Chapter 015
2013 -- H 5080 SUBSTITUTE A
Enacted 05/14/13
A N A C T
RELATING TO
"AN ACT TO CREATE THE
Introduced By: Representatives Malik, Gallison, Hearn, and Marshall
Date Introduced: January 15, 2013
It is enacted by the
General Assembly as follows:
SECTION 1. Section 6 of chapter 102 of the 1981 Public Laws
entitled "An Act To
Create The Bristol County
Water Authority And To Provide For Its Powers And
Duties" passed
at the January 1970 Session of the General Assembly, and
as amended in 1985, and Section 7 of
chapter 102 of the 1981 Public Laws entitled "An Act To
Create The Bristol County Water
Authority And Provide For Its Powers And Duties" passed at the January 1970
Session of the
General Assembly and as
amended in 1992, are hereby further amended as follows:
Sec. 6. POWERS.
(a)
Except to the extent with any specific provision of this act, the authority
shall have the
power:
(1)
To sue and be sued, complain and defend in its corporation name;
(2)
To have a seal which may be altered at pleasure and to use the same by causing
it, or
a facsimile thereof, to be impressed or affixed or in
any other mariner reproduced;
(3)
To purchaser take, receive, lease or otherwise acquires own, hold, improves
operate,
main tam and repair, use or otherwise deal in and with,
real or personal property, or any interest
therein, wherever situated;
(4)
To sell, convey, mortgages pledge, lease, exchange; transfer, and otherwise
dispose
of, all or any part of its property and assets for such
consideration and upon such terms and
conditions as the authority shall determine;
(5)
To produces distribute and sell water within or without the territorial limits
of the
county;
(6)
To fix rates and collect charges for the use of the facilities of, or services
rendered by,
or any commodities furnished by, the authority;
(7)
To make such contracts and guarantees and to incur liabilities, borrow money at
such
rates of interest as the authority may determine;
(8)
To make and execute agreements of lease, conditional sales contracts,
installments
sale contracts, loan agreements mortgages, construction
contracts, operation contracts and other
contracts and instruments necessary or convenient in the
exercise of the powers and functions of
the authority granted by this act;
(9)
To lend money for its purposes, invest and reinvest it funds and at its option
to take
and hold real and personal property as security for the
funds so loaned or invested;
(10)
To acquire, or contract to acquire, from any person, firm, corporation,
municipality,
the federal government or the state, or any agency of
either the federal government or state by
grant, purchase lease, gift, condemnation or otherwise, or
to obtain options for the acquisition of
any property, real or personal, improved or unimproved,
and interests in land less the fee thereof;
and to own, hold, clear, develop, maintain, operate and
rehabilitate, sell, assign, exchange,
transfer, convey, lease, mortgage, or otherwise dispose or
encumber the same for the purposes of
carrying out the provisions and intent of this act for such
consideration as the authority shall
determine;
(11)
To conduct its activities, carry on its, operations and have offices and
exercise its
power granted by this act within or without the county or
state;
(12)
To elect or appoint officers and agent of the authority and to define their
duties and
fix their compensation, except as otherwise expressly
limited herein;
(13)
To make and alter by-laws not inconsistent with this act, for the
administration and
regulation of the affairs of the authority and such by-laws may
contain provisions indemnifying
any person who is or was a director, officer, employee or
agent of the authority, or is or was
serving at the request of the authority as a director,
officer, employee or agent of another
corporation, partnership, joint venture, trust or other
enterprise in the manner and to the extent
provided in Section 7-1.1-4.1 of the Rhode Island Business
Corporation Act. By-laws shall be
amended only by an affirmative vote of six (6) of the
directors and each town shall have at least
one representative vote affirmatively for the required
amendment to take effect;
(14)
To be a promoter, partner, member, associate or manager of any partnership,
enterprise or venture;
(15)
To enter into cooperative agreements with cities, counties, town or water
companies
within or without the county for the interconnection of
water facilities or for any other lawful
corporate purpose necessary or desirable to effect the purposes
of this act;
(16)
To have and exercise all powers necessary or convenient effect
its purposes.
(b)
Notwithstanding any provision herein to the contrary, prior to the authority,
first
acquiring or contracting to acquire any water supply facility,
the authority shall present to the
local governing bodies of
method and means by which the authority intends to
accomplish the purposes set forth in Section
5 hereof, and the authority
shall not thereafter first acquire any water supply facility until such
plan shall have been approved by the local governing
bodies of
Nothing contained in this
Section (b) however shall thereafter require the authority to secure the
approval of the local governing bodies of
acquisition or disposition of any water supply facility or any
part thereof, and the authority shall
be empowered from time to time, to amend the plan
previously approved and such amendment
shall be effective upon delivery of written notice thereof
to the town clerks of each of
Section 7. DIRECTORS, OFFICERS and
EMPLOYEES.
(a)
The powers of the authority shall be vested in a board of directors which shall
consist
of nine members, three members each to be appointed by
the local governing bodies respectively
of no
more than two of such appointees from each of
Bristol and based
on their qualifications without
regard for political affiliation. The members of the board of directors first
appointed from
thereafter until their successors are chosen and shall have
qualified. Not earlier than, sixty (60)
days prior to the expiration of any terms of the members
of the board of directors, the local
governing bodies of
term of three years from the expiration of the term, and
thereafter, until such appointee's
successor is chosen and shall have qualified. In the event of a
vacancy occurring in the board of
directors by reason of death, resignation or removal of a
member, the local governing body of the
municipality who appointed such a member shall appoint a new
member to serve for the
unexpired term, and thereafter until his successor is chosen
and shall have qualified. The
members of the board of directors may be removed from their
positions by a majority vote of
their local governing body. Each town shall develop and
adopt, by resolution or ordinance,
standards for removal of the expectations for its member of the
board of directors.
