10.1-1018 - Virginia Land Conservation Board of Trustees; membership; terms; vacancies; compensation and expenses.
§ 10.1-1018. Virginia Land Conservation Board of Trustees; membership; terms;vacancies; compensation and expenses.
A. The Foundation shall be governed and administered by a Board of Trustees.The Board shall have a total membership of 19 members that shall consist of17 citizen members and two ex officio voting members as follows: four citizenmembers, who may be members of the House of Delegates, to be appointed by theSpeaker of the House of Delegates and, if such members are members of theHouse of Delegates, in accordance with the principles of proportionalrepresentation contained in the Rules of the House of Delegates; two citizenmembers, who may be members of the Senate, to be appointed by the SenateCommittee on Rules; 11 nonlegislative citizen members, one from eachcongressional district, to be appointed by the Governor; and the Secretary ofNatural Resources, or his designee, and the Secretary of Agriculture andForestry, or his designee, to serve ex officio with voting privileges.Nonlegislative citizen members shall be appointed for four-year terms, exceptthat initial appointments shall be made for terms of one to four years in amanner whereby no more than six members shall have terms that expire in thesame year. Legislative members and the ex officio member shall serve termscoincident with their terms of office. Appointments to fill vacancies, otherthan by expiration of a term, shall be made for the unexpired terms.Vacancies shall be filled in the same manner as the original appointments.All members may be reappointed. However, no Senate member shall serve morethan two consecutive four-year terms, no House member shall serve more thanfour consecutive two-year terms and no nonlegislative citizen member shallserve more than two consecutive four-year terms. The remainder of any term towhich a member is appointed to fill a vacancy shall not constitute a term indetermining the member's eligibility for reappointment. Nonlegislativecitizen members shall have experience or expertise, professional or personal,in one or more of the following areas: natural resource protection andconservation, construction and real estate development, natural habitatprotection, environmental resource inventory and identification, forestrymanagement, farming, farmland preservation, fish and wildlife management,historic preservation, and outdoor recreation. At least one of thenonlegislative citizen members shall be a farmer. Members of the Board shallpost bond in the penalty of $5,000 with the State Comptroller prior toentering upon the functions of office.
B. The Secretary of Natural Resources shall serve as the chairman of theBoard of Trustees. The chairman shall serve until his successor is appointed.The members appointed as provided in subsection A shall elect a vice-chairmanannually from among the members of the Board. A majority of the members ofthe Board serving at any one time shall constitute a quorum for thetransaction of business. The board shall meet at the call of the chairman orwhenever a majority of the members so request.
C. Trustees of the Foundation shall receive no compensation for theirservices. All members shall be reimbursed for all reasonable and necessaryexpenses incurred in the performance of their duties on behalf of theFoundation as provided in §§ 2.2-2813 and 2.2-2825. Funding for the costs ofexpenses of the members shall be provided by the Department of Conservationand Recreation.
D. The chairman of the Board and any other person designated by the Board tohandle the funds of the Foundation shall give bond, with corporate surety, insuch penalty as is fixed by the Governor, conditioned upon the faithfuldischarge of his duties. The premium on the bonds shall be paid from fundsavailable to the Foundation for such purpose.
E. The Board shall seek assistance in developing grant criteria and advice ongrant priorities and any other appropriate issues from a task forceconsisting of the following agency heads or their designees: the Director ofthe Department of Conservation and Recreation, the Commissioner ofAgriculture and Consumer Services, the State Forester, the Director of theDepartment of Historic Resources, the Director of the Department of Game andInland Fisheries and the Executive Director of the Virginia OutdoorsFoundation. The Board may request any other agency head to serve on orappoint a designee to serve on the task force.
(1992, c. 426; 1999, cc. 900, 906; 2000, cc. 21, 294, 494, 1053; 2003, c.885; 2005, cc. 633, 758; 2006, c. 45.)