CHAPTER 449
FORMERLY
SENATE BILL NO. 549
AS AMENDED BY SENATE AMENDMENT NO. 5
AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE TO PROVIDE FOR A DELAWARE COMPENSATION COMMISSION.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE:
Section 1. Amend Title 29 of the Delaware Code by adding the following new Chapter 33 to read as follows:
"CHAPTER 33. DELAWARE COMPENSATION COMMISSION
§3301. Compensation Commission established
There is established a Commission known as the 'Delaware Compensation Commission', hereinafter referred to as the 'Commission', consisting of six members, two of whom shall be appointed by the Governor, one by the President Pro Tempore of the Senate and one by the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The fifth member shall be the President of the Delaware Round Table. The Personnel Director of the State of Delaware shall serve as an ex officio and nonvoting member of the Commission. The appointees shall be persons not holding any of the public office nor be employed substantially full time with compensation by this State while serving on this Commission. Those appointed shall serve for a six—year term. Any member is eligible for reappointment.
§3302. Chairman of Commission. compensation, employees
The Commission shall elect one of its members chairman. Members of the Commission shall be reimbursed for actual and necessary expenses, including mileage, incurred while performing the duties imposed by this Chapter. The costs and expenses of the Commission shall be paid out of funds appropriated to the Governor's office.
§3303. General duties and powers
The Commission shall make a study of the salaries, emoluments, mileage, per diem, travel and other expense allowances and reimbursements (hereinafter collectively referred to as 'remuneration') of the members of the General Assembly, the Governor, members of the Governor's Cabinet, the Lieutenant Governor, the State Auditor, the State Treasurer, the Attorney General, the Insurance Commissioner, the Justices of the Supreme Court, the Chancellor and Vice Chancellors of the Court of Chancery, and all judges of the Superior Court, the Court of Common Pleas and the Family Court. the Chief Magistrate, the Justices of the Peace, and the Public Defender.
On January 1, 1985. the Commission shall submit to the Governor, the Chief Justice, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives its first report establishing such remuneration. Thereafter, the Commission shall cause a report to be prepared every four years and submitted on the first day of the session of the General Assembly. The rate of remuneration established in the report for offices which salaries are more than $25,000 shall not exceed 120% of the remuneration received in the fiscal year in which the report is submitted. AU departments and divisions of the State shall cooperate in furnishing to the Commission such information as the Commission may deem to be necessary to discharge its duties. With each report the Commission shall include its recommendations to the Governor and General Assembly concerning pension benefits for members of the General Assembly subject to the approval of the Board of Pension Trustees that such recommendations are based on reasonable actuarial assumptions and that such recommendations shall not require any additional State appropriation.
§3304. Effect of Commission report
The remuneration for all offices specified in Section 3303 of this Chapter established by the report submitted on January 1, 1985. shall take effect and have the force and effect of law as of February 1, 1985, unless. prior to that date, the General Assembly shall, by joint resolution. reject the report in its entirety. The rate of remuneration established by subsequent reports submitted by the Commission shall take effect and have the force and effect of law at the beginning of the next fiscal year or as otherwise provided by the Constitution or on the date of assumption of office of persons affected thereby after such date, unless, within thirty days following the commencement of its session, the General Assembly shall, by joint resolution, reject the report in its entirety. In all such cases, the General Assembly shall enact legislation which establishes a rate of remuneration differing from that recommended by the report.
Section 2. The provisions of the Delaware Code and acts which are inconsistent with this Act are repealed, effective on the date the salary applicable to that office pursuant to Chapter 33, Title 29 of the Delaware Code, provided for in Section 1 hereof, first becomes effective. Notwithstanding the repeal of the &foregoing provisions of the Delaware Code, the remuneration established by reports of the Commission shall be published in the appropriate place in the Delaware Code Annotated or the supplement thereto in order to reflect the action taken pursuant to the provisions of this Chapter.
Section 3. The terms of the persons first appointed to the Commission shall be staggered in the following manner: The first appointees of the Governor shall serve for an initial term of three years. The first appointee of the President Pre Tempore of the Senate shall serve for a term of four years. The first appointee by the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall serve for a term of five years. Thereafter, each person appointed to the Commission shall serve for a six-year term.
Approved July 20, 1984.