Bill Text: VA HB1729 | 2020 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Commonwealth Transportation Board; membership, suburban representation.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-02-11 - Left in Transportation [HB1729 Detail]
Download: Virginia-2020-HB1729-Introduced.html
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That §§33.2-200 and 33.2-201 of the Code of Virginia are amended and reenacted as follows:
§33.2-200. Commonwealth Transportation Board; membership; terms; vacancies.
The Board shall have a total membership of 17 19 members that shall consist
of 14 16
nonlegislative citizen members and three ex officio members as follows: the
Secretary of Transportation, the Commissioner of Highways, and the Director of
the Department of Rail and Public Transportation. The nonlegislative citizen
members shall be appointed by the Governor as provided in §33.2-201, subject
to confirmation by the General Assembly. Appointments of nonlegislative citizen
members shall be for terms of four years commencing on July 1, upon the
expiration of the terms of the existing members, respectively. Vacancies shall
be filled by appointment by the Governor for the unexpired term and shall be
effective until 30 days after the next meeting of the ensuing General Assembly
and, if confirmed, thereafter for the remainder of the term. No nonlegislative
citizen member shall be eligible to serve more than two consecutive four-year
terms. The remainder of any term to which a member is appointed to fill a
vacancy shall not constitute a term in determining that member's eligibility
for reappointment. Ex officio members of the Board shall serve terms coincident
with their terms of office.
The Secretary shall serve as chairman of the Board and shall have voting privileges only in the event of a tie. The senior nonlegislative citizen member shall serve as vice-chairman of the Board and shall preside during the absence of the chairman. In the event that more than one nonlegislative citizen member of the Board may be considered the senior nonlegislative citizen member, the Board shall elect the vice-chairman from such senior nonlegislative citizen members. The Director of the Department of Rail and Public Transportation and the Commissioner of Highways shall not have voting privileges.
§33.2-201. Appointment requirements; statewide interest.
Of the 16 nonlegislative
citizen members appointed to the Board, one member shall be
a resident of the territory now included in the Bristol highway construction
district, one in the Salem highway construction district, one in the Lynchburg
highway construction district, one in the Staunton highway construction
district, one in the Culpeper highway construction district, one in the
Fredericksburg highway construction district, one in the Richmond highway
construction district, one in the Hampton Roads highway construction district,
and one in the Northern Virginia highway construction district. The remaining five seven
members shall be appointed from the Commonwealth at large, provided that at
least two reside in urbanized areas with populations greater than 200,000 and
are designated as urban at-large members and; at least two reside outside
urbanized areas with populations greater than 200,000 and are designated as
rural at-large members; and at least two reside
in suburban areas and are designated as suburban at-large members.
The at-large members shall be appointed to represent suburban,
rural, and
urban transportation needs and to be mindful of the concerns of seaports and
seaport users, airports and airport users, railways and railway users, and mass
transit and mass transit users. Each appointed member of the Board shall be
primarily mindful of the best interest of the Commonwealth at large instead of
the interests of the highway construction district from which chosen or of the
transportation interest represented.
No member of a governing body of a locality shall be eligible, during the term of office for which he was elected or appointed, to serve as an appointed member of the Board.
2. That the provisions of this act shall not affect the term of any current member of the Commonwealth Transportation Board and that the two nonlegislative citizen members added by this act shall be appointed for a term beginning July 1, 2020.