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2015 SESSION

15102665D
HOUSE BILL NO. 1644
Offered January 14, 2015
Prefiled January 9, 2015
A BILL to amend and reenact §§ 33.2-200 and 33.2-201 of the Code of Virginia, relating to composition of the Commonwealth Transportation Board.
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Patrons-- Villanueva, BaCote and Davis
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Referred to Committee on Transportation
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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 18 20 members that shall consist of 14 16 nonlegislative citizen members and four ex officio members as follows: the Secretary of Transportation, the Commissioner of Highways, the Director of the Department of Rail and Public Transportation, and the Executive Director of the Virginia Port Authority. The nonlegislative citizen members shall be appointed by the Governor as provided in § 33.2-201, subject to confirmation by the General Assembly, and shall serve at the pleasure of the Governor. 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 Commissioner of Highways shall serve as vice-chairman of the Board and shall have voting privileges only in the event of a tie when he is presiding during the absence of the chairman. The Director of the Department of Rail and Public Transportation and the Executive Director of the Virginia Port Authority shall not have voting privileges.

§ 33.2-201. Nonlegislative citizen and at-large members of the Commonwealth Transportation Board.

Of the 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 each congressional district in the Commonwealth. Upon redistricting, any member who no longer resides in his congressional district shall resign. If the number of congressional districts is increased through redistricting, the Governor shall appoint a member to the Board from the newly created district. If a congressional district is lost through redistricting, the Governor shall remove the member from the lost congressional district. Such appointments shall be made or removed effective July 1 after the change in a congressional district. The remaining five members shall be appointed from the Commonwealth at large, provided that at least two reside in metropolitan statistical areas and are designated as urban at-large members and at least two reside outside metropolitan statistical areas and are designated as rural at-large members. The at-large members shall be appointed to represent 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 congressional district from which chosen or of the transportation interest represented.

2. That nothing in this act shall affect the term of any member appointed to the Commonwealth Transportation Board prior to January 1, 2015, as long as such member is transitioned into a citizen member seat according to the congressional districts for the remainder of his term.