ENGROSSED
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 505
(By Senators Bowman, Jenkins, Bailey and Plymale)
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[Originating in the Committee on Government Organization;
reported February 26, 2003.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section eleven, article fifteen,
chapter eight of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to municipal fire
chiefs; and authorizing retention of rank attained during
service as fire chief when tenure as fire chief ends.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section eleven, article fifteen, chapter eight of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 15. FIRE FIGHTING; FIRE COMPANIES AND DEPARTMENTS; CIVIL
SERVICE FOR PAID FIRE DEPARTMENTS.
PART IV. CIVIL SERVICE FOR PAID FIRE DEPARTMENTS.
§8-15-11. Qualifications for appointment or promotion to positions
in paid fire departments to be ascertained by
examination; provisions exclusive as to appointments, etc.; rights of certain chiefs; "appointing officer"
defined.
(a) All appointments and promotions to all positions in all
paid fire departments 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
shall may be appointed, promoted, reinstated,
removed, discharged, suspended or reduced in rank or pay as a paid
member of any paid fire department, regardless of rank or position,
in any manner or by any means other than those prescribed in
the
following sections of this article:
Provided, That in all
municipalities in which the office of fire chief of a paid fire
department was not covered by the provisions of former article six-
a of this chapter on the first day of January, one thousand nine
hundred forty-nine,
such the office in
such the municipality shall
be excepted from the civil service provisions of
this article
fifteen
of this chapter, until
such the time
as the governing body
of
said the municipality shall, by appropriate ordinance or
resolution adopted by a majority of its members, elect to place the
office of fire chief under the civil service provisions of this
article.
(c) but until Until the office of
any such fire chief is placed
under the civil service provisions of this article by
said the
governing body,
as aforesaid, the member of any
such paid fire department now occupying such office or hereafter appointed to such
office shall in all cases of removal, except for removal for good
cause,
revert to retain the status he
or she held in
such the paid
fire department at the time of his
or her appointment to the office
of
such fire chief
or which he or she attained during his or her
term as fire chief.
(d) The term "appointing officer" as used in
the following
sections of this article shall
be construed to mean the municipal
officer in whom the power of appointment of members of a paid fire
department is vested by charter provision or ordinance of the
municipality.
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