Bill Text: MS HB1347 | 2010 | Regular Session | Enrolled
Bill Title: Municipal executive committee; revise provisions regarding.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Passed) 2010-03-24 - Approved by Governor [HB1347 Detail]
Download: Mississippi-2010-HB1347-Enrolled.html
MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2010 Regular Session
To: Apportionment and Elections
By: Representative Reynolds
House Bill 1347
(As Sent to Governor)
AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 23-15-313, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REVISE HOW CITIZENS OF A MUNICIPALITY ARE CHOSEN TO SERVE ON A TEMPORARY MUNICIPAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE; TO BAR PERSONS WHO HAVE BEEN CONVICTED OF A FELONY FROM SERVING ON A MUNICIPAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE; TO AMEND SECTION 23-15-315, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO CONFORM TO THE PRECEDING SECTION; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. Section 23-15-313, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
23-15-313. (1) If there be any political party, or parties, in any municipality which shall not have a party executive committee for such municipality, such political party, or parties, shall within thirty (30) days of the date for which a candidate for a municipal office is required to qualify in that municipality select qualified electors of that municipality and of that party's political faith to serve on a temporary municipal executive committee until members of a municipal executive committee are elected at the next regular election for executive committees. The temporary municipal executive committee shall be selected in the following manner * * *: The chairman of the county executive committee of the party desiring to select a temporary municipal executive committee shall call, upon petition of five (5) or more members of that political faith, * * * a mass meeting of the qualified electors of their political faith who reside in such municipality to meet at some convenient place within such municipality, at a time to be designated in the call, and at such mass convention the members of that political faith shall select a temporary municipal executive committee which shall serve until members of a municipal executive committee are elected at the next regular election for executive committees. The public shall be given notice of such mass meeting as provided in * * * Section 23-15-315. The chairman of the county executive committee shall authorize the call within five (5) calendar days of receipt of the petition. If the chairman of the county executive committee is either incapacitated, unavailable or nonresponsive and does not authorize the mass call within five (5) calendar days of receipt of the petition, any elected officer of the county executive committee may authorize the call within five (5) calendar days. If no elected officer of the county executive committee acts to approve such petition after an additional five (5) calendar days from the date, the chair of the county executive committee not taking action as provided by this section, the petitioners shall be authorized to produce the call themselves.
(2) If no municipal executive committee is selected or otherwise formed before an election, the county executive committee may serve as the temporary municipal executive committee and exercise all of the duties of the municipal executive committee for the municipal election. After a county executive committee has fulfilled its duties as the temporary municipal executive committee, as soon as practicable thereafter, the county executive committee shall select a municipal executive committee no later than before the next municipal election.
(3) A person who has been convicted of a felony in a court of this state or any other state or a court of the United States, shall be barred from serving as a member of a municipal executive committee.
SECTION 2. Section 23-15-315, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
23-15-315. The * * * county executive committee shall publish a copy of his call for a meeting in some newspaper published in the municipality affected for three (3) weeks preceding the date set for the mass convention, or if there be no newspaper published in the municipality, then in some newspaper having general circulation in the municipality and by posting notices in three (3) public places in the municipality, one (1) of which shall be city hall or be the regular location where the municipal governing authority meets to conduct business not less than three (3) weeks before the date for the mass convention.
SECTION 3. The Attorney General of the State of Mississippi shall submit this act, immediately upon approval by the Governor, or upon approval by the Legislature subsequent to a veto, to the Attorney General of the United States or to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in accordance with the provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended and extended.
SECTION 4. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after the date it is effectuated under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended and extended.
