided in section fifteen of this article; and no process
server employee shall on and after the effective date of this
article, be removed, discharged, suspended or reduced except as
provided in this article and in no event until the process server
employee has been furnished with a written statement of the
reasons for the action. In every case of removal, discharge,
suspension or reduction, a copy of the statement of reasons
therefor and of the written answer thereto, if the process server
employee sought to be removed, discharged, suspended or reduced
desires to file the written answer, shall be furnished to the
civil service commission and entered upon its records. If the
process server employee sought to be removed, discharged,
suspended or reduced shall demand it, the civil service
commission shall grant him or her a public hearing, which shall be held within a period of ten days from the filing of the
charges in writing or the written answer thereto, whichever shall
last occur. At the hearing the burden shall be upon the
removing, discharging, suspending or reducing sheriff,
hereinafter in this section referred to as "removing sheriff," to
justify his or her action, and in the event the removing sheriff
fails to justify his or her action before the commission, then
the process server employee removed, discharged, suspended or
reduced shall be reinstated with full pay, forthwith and without
any additional order, for the entire period during which the
process server employee may have been prevented from performing
his or her usual employment, and no charges shall be officially
recorded against the process server employee's record. The
process server employee, if reinstated or exonerated, shall, if
represented by legal counsel, be awarded an attorney fee of no
more than two hundred fifty dollars by the commission and paid by
the removing sheriff from county funds. The commission shall
make findings of fact and a written record of all testimony shall
be taken at the hearing and be kept and preserved by the civil
service commission, which record shall be sealed and not be open to public inspection, if no appeal be taken from the action of
the commission.
(b) In the event that the civil service commission shall
sustain the action of the removing sheriff, the process server
employee removed, discharged, suspended or reduced on or after
the effective date of this article, shall have an immediate right
of appeal to the circuit court of the county where employed. In
the event that the commission shall reinstate the process server
employee removed, discharged, suspended or reduced, the removing
sheriff shall have an immediate right of appeal to the circuit
court. Any appeal must be taken within ninety days from the date
of entry by the civil service commission, of its final order.
Upon an appeal being taken and docketed with the clerk of the
circuit court of the county, the circuit court shall proceed to
hear the appeal upon the original record made before the
commission and no additional proof shall be permitted to be
introduced, unless justice shall require it. The circuit court's
decision shall be final, but the process server employee or
removing sheriff, as the case may be, against whom the decision
of the circuit court is rendered shall have the right to petition the supreme court of appeals for a review of the circuit court's
decision as in other civil cases. The process server employee or
removing sheriff shall also have the right, where appropriate, to
seek in lieu of an appeal, a writ of mandamus. The process
server employee, if reinstated or exonerated by the circuit court
shall, if represented by legal counsel, be awarded an attorney
fee of five hundred dollars, and if reinstated or exonerated by
the supreme court of appeals, shall be awarded an attorney fee of
seven hundred fifty dollars, and those fees shall be paid by the
removing sheriff from county funds. The aggregate amount of
attorney fees awarded by the commission, the circuit court and
the supreme court of appeals, shall not exceed one thousand five
hundred dollars for any member litigant.
(c) The removing sheriff and the process server employee
sought to be removed, discharged, suspended or reduced shall at
all times, both before the civil service commission and upon
appeal, be given the right to employ counsel to represent them.
(d) If for reasons of economy or other reasons it shall, on
and after the effective date of this article, be deemed necessary
by any appointing sheriff to reduce the number of the sheriff's process server employees, the sheriff shall follow the procedure
set forth in this subsection. The reduction in the numbers of
process server employees of the county shall be effected by
suspending the last person or persons, including probationers,
who have been appointed as process server employees. In the
event the number of process server employees shall again be
increased in numbers to the strength existing prior to the
reduction of process server employees, the process server
employees suspended under the terms of this subsection shall
first be reinstated in the inverse order of their suspension,
before any new appointments of process server employees in the
county shall be made.
(e) Notwithstanding any other provision of this article, no
process server employee in any county subject to the provisions
of this article shall, on or after the effective date of this
article, serve as a process server employee in any county subject
to the provisions of this article after he or she attains the age
of sixty-five.
§7-14D-17. Vacations for process server employees.
The county commission of each county shall allow the process server employee in its employ vacation time accrued in the
following manner: For process server employees with less than
five years of service, vacation time shall be accrued at the rate
of one and one-quarter days for each calendar month of service;
for process server employees with five to ten years of service,
vacation time shall be accrued at the rate of one and one-half
days for each calendar month of service; for process server
employees with ten to fifteen years of service, vacation time
shall be accrued at the rate of one and three-quarters days for
each calendar month of service; and for process server employees
with fifteen or more years of service, vacation time shall be
accrued at the rate of two days for each calendar month of
service.
