Rhode Island § 42-106-3 - Rhode Island Aqua Fund

§ 42-106-3. Membership of council.

(a) The advisory council shall consist of twenty-one (21) members; one of whom shall be a representative of an industry that has an environmental impact on Narragansett Bay (hereinafter referred to as “the bay”) who has been actively involved in bay issues, to be appointed by the governor; one of whom shall be a commercial fisherman, to be appointed by the governor; one of whom shall be a representative of a waste treatment facility that empties into the bay and that serves a population of less than forty thousand (40,000) to be appointed by the governor; two (2) members of environmental groups with at least one hundred (100) members each and which have been in existence for at least five (5) years each, one of whom shall be appointed by the governor and one of whom shall be appointed by the lieutenant governor; one of whom shall be a member of the general public, to be appointed by the lieutenant governor; three (3) of whom shall be state representatives, not more than two (2) of whom shall be from the same political party, and at least two (2) of whom shall be from bay communities, to be appointed by the speaker; a faculty member of an environmental studies department in an institution of higher education in the state, to be appointed by the speaker; two (2) of whom shall be state senators, not more than one from the same political party, and at least one of whom shall be from a bay community, to be appointed by the president of the senate; a representative of a waste treatment facility that serves a population of greater than forty thousand (40,000), but less than one hundred thousand (100,000) to be appointed by the president of the senate; the director of the department of environmental management, ex officio; the director of statewide planning or the director’s designee, ex officio; the chairperson of the coastal resources management council or designee, ex officio; the chairperson of the Department of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island or designee, ex officio; the director of the Narragansett Bay commission or the director’s designee, ex officio; the president of the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns or the president’s designee, ex officio; the director of the United States Environmental Protection Agency Research Laboratory located in the town of Narragansett, or the director’s designee, ex officio; and the director of the Narragansett Bay Project or designee, ex officio.

(b) One each of the members appointed by the governor and the lieutenant governor shall be appointed to serve until the first day of June, 1990, and the others to serve until the first day of June, 1991; one member appointed by the president of the senate shall be appointed to serve until the first day of June, 1990, and the others to serve until the first day of June 1991; one member appointed by the speaker shall be appointed to serve until the first day of June, 1990, and the others to serve until the first day of June, 1991; and all members shall serve until their successors are appointed and qualified. In the month of May in any year in which an appointed member’s term of office expires, the respective appointing authorities shall appoint successors for the members whose terms shall expire in that year, to hold office commencing on the first day of June in the year of appointment for a term of three (3) years or until their respective successors are appointed and qualified. Any vacancy of an appointed member, which may occur in the advisory council, shall be filled by appointment by the respective appointing authority for the remainder of the unexpired term. Ex-officio members shall serve until the end of their term of office.

(c) The council shall meet at the call of the director of the department of environmental management.

(d) The membership shall receive no compensation for their services. The advisory council may request, through the department of environmental management and the coastal resources management council and statewide planning, any technical and clerical assistance that it may deem necessary to accomplish its purpose. In addition, the state may appropriate from the general fund or turn over to the advisory council by utilizing the procedure outlined in P.L. 1988, ch. 443, § 10(c) not more than fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) in each fiscal year of the proceeds of the aqua fund bonds, which the council may expend for the purpose of engaging any professional and other support staff that it may deem necessary to accomplish its purpose.