NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1963 SESSION

CHAPTER 691

SENATE BILL 479

AN ACT TO CREATE AN EMERGENCY RESERVE FUND FOR PERSONS ENGAGED IN THE ENFORCEMENT OF THE CRIMINAL LAWS IN STANLY COUNTY.

The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:

Section 1. That this Act shall be known and may be cited as "The Emergency Reserve Fund of Stanly County" and shall apply to those persons engaged in the enforcement of the criminal laws of the State of North Carolina and Stanly County within the jurisdiction of the County's Court of Stanly County and shall apply only to Stanly County.

Sec. 2. Officers within the meaning of this Act shall include all arresting officers within Stanly County who are employed by and receive compensation from Stanly County or any city or town within the said county and who make arrests or who are authorized to make arrests under criminal process of the Recorder's or Magistrates' Courts of Stanly County.

Sec. 3. The Chairman of Stanly County Board of Commissioners, the Attorney for Stanly County, and Attorney for the City of Albemarle and their successors in office and one member of the Stanly County Sheriff's Department, the Mayor of Albemarle, Chief of Police of Albemarle City Police Department, each of whom shall serve for a period of one (1) year, and shall be elected at a meeting of the law enforcement officers of Stanly County to be called by the Stanly County Sheriff for that purpose during the month of April of each year, are hereby created a board to administer the provisions of this Act and said board shall elect its own chairmen and also appoint an officer of the board, who may but need not be a member of the board, to be known as "Commissioner of the Emergency Fund of Stanly County", who shall act as Secretary to the Board and Treasurer of the Fund and shall act under the instructions of the board in all matters pertaining to the administration of this Act.

Sec. 4. The board created under the provisions of this Act shall serve without compensation, and the maximum amount that may be expended under this Act for the administration thereof, including expenses and salary of the Secretary to the Board and other expenses shall not exceed the sum of six hundred dollars ($600.00) per year; and the board may designate some bank in Stanly County as depository of the funds to be collected and deposited by the secretary; and said funds shall be checked out under the provisions and for the purposes of this Act upon drafts drawn by the secretary and countersigned by the Chairman of the Board herein created; and the board may require that the secretary and treasurer shall give good and sufficient bond, the amount to be determined in the discretion of the board, for the proper performance of the duties of said officers; and in case such bond is required, the fee for said bond shall be paid out of the fund herein mentioned. The board may invest funds received under this Act in any securities authorized by Statute for the investment of trust and guardianship funds.

Sec. 5. That in order to provide funds for the "Emergency Reserve Fund of Stanly County" herein set out, there shall be taxed in the bill of costs in all criminal cases wherein there is a conviction or a plea of guilty in the County Court of Stanly County or in any Magistrate's Court of Stanly County a fee of one dollar ($1.00) to be known as the "Emergency Reserve Fund Fee", and the same shall be collected by the Stanly County Clerk of Court or the said Magistrate, or in cases of appeal from said County or Magistrate's Court same shall be taxed in the bill of costs and collected by the clerk of the court in which the case is finally determined and paid over to the Secretary and Treasurer of the Stanly County Emergency Fund, and all said money collected by the Stanly County Clerk of Court or any magistrate of said county shall be paid over to the said Secretary and Treasurer of Stanly County Emergency Fund on the first day of each and every month, and there shall accompany such remittance a detailed and itemized statement of the cases in which said funds have been collected, the blank form for said statement to be made by the clerk of court shall be furnished by the board herein created to said clerk. In all cases where the defendant is committeed to the roads, the fee herein provided shall not be charged against said defendant, where said defendant serves the sentence imposed by the court. Where the defendant is convicted on more than one charge the fee hereinbefore provided for shall only be taxed in the costs of one conviction.