Each process server employee shall only receive vacation
time for each month in which he or she may have worked one hour
more than one half the normal working hours in a given month as
prescribed by the sheriff.
Accrued vacation time may be carried forward from one
calendar year to the next.
§7-14D-18. Sick leave.
(a) The county commission of each county shall allow the
process server employee sick leave with pay to be computed as
follows: Process server employees shall be entitled to one and
one-half days sick leave for each calendar month worked, or
greater part thereof.
(b) Sick leave shall be granted only when illness on the
part of or injury to the process server employee incapacitates
the process server employee for duty, but the sheriff of the
county in which the process server employee is employed may have
the authority to require the process server employee to produce
a statement from an attending physician for each day of sick
leave beyond three days. This statement shall include dates of
treatment and also state that the process server employee was
unable to work. In the absence of the required physician's
statement, annual leave shall be charged for the entire period.
(c) Process server employees may accumulate yearly sick
leave in accordance with policy to be established by the county
commission.
(d) In the event of illness, a process server employee may
take emergency sick leave without pay after all accrued sick leave, annual leave and compensatory time available to the
full-time process server employee has been exhausted, but the
total number of days sick leave and emergency sick leave used
during the illness may not exceed the total number of days of
sick leave which may be accumulated under the provisions of
subsection (c) of this section by any process server employee
with the same number of years of service.
§7-14D-19. Offenses and penalties.
Any person who makes an appointment or promotion to any
position, or selects a person for employment, contrary to the
provisions of this article, or willfully refuses or neglects
otherwise to comply with, or to conform to, any of the provisions
of this article, or violates any of the provisions, is guilty of
a misdemeanor.
Any commissioner or examiner, or any other person, who
willfully, individually or in cooperation with one or more
persons, defeats, deceives or obstructs any person with respect
to that person's right of examination or registration according
to this article, or to any rules promulgated pursuant thereto, or
who willfully or corruptly, falsely marks, grades, estimates or reports upon examination or proper standing of any person so
examined, registered, or certified, pursuant to the provisions of
this article, or aid in so doing, or who willfully or corruptly
furnishes to any person any special or secret information,
for the purpose of either improving or injuring the prospects or
chances of appointment or promotion to any position of person
so examined, registered or certified, or to be so examined,
registered or certified; or who impersonates any other person,
or permits or aids in any manner any other person to impersonate
him or her, in connection with any examination or registration,
or application or request to be examined or registered, is, for
each offense, guilty of a misdemeanor.
Any person convicted of any such misdemeanor offense shall
be fined not less than fifty nor more than one thousand dollars,
or imprisoned in the county jail not more than one year, or both
fined and imprisoned.
§7-14D-20.
County commission of counties with a population of
less than twenty-five thousand may place process server employees under civil service; protest and election with respect thereto.
The county commission of any county having a population of
less than twenty-five thousand may by order entered of record
provide that the provision of this article providing civil
service for process server employees shall apply to the county on
and after the effective date of this article. A copy of the
order, together with a notice advising the qualified voters of
the county of their right to protest the placing of process
server employees of the county under civil service, shall be
published as a Class II-0 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 county.
In the event fifteen percent of the qualified voters of the
county protest the order, by petition duly signed by them in
their own handwriting (which petition may be signed in any number
of counterparts) and filed with the county clerk of the county
within sixty days after publication of the copy and notice, the
order may not become effective unless and until it is ratified by
a majority of the legal votes cast with respect to the question
of civil service coverage for the process server employees of the
county by the qualified voters of the county at a regular or special election. Any election shall be conducted and
superintended and the results thereof ascertained as provided by
law for regular or special elections, as the case may be.
Whenever the process server employees of any county are
placed under civil service pursuant to the provisions of this
section, the civil service system for the process server
employees of the county shall thereupon become mandatory and all
of the provisions of this article shall apply to the process
server employees of the county with like effect as if thatsaid county
had a population of twenty-five thousand or more.
§7-14D-21.Inconsistent acts repealed; once established civil
service remains mandatory.
All acts and parts of acts of the Legislature, whether
general, special or local, in relation to process server
employees inconsistent with the provisions of this article shall
be, and the same are, hereby repealed to the extent of the
inconsistency.
Any civil service system for process server employees in any
county with a population of twenty-five thousand or more shall
remain mandatory and shall be governed by the provisions of this article even if the population of the county shall at any time
decrease below twenty-five thousand.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to establish civil
service for county sheriffs' process servers.
This is a new article; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.