Bill Text: WV HB2580 | 2021 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Mandating judgment by a mayor, any individual exercising the mayor’s functions, the police court judge, or municipal judge be obligated to the Model Rules of Judicial Conduct
Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Republican 9-2)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2021-02-17 - To House Political Subdivisions [HB2580 Detail]
Download: West_Virginia-2021-HB2580-Introduced.html
WEST virginia legislature
2021 regular session
Introduced
House Bill 2580
By Delegates Nestor, McGeehan, Ferrell, Fast, Lovejoy, Longanacre, Kimes, Fluharty, D. Kelly, Jennings and Queen
[Introduced February 17, 2021; Referred to the Committee on Political Subdivisions then the Judiciary]
A BILL to amend and reenact §8-11-1 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to ensuring that municipal officers adhere to the Model Rules of Judicial Conduct, to provide a means by which the integrity of the judicial system of the state is preserved, and to ensure that the constitutional rights of all people will be adequately protected by all courts of this state.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
Article 11. POWERS AND DUTIES WITH RESPECT TO ORDINANCES AND ORDINANCE PROCEDURES.
§8-11-1. Ordinances to make municipal powers effective; penalties imposed under judgment of mayor or police court or municipal judge; right to injunctive relief; right to maintain action to collect fines; additional assessment of costs.
(a) To carry into effect the powers and authority conferred upon any municipality or its governing body by the provisions of this chapter, or any past or future act of the Legislature of this state, the governing body has plenary power and authority to:
(1) Make and pass all needful ordinances, orders, bylaws, acts, resolutions, rules and regulations not contrary to the Constitution and laws of this state; and
(2) Prescribe reasonable
penalties for violation of its ordinances, orders, bylaws, acts, resolutions,
rules and regulations, in the form of fines, forfeitures and confinement in the
county or regional jail or the place of confinement in the municipality,
if there is one, for a term not exceeding 30 days.
(b) The fines, forfeitures and confinement shall be recovered, imposed or enforced under the judgment of the mayor of the municipality or the individual lawfully exercising the mayor’s functions, or the police court judge or municipal court judge of a city, if there is one, and may be suspended upon reasonable conditions as may be imposed by the mayor, other authorized individual or judge.
(c) Any mayor, any individual exercising the mayor’s functions, any police court judge, or any municipal judge of a city who engages in the exacting of fines, the levying of forfeitures, or who orders the incarceration of persons for violations of the municipality’s ordinances, orders, bylaws, acts, resolutions, rules or regulations shall conform to the Model Rules of Judicial Conduct as set forth by the Supreme Court of Appeals of this state.
(c) (d) Any municipality may also maintain a civil
action in the name of the municipality in the circuit court of the county in
which the municipality or the major portion of the territory of the
municipality is located to obtain an injunction to compel compliance with, or
to enjoin a violation or threatened violation of, any ordinance of the
municipality, and the circuit court has jurisdiction to grant the relief
sought. A certified transcript of a judgment for a fine rendered by a municipal
court may be filed in the office of the clerk of a circuit court and docketed
in the judgment lien book kept in the office of the clerk of the county
commission in the same manner and with the same effect as the filing and
docketing of a certified transcript of judgment rendered by a magistrate court
as provided for in §50-6-2 of this code. The judgment shall include costs
assessed against the defendant.
(d) (e) In addition to any other costs which may
be lawfully imposed, an additional cost shall be imposed in an amount of not
less than $42 for a traffic offense constituting a moving violation, regardless
of whether the penalty for the violation provides for a period of
incarceration, and for any other offense for which the ordinance prescribing
the offense provides for a period of incarceration. Of the $42 imposed as an
additional cost, $2 are administrative costs to be retained by the
municipality, and $40 shall be paid into the regional jail and correctional
facility development fund in the State Treasury in accordance with section
one-a of this article.
(e) (f) Execution shall be by fieri facias issued by the
clerk of the circuit court in the same manner as writs are issued on judgments
for a fine rendered by circuit courts or other courts of record under the
provisions of §62-4-11 of this code.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to add language mandating that any judgment by a mayor, any individual exercising the mayor’s functions, the police court judge, or municipal judge of city be obligated to the Model Rules of Judicial Conduct.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.