House Bill 632

AN ACT TO TRANSFER LAW ENFORCEMENT PERSONNEL AND LAW ENFORCEMENT DUTIES OF THE MOTOR CARRIER DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI HIGHWAY SAFETY PATROL WITHIN THE MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY RELATED TO THE MOTOR CARRIER REGULATORY LAW TO THE MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION; TO AMEND SECTIONS 77-7-16, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO CONFORM; TO BRING FORWARD SECTIONS 25-13-3, 77-1-19, 77-1-21 AND 77-1-27, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, FOR PURPOSES OF POSSIBLE AMENDMENT; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. (1) The Mississippi Department of Public Safety shall transfer employees, equipment, inventory, size and weights, permits, Unified Carrier Registration, computer systems, IFTA, grants, stationary and portable weigh stations, support staff, state and federal funding, and resources of the department employed in the Motor Carrier Division of the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol and used to enforce the Motor Carrier Regulatory Law of 1938 to the Mississippi Department of Transportation on July 1, 2019. In addition, the Department of Public Safety shall consult with the Bureau of Buildings, Grounds and Real Property of the Department of Finance and Administration for the effective transfer of any office space that was assigned for the use of the enforcement of the Motor Carrier Regulatory Law of 1938. The transfer of personnel shall be commensurate with the number and classification of positions allocated to that law enforcement. All salaries and benefits shall remain the same until further agreement. Rank and structure shall be revised through the Mississippi Department of Transportation as is practical for proper supervision.

(2) Any reference in any statute, rule or regulation to law enforcement duties being performed by the Motor Carrier Division of the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol under the Mississippi Department of Public Safety requiring the use of vehicles to enforce shall be construed to mean law enforcement duties being performed by the Mississippi Department of Transportation.

SECTION 2. Section 77-7-16, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

77-7-16. (1) Supervision and inspection of the safe operation and the safe use of equipment of motor vehicles operating in the state shall be a specified duty of the Mississippi Transportation Commission * * * ~~and the Motor Carrier Division of the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol within the Mississippi Department of Public Safety~~. In accordance therewith, the Mississippi Transportation Commission shall promulgate as its own the rules, regulations, requirements and classifications of the United States Department of Transportation or any successor federal agency thereof charged with the regulation of motor vehicle safety and * * * shall enforce such rules, regulations, requirements and classifications. The Department of * * *~~Public Safety~~ Transportation shall provide training to its law enforcement officers * * * charged with the duty of enforcing the Mississippi Motor Carrier Regulatory Law of 1938 to the extent that funds are made available and training is approved under the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The Mississippi Transportation Commission shall establish a system of reciprocity with other states to facilitate the inspection of motor vehicles provided for in this subsection.

(2) The Mississippi Transportation Commission * * * ~~and the Motor Carrier Division of the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol within the Mississippi Department of Public Safety~~ shall have the authority to inspect for safe operation and safe use of equipment the following motor vehicles:

(a) Each holder of a certificate of convenience and necessity, a permit to operate as a contract carrier or interstate permit;

(b) Any individual, corporation or partnership engaged in a commercial enterprise operating a single motor vehicle or those in combination with a manufacturer's gross vehicle rating of more than ten thousand (10,000) pounds, and (ii) a single motor vehicle or those in combination with a manufacturer's gross vehicle rating of more than twenty-six thousand (26,000) pounds in interstate commerce; and

(c) Any individual, corporation or partnership operating a motor vehicle of any gross weight transporting hazardous material that requires placarding under the Federal Hazardous Material Regulations.