Sec. 6. The funds accumulated under this Act shall be known as the "Emergency Reserve Fund of Stanly County", and shall be used as a fund for all arresting officers, as defined in Section 2 hereof, and their families under the following terms and conditions; that is to say: If an officer shall become disabled, there may be paid to him a sum not in excess of five hundred dollars ($500.00) and a monthly pension while so disabled not in excess of seventy-five dollars ($75.00) per month, and the board may pay to such disabled officer an additional sum not in excess of twenty dollars ($20.00) per month for each child or dependent under the age of eighteen years while the disability of such officer may exist and while the said officer shall live; and in case of death, if the officer shall be married, the board may pay immediately to the widow of such officer a sum not in excess of five hundred dollars ($500.00) and may further pay a sum not in excess of fifty dollars ($50.00) per month for said widow during widowhood, and in addition thereto, the board may pay the said widow for the support of any dependent children she may have a sum not in excess of twenty dollars ($20.00) per month for each child until said child shall reach the age of eighteen years; and in case of death where the individual or officer as herein defined may be unmarried, the board may pay to the nearest dependent next of kin of deceased a sum not in excess of five hundred dollars ($500.00), or in lieu thereof the board may pay the funeral expenses of deceased not in excess of five hundred dollars ($500.00), and it is further the true intent, meaning and purpose of this Act that any payments enumerated in this Act are limited to be not in excess of the maximum amount or amounts herein set out; and it is further the true intent, meaning and purpose of this Act that the board shall be empowered hereunder in its discretion to pay any amount less than the maximum enumerated, and said board may refuse to make a payment of any amount in any case in any or all of the classes herein enumerated.

Sec. 7. All officers within the meaning of this Act, after having served as such for a period of twenty (20) years or more in law enforcement work, such services to be computed from actual time of service, whether commencing before or after the ratification of this Act, who shall have attained the age of fifty years, may, in the discretion of the board, be retired on a pension, to be determined by the board, and not in excess of one hundred dollars ($100.00) per month, said application for retirement pension being considered by the board upon voluntary application of such officer, or upon recommendation of the Sheriff of Stanly County or chief of police of any city or town of the said county under whose supervision such officer shall be; and all officers pensioned in accordance with the provisions of this Section shall receive a minimum pension of fifty dollars ($50.00) per month, except that the total amount paid to pensioned officers, disabled officers, and widows and dependents of disabled officers shall not exceed eighty per cent (80%) of the income received during the preceding fiscal year from interest or investment of capital funds on hand, plus the amount derived from fees collected as provided in Section 5 of this Act; and in the event that eighty per cent (80%) of the income above mentioned is insufficient to pay such minimum of fifty dollars ($50.00) per month to each person pensioned, after payments to disabled officers and widows and dependents of deceased officers, the remainder shall be equally prorated among the officers pensioned. Each officer pensioned in accordance with this Section shall receive the same amount of pension per month. All amounts received for the reserve fund herein provided, except eighty per cent (80%) of the interest and fees above mentioned to be used for the payment of pensions to officers, and payments to disabled officers and widows and dependents of deceased officers, together with any part of said eighty per cent (80%) which is not paid out during the next fiscal year, shall become a part of the capital of the reserve fund. The fiscal year as herein defined shall begin on the first day of July, 1963, and first day of July in each year thereafter.

Sec. 8. The board created by this Act shall have power and authority to accept donations from outside or private sources to be placed in the fund created and provided for by this Act.

Sec. 9. The board, in its discretion, may at anytime it sees fit have investigated and make allowances and payments in cases coming within the provisions of this Act, but occurring prior to the enactment hereof, provided that the funds in the treasury may justify such action of the part of the board.

Sec. 10. All expenses for administering this Act shall be paid out of the fund provided for herein, and the board hereunder created shall make all such rules, regulations and provisions as may be necessary to the proper administration of this Act.

Sec. 11. Any person or officer of court covered by the provisions of this Act who shall fail to comply with the provisions of this Act and make proper accounting and remittance to the treasurer designated by the board, or to the secretary, funds collected under and by virtue of this Act, as provided herein, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and when convicted, shall be fined or imprisoned, in the discretion of the court.

Sec. 12. All laws and clauses of laws in conflict with this Act are hereby repealed, and if any Section hereof be decided by the courts to be unconstitutional or invalid, the same shall not affect the validity of this Act as a whole or any part thereof, other than the part so decided to be unconstitutional or invalid.

Sec. 13. This Act shall be in full force and effect on and after the first day of July, 1963, but disbursement of funds in accordance with the Act, except for necessary expenses of administration and organization, shall not commence until three (3) years from and after the effective date of this Act.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 5th day of June, 1963.