NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY
1963 SESSION
CHAPTER 526
HOUSE BILL 778
AN ACT TO CREATE THE LEE COUNTY PEACE OFFICER'S RELIEF ASSOCIATION.
The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:
Section 1. This Act shall be known and may be cited as the Lee County Peace Officer's Relief Association Act.
Sec. 2. "Peace Officers", as used in this Act, shall be deemed to include all salaried law enforcement officers in Lee County who are active law enforcement officers in said county or any municipality therein or of the State of North Carolina while they are regularly and duly stationed and assigned for duty in Lee County.
Sec. 3. The Lee County Peace Officer's Relief Association shall be formed and the association shall include all peace officers who meet the requirements of Section 2 of this Act. In the event of a question arising as to who is an acting peace officer, the executive board shall decide the eligibility of any applicant or member.
Peace officers who are entitled to membership in the association shall make applications on forms to be furnished for the purpose, giving such information as may be required by the executive board, and shall pay an initiation fee and annual dues to be fixed by the executive board.
Sec. 4. For the purpose of determining the recipients of benefits under this Act and the amounts thereof to be disbursed, and for formulating and making such rules and regulations as may be essential for the equitable and impartial distribution of such benefits to and among the persons entitled to such benefits, there is hereby created a board to be known as "The Executive Board of the Lee County Peace Officer's Relief Association", which shall consist of the Sheriff of Lee County, the Chief of Police of the Town of Sanford, and three representatives from the membership in Lee County, said representatives to be elected by the membership in the county as hereinafter provided. (Not over two from each department).
Within thirty (30) days after the ratification of this Act, the eligible peace officers within Lee County shall meet at a place and time designated by the sheriff of the county and elect from their number three (3) representatives, of the county to membership on the executive board. The representatives so elected shall serve until the next ensuing regular annual meeting of the county membership as provided in this Act, and thereafter said representatives shall serve for a term and one (1) year or until their successors are duly elected. The membership within the county shall hold its regular annual meeting on the second Wednesday in January of each year, or as often thereafter as practicable, in such place as shall be designated by the sheriff of the county for purpose of electing three (3) representatives to membership on the executive board, and the transaction of such other business as it may deem necessary. The executive board shall meet for the purpose of organizing and electing a chairman within ten (10) days after the election of the county representatives as herein provided. The said executive board may have such other meetings as may be necessary which meeting shall be held on call by the chairman or any two (2) members. A majority of the members of the executive board shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business.
Notice of the adoption by the executive board of such rules and regulations as may be deemed necessary and all amendments thereto, shall be made promptly to all members of the association.
There shall be kept in the office of the said executive board by the treasurer, records which shall give a complete history and records of all actions of the executive board in adopting rules and regulations. All records, papers, and other data shall be carefully preserved and turned over to the succeeding officers or board members.
Sec. 5. From and after July 1, 1963 in each criminal case finally disposed of in the Criminal Courts of the Lee County, wherein the defendant is convicted or enters a plea of nolo contendere and is assessed with the payment of costs and collected by said county, or where the costs are assessed against the prosecuting witness, there shall be assessed against the said convicted person or against such prosecuting witness as the case may be, one dollar ($1.00) additional cost to be collected as other costs are collected in criminal cases by justices of the peace, clerks, or other officers of the court authorized to receive costs; provided, that the additional cost of one dollar ($1.00) herein provided for shall not be assessed in cases of abandonment or nonsupport.
Such costs collected for the Lee County Peace Officer's Relief Association shall be turned over to the sheriff of the county not later than the tenth day of each month, with a detailed report giving the name of the defendant in each case in which the amount was collected. The sheriff shall within the ten (10) days remit the same to the treasurer of the association, together with the itemized report received by him. Any justice of the peace, sheriff, clerk or officer of the court who willfully fails to make such report within such time, or who knowingly fails to make such report and fails to report any item taxed and collected as herein provided, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be fined or imprisoned, or both, within the discretion of the court.
Sec. 6. The executive board therein referred to may take by gift, grant, devise, or bequest, any money, real or personal property or other things of value and hold or invest the same for the use of said association in accordance with the purposes of this Act. And the executive board shall have the authority to invest initiation fees and annual dues not immediately needed in any securities of the United States Government, of the State of North Carolina, or of any of the several counties or municipalities of the State of North Carolina, or in certificates of deposit in any bank or trust company authorized to do business in North Carolina in which the deposits are guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation not to exceed the sum of ten thousand dollars ($10,000.00) in any one of such associations; provided that no such funds may be so invested in a State chartered building and loan association unless guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
Sec. 7. The money paid into the Lee County Peace Officer's Relief Association shall be used for the purpose of paying the premiums on group insurance policies purchased pursuant to the provisions of this Act.
Sec. 8. The treasurer of the Lee County Peace Officer's Relief Association shall be elected annually by the executive board and shall be a member of the board at the time of his election. He shall give a good and sufficient bond, and the cost of the bond shall be paid from the funds of the association.
Sec. 9. Members of the executive board shall serve without compensation. Necessary office supplies and medical advisory fees shall be paid from dues and/or initiation fees of the association.
Sec. 10. The executive board shall use the funds derived under this Act for the purpose of purchasing group insurance for the members of the Lee County Peace Officer's Relief Association against death or disability, or both, during the terms of their membership, under forms of insurance known as group insurance. At the end of each calendar or fiscal year basis, the association shall refund to Lee County the surplus funds of the Association (not including initiation fees and annual dues). The funds thus returned shall be placed in the general fund of the county.
Sec. 11. The treasurer and the executive board of the association shall make a report of all receipts and disbursements of the preceding year at each regular annual meeting of the membership of the said county, and shall send a copy of such reports, together with any refund to be made, to the board of commissioners of the county. The report shall be entered by the board of commissioners upon its official minutes.
Sec. 12. Membership in the Lee County Peace Officer's Relief Association, or the receiving of benefits therefrom, because of insurance purchased as provided in this Act, shall not be construed to be in conflict with or to prevent membership in either the Local Government Employee's Retirement System, the Law Enforcement Officers' Benefit and Retirement Fund, or the Teachers' and State Employees' Retirement System.
Sec. 13. All laws and clauses of laws, in conflict with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed, and if any Section hereof be decided by the court to be invalid or unconstitutional, the same shall not effect the validity of this Act as a whole or any part thereof, other than the part decided to be unconstitutional or invalid.
Sec. 14. This Act shall be in full force and effect from and after its ratification.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 22nd day of May, 1963.