(3) This section shall not apply to the following:

(a) Motor vehicles employed to transport school children and teachers;

(b) Motor vehicles owned and operated by the United States, District of Columbia or any state or any municipality or any other political subdivision of this state;

(c) Motor vehicles engaged in the occasional transportation of personal property without compensation by individuals which is not in the furtherance of a commercial enterprise;

(d) Motor vehicles engaged in the transportation of human corpses or sick or injured persons;

(e) Motor vehicles engaged in emergency or related operations;

(f) Motor vehicles engaged in the private transportation of passengers;

(g) Motor vehicles, including pickup trucks, that have a GVWR or GCWR of Twenty-six Thousand (26,000) pounds or less, operating intrastate only, provided that such vehicle does not:

(i) Transport hazardous material requiring a placard; or

(ii) Transport sixteen (16) or more passengers, including the driver.

(h) Motor vehicles owned and operated by any farmer who:

(i) Is using the vehicle to transport agricultural products from a farm owned by the farmer, or to transport farm machinery or farm supplies to or from a farm owned by the farmer;

(ii) Is not using the vehicle to transport hazardous materials of a type or quantity that requires the vehicle to be placarded in accordance with the Federal Hazardous Material Regulations in CFR 49 part 177.823; and

(iii) Is using the vehicle within one hundred fifty (150) air miles of the farmer's farm, and the vehicle is a private motor carrier of property.

(i) Motor vehicles engaged in the transportation of logs and pulpwood between the point of harvest and the first point of processing the harvested product;

(j) Motor vehicles engaged exclusively in hauling gravel, soil or other unmanufactured road building materials;

(k) As to hours of service only, utility service vehicles owned or operated by public utilities subject to regulation by the commission, while in intrastate commerce within this state, with a manufacturer's gross vehicle rating of less than twenty-six thousand one (26,001) pounds, unless the vehicle:

(i) Transports hazardous materials requiring a placard; or

(ii) Is designed or used to transport sixteen (16) or more people, including the driver.

(4) Anyone who violates or fails to comply with this section shall be subject to the penalties as provided for in Section 77-7-311, Mississippi Code of 1972.

SECTION 3. Section 25-13-3, Mississippi Code of 1972, is brought forward as follows:

25-13-3. As used in this chapter, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, the term "Highway Patrol or Highway Safety Patrol" for the purpose of establishing membership in this system for persons presently employed by the Highway Safety Patrol shall mean and include all the officers of the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol who have completed a course of instruction in an authorized highway patrol training school on general law enforcement, and who have served for a period of at least five (5) years prior to July 1, 1958, as a uniformed officer of the Highway Safety Patrol in the enforcement of the traffic laws of the State of Mississippi, or in the driver's license division, or who are now engaged in such service. New members shall include all the officers of the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol who have completed a course of instruction in an authorized highway patrol training school on general law enforcement, and who serve as sworn officers of the Highway Patrol in the enforcement of the laws of the State of Mississippi.

Any former sworn officer of the Highway Safety Patrol who returns to service with the Highway Safety Patrol in any capacity, and who has had not less than two (2) years of prior service as a sworn officer of the Highway Safety Patrol, and who was disabled by wounds or accident in line of duty, may become a member of the Highway Safety Patrol Retirement System even though his present duties would not otherwise qualify him for membership, and he may continue membership so long as he remains in the employ of the Highway Safety Patrol.

Membership in the Highway Safety Patrol Retirement System shall be retroactive to the date of such patrolman's return to employment with the Highway Safety Patrol, and any funds contributed by him, previous to July 1, 1958, to the Public Employees' Retirement System shall be transferred to his credit in the Highway Safety Patrol Retirement System, and the employer's contributions made to the Public Employees' Retirement System for the patrolman shall also be transferred to the employee's credit in the Highway Safety Patrol Retirement System; and the difference between the contributions for both the employer and the employee made to the Public Employees' Retirement System, and those which should have been made to the Highway Safety Patrol Retirement System by both employer and employee for the patrolman since the date of his return to the Highway Safety Patrol shall be paid into the Highway Safety Patrol Retirement System.