(b)
The directors shall each receive compensation of thirty-five (35) dollars
for each
meeting attended, but not more than one thousand (1,000)
dollars in any one calendar year,
provided that the chairman of the board of directors shall
receive fifty (50) dollars 5 per meeting
but not more than one thousand five hundred (1,500)
dollars in any calendar year. Each director
shall be reimbursed for his reasonable expenses incurred in
carrying out his duties as a director
one thousand dollars ($1,000) pro rata, per year,
provided, that the chair of the board of directors
shall receive one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500)
pro rata, per year of service. A
director
may engage in private employment or a profession or business.
(c)
There shall be a chairman chair and vice chair of the board of
directors who shall be
selected to serve at the pleasure of the board of directors by
a vote of not less than six (6)
members thereof. The chairman shall designate a vice
chairman who shall serve at the pleasure of
the chairman, but such vice chairman shall reside in a
municipality other than the municipality in
which the chairman resides The vice chair shall reside in a municipality
other than the
municipality in which the chair resides. Except as otherwise provided herein, five (5)
directors
shall constitute a quorum and any action to be taken by the
Authority under the provisions of this
Act may authorized by a
resolution approved by not less than five (5) of the directors at any
regular or special meeting at which a quorum is present. A
vacancy in the membership on the
board of directors shall not impair the right of a quorum
to exercise all, rights and to perform all
duties of the authority.
(d)
Notwithstanding the provisions of the foregoing subparagraph (c), the following
actions may be authorize only by an affirmative vote of not
less than seven (7) directors six (6)
directors, as long as there is at least one vote for each town:
(1)
Selection, appointment, setting the salary and termination, of the chief
executive
officer of the authority, who shall have the title of
executive director.
(2)
The sale of all, or substantially all, of the real and personal property of the
authority.
(3)
The exercise of the power of eminent domain conferred upon the authority.
(4)
Applications for, or the setting of, rates for the authority's products and
services.
(5)
The issuance of bonds, notes, or the borrowing of amounts in excess of, or the
entry
into, any one or more series of contracts calling for the
expenditure of $500,000 or more.
(6)
The adoption of an annual budget.
(e)
In addition to an executive director, the board of directors shall appoint a
secretary
and such additional officers, staff members and employees
as, it shall deem appropriate and shall
determine the amount of reasonable compensation, if any, each
shall receive. The board of
directors may vest in the executive director and his
subordinates the authority to appoint
additional staff members, and to determine the amount of
compensation such individual shall
receive The board of directors shall appoint an executive
director, and shall determine the amount
of reasonable compensation for said position.
(f)
No fulltime employee of the authority shall, during the period of his
employment by
the authority engage in any other private employment,
profession or business, except with the
approval of the board of directors. No person shall be
appointed executive director, if within one
year prior, to the effective date of such appointment such
person shall have been a member of the
authority's board of directors, or of a local governing body, or
the chief administrative officer, of
(g)
If any director, officer or employee of the authority shall be interested,
directly or
indirectly, or shall be a director, officer or employee of, or
have ownership interest (other than as
the owner of less than one percent of the shares of a
publicly held corporation) in any firm,
person or corporation interested, directly or indirectly, in
any contract with the authority, such
interest shall be disclosed to the authority and set forth in
the minutes of the authority, and the
director, officer or employee having such interest shall not
participate on behalf of .the authority
in the authorization of any such contract. Interested
directors may be counted in determining the
presence of a quorum at the meeting of the board of directors
of the authority which authorizes
the contract or transaction.
(h)
Any action taken by the authority under the provisions of this act may be
authorized
by a Vote at any regular or special meeting, and each
such vote shall take effect immediately. The
board of directors may designate from among its members an
executive committee, and one or
more other committees, each of which to the extent
authorized b the board of directors shall have
and exercise all authority of the board of directors,
except no such committee shall have the
authority of the board of directors in the reference to the
matters set forth in subsection (d) of this
section, or amending the by-laws of the authority.
(i) Any action required by this act to be taken at a meeting
of the board of directors or
any action to be taken at a meeting of the board of
directors, or a committee thereof, may be taken
without a meeting if a consent in writing setting forth the
action to be taken shall be signed before
Or after such action by all
of the directors or all of the members of the committee, as the case
may be.
(j)
Employees of the authority shall not, by reason of such employment be deemed to
be
employees of the state nor any municipality for any purpose,
any purpose of the general Laws to
the contrary notwithstanding.
(k)
Prior to the board of directors approving amendments of any rates and/or fees,
one or
more hearings must be held to which the public is invited
for comment, and notice of these
hearings shall be advertised in the local newspapers of each
of the three (3) towns or a newspaper
of general circulation in all three (3) towns, and
notice shall be posted at each of the three (3)
town halls, as well as on the Internet if possible, at
least ten (10), but not more than fourteen (14)
days prior to each hearing.
(l)
Prior to the engagement of external professional services, including, but not
limited to,
legal, accounting and engineering services, the authority
shall be required to solicit competitive
proposals based on a scope of services defined by the
authority. The successful award shall be
based on the applicant's qualifications and fee structure.
Retention of services shall not exceed
three (3) years without obtaining new competitive proposals.
SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.
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LC00370/SUB A
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