2023 -- S 0197

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2023

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A N   A C T

RELATING TO WATERS AND NAVIGATION -- COASTAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

COUNCIL

     Introduced By: Senators Sosnowski, Miller, Ujifusa, Euer, DiMario, McKenney, and
Valverde

     Date Introduced: February 16, 2023

     Referred To: Senate Environment & Agriculture

     It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:

     SECTION 1. Section 46-23-2 of the General Laws in Chapter 46-23 entitled "Coastal

Resources Management Council" is hereby amended to read as follows:

     46-23-2. Coastal resources management council created — Appointment of members.

     (a) There is hereby created the coastal resources management council. The coastal

resources management council shall consist of ten (10) members. Nine (9) members shall be

appointed by the governor, with advice and consent of the senate, and one member shall serve ex

officio. All current appointments to the coastal resources management council made by the

governor with advice and consent of the senate are hereby validated and ratified and those

appointees shall serve for the remainder of their term.

     (1) Six (6) of the members shall be appointed or elected officials of local government: three

(3) of whom shall be appointed or elected officials in a municipality of fewer than twenty-five

thousand (25,000) in population, three (3) of whom shall be appointed or elected officials in a

municipality of more than twenty-five thousand (25,000) in population. The populations are to be

determined by the latest federal census. Elected or appointed municipal officials shall hold seats on

the council only so long as they remain in their elected or appointed office. Each municipal

appointment shall cease if the appointed or elected official shall no longer hold or change the office

which they held upon appointment. At least five (5) out of the six (6) appointed or elected members

must be appointed or elected in a coastal municipality. When the governor submits his or her

appointments to the senate for advice and consent, the governor shall specify the appointed or

elected office that each municipal appointment holds; the population of the municipality

represented; and the member being replaced.

     (2) Three (3) members shall be appointed by the governor from the public, with the advice

and consent of the senate, one of the public members shall be a representative from Save the Bay,

one shall be an active, licensed fisher that receives at least fifty percent (50%) of their income from

landings, and one shall be from an organization representing developers, one of the public members

and his or her successors shall reside in a coastal municipality.

     (3) All members shall serve until their successors are appointed and qualified; during the

month of January, the governor shall appoint, with the advice and consent of the senate, a member

to succeed the members whose term will then next expire for a term of three (3) years commencing

on the first day of February next following and until their successor is named and qualified. A

member shall be eligible for successive appointments. No more than two (2) persons on the council

shall be from the same municipality. A vacancy other than by expiration shall be filled in the

manner of the original appointment but only for the unexpired portion of the term.

     (4) The director of the department of environmental management, or their designee, shall

serve ex officio. The ex-officio member shall not be counted as serving from any particular

municipality.

     (b) In addition to the foregoing voting members, the council may include a varying number

of other members who may serve in an advisory capacity without the right to vote and who may be

invited to serve by either the governor or the voting members. These advisory members may

represent the federal agencies such as the navy, coast guard, corps of engineers, public health

service, and the Federal Water Pollution Control Administration, and such regional agencies as the

New England River Basins Commission and the New England Regional Commission and any other

group or interest not otherwise represented.

     (c) There may be established a coastal resources advisory committee which committee,

appointed by the executive director of the coastal resources management council, may include, but

not be limited to, representation from the following groups: one of whom may be a representative

of the university of Rhode Island graduate school of oceanography and the college of resources

development, one of whom may be a representative of the Sea Grant National College Program,

one of whom may be a representative of the army corps of engineers, one of whom may be a

representative of the federal environmental protection agency’s Narragansett Bay laboratory, one

of whom shall be a representative of the coastal resources management council, one of whom may

be the director of the department of environmental management; one of whom may be a member

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of the Rhode Island Marine Trade Association and one of whom may be a representative of a

regional environmental group. The council shall have the authority to appoint these additional

members to the advisory committee as is deemed necessary or advisable by the advisory committee

or the council. It shall be the responsibility of the committee to advise the coastal resources

management council on environmental issues relating to dredging and permitting related thereto,

including, but not limited to, those issues defined in §§ 46-23-18.1 — 46-23-18.3, inclusive.

     (d) The council shall have the authority to form committees of other advisory groups as

needed from both its own members and others.

     SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.

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EXPLANATION

BY THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

OF

A N   A C T

RELATING TO WATERS AND NAVIGATION -- COASTAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

COUNCIL

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     This act would require that the appointment of public members include an active, licensed

fisher, a representative from Save the Bay and from an organization representing developers.

     This act would take effect upon passage.

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