In order to be eligible for service retirement benefits under this retirement system any member must have served at least five (5) years as a sworn officer of the Highway Patrol engaged in the enforcement of the laws of the State of Mississippi, or at least five (5) years as a sworn agent of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, or a combination of at least five (5) years as a sworn agent of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics and as a sworn officer of the Highway Patrol. If the officer is transferred from duty making him eligible for membership in this retirement system to other duties for which credit is not allowed by this system, and he has not been credited with a minimum of five (5) years in this system as a sworn officer of the Highway Patrol engaged in the enforcement of the laws of this state, then an amount as determined by the Public Employees' Retirement System shall be transferred from this system to his account in the Public Employees' Retirement System of Mississippi to make him a member of that system with full credit for his years of service with the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol, and he shall become a member of the Public Employees' Retirement System of Mississippi with prior service credits. The amount that is determined to be necessary to be transferred shall be paid first from the member's total contributions in the Highway Safety Patrol System, plus interest, so that all of those funds are transferred, and any remainder shall be paid from the employer's accumulation account.

SECTION 4. Section 77-1-19, Mississippi Code of 1972, is brought forward as follows:

77-1-19. The commission is authorized to employ the following additional employees to carry out and enforce the provisions of the Motor Carrier Regulatory Law of 1938:

(a) An assistant secretary and two (2) stenographer-clerks;

(b) One (1) combined bookkeeper and stenographer;

(d) Twelve (12) additional employees, which includes seven (7) employees to be transferred from the utility department to the motor carrier department to perform the duties of the commission imposed upon it by the provisions of said Motor Carrier Regulatory Law.

SECTION 5. Section 77-1-21, Mississippi Code of 1972, is brought forward as follows:

77-1-21. (1) For the purpose of enforcing the provisions of the Mississippi Motor Carrier Regulatory Law of 1938, the Mississippi Department of Transportation is authorized to employ, in addition to personnel already employed by the department, one (1) chief enforcement officer and twenty-one (21) inspectors, who shall be under the management of the department. The chief enforcement officer and the inspectors shall devote their full time to the performance of their duties and shall take an oath faithfully to perform the duties of their position. The department shall require bonds to be carried on such employees as the department may deem necessary, the cost thereof to be paid by the department. The chief enforcement officer and inspectors shall be qualified by experience and training in law enforcement or investigative work, and shall attend and satisfactorily complete an appropriate course of instruction established by the Commissioner of Public Safety at the Law Enforcement Officers Training Academy. The chief enforcement officer and the inspectors referred to in this section shall be selected after an examination as to physical and mental fitness. Such employees shall be citizens of the United States and the State of Mississippi, and of good moral character. All such members of staff shall be appointed by the Mississippi Department of Transportation and shall be subject to removal at any time by the department.

(2) The Public Service Commission shall transfer all employees, equipment, inventory and resources of the commission employed and used to enforce the Motor Carrier Regulatory Law of 1938 to the Mississippi Department of Transportation on July 1, 2004. The transfer of personnel shall be commensurate with the number and classification of positions allocated to that law enforcement. The transfer also shall include direct support, clerical, data processing and communications positions allocated to that law enforcement.

(3) The Public Service Commission shall transfer to the Mississippi Department of Transportation each year the amount of funds necessary to support the law enforcement functions being performed for the commission by the department, as specified in the appropriation bill for the Public Service Commission.

(4) Any reference in any statute, rule or regulation to law enforcement duties being performed by the Public Service Commission shall be construed to mean law enforcement duties being performed for the commission by the Mississippi Department of Transportation.

SECTION 6. Section 77-1-27, Mississippi Code of 1972, is brought forward as follows:

77-1-27. All commission employees provided for in this chapter, and the reasonable and necessary expenses of the administration of the duties imposed on the commission by the Motor Carrier Regulatory Law of 1938, shall be paid out of the appropriations made to defray the expenses of the commission, upon requisitions and warrants in the same manner provided by law for the disbursements of appropriations for the commission. An itemized account shall be kept of all receipts and expenditures and shall be reported to the Legislature by the commission.

SECTION 7. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2019.