Chap. 396.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Sections 1, 6, and 8, as amended, of
Chapter 379, Acts 1938, approved March 31, 1938, of which the short title is
“Virginia Public Assistance Act of 1938”, said sections relating, respectively, to
definitions, to local boards and to local superintendents and employees. [S B 148]

Approved April 3, 1942

1. Beit enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That sections
one, six and eight, as amended, of chapter three hundred and seventy-
nine of the Acts of the General Assembly of nineteen hundred and thirty-
eight, be amended and re-enacted, as follows:

Section 1. Definitions—The following terms, whenever used or
referred to in this act, shall have the following meaning, unless a different
meaning clearly appears from the context :

(a) “Applicant” means a person who applies for public assistance,
or for whom assistance is applied for, under this act, except that in title
three of this act it means a person who applies for old age assistance, and
in title five of this act it means a blind person who applies for aid to the
blind or for whom aid to the blind is applied for, under this act ;

(b) “Aid” in title four of this act means aid to dependent children ;
“aid” in title five of this act means aid to the blind;

(c) “Aid to dependent children” means money payments with
respect to a dependent child or dependent children ;

(d) “Aid to the blind” means money payments to blind individuals ;

(e) “Assistance” means old age assistance ;

(f{) “Blind person” means an individual who has, with correcting
glasses, twenty/two hundredths (20/200) vision or less in the better eye;

(g) “Commission” means the Virginia Commission for the Blind ;

(h) “Commissioner” means the State Commissioner of Public
Welfare ;

(i) “Dependent child” means a child under the age of sixteen or, if
regularly attending school, under the age of eighteen, who has been
deprived of parental support or care by reason of the death, continued
absence from the home, or physical or mental incapacity of a parent, and
who is living with his father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, brother,
sister, stepfather, stepmother, stepbrother, stepsister, uncle, or aunt, ina
place of residence maintained by one or more of such relatives as his or
their own home;

(j) “Federal Sociat Security Board” means the Social Security
Board created under Title VII of the Federal Social Security Act, enacted
636 ACTS OF ASSEMBLY [va., 1942

by the Congress of the United States and approved August fourteenth,
nineteen hundred and thirty-five, and any department or agency which
may hereafter be designated or created as the successor of the said board:

(k) “General relief’? money payments and other forms of relief
provided for in title six of this act ;

(1) “Local Board” means the local board of public welfare in each
county and each city of the second class, and the officer in charge of the
department or division of public welfare in a city of the first class, as
provided in section six of this act ; |

(m) “Local superintendent” means the local superintendent of
public welfare provided for in section eight of this act ;

(n) “Old age assistance” means the money payments to needy
persons sixty-five years of age or older, as provided for in title three of
this act;

(o) “Person” means an individual ;

(p) “Public Assistance’? means and includes assistance, old age
assistance, aid, aid to dependent children, aid to the blind, and general
relief ;

(q) “Recipient” means any person who receives public assistance
under this act, except that in title three it means any person who receives
old age assistance, and in title five it means any person who receives aid
to the blind;

(r) “Secretary” means the executive secretary of the Virginia
Commission for the Blind ; a

(s) “State board” means the State Board of Public Welfare;

(t) Words denoting the masculine gender also include the feminine.

(u) “Merit system plan” means those rules and regulations pro-
mulgated by the State Board in the development and operation of a system
of personnel administration meeting requirements of the Federal Social
Security Board.

Section 6. Continuance of Local Boards of Public Welfare in
Counties and Cities of Second Class; Appointment; Expenses; Officers
in Charge of Departments or Divisions of Public Welfare in Cities of
First Class—(a) Except as hereinafter otherwise provided in this act,
all existing provisions of law in relation to boards of public welfare of
counties and of cities of the second class, and in relation to the officers in
charge of the departments or divisions of public welfare in cities of the
first class, which boards and officers are referred to in this act as “local
boards”, shall continue in force.

(b) There shall be a local board in each county and city of the
State. The officer in charge of the department or division of public welfare
of each city of the first class shall be the local board of such city.

(c) The local board in each county shall consist of three members,
residents of the said county, appointed by the judge of the circuit court of
such county; the local board in each city of the second class shall consist
of three members, residents of the said city, appointed by the judge of the
corporation court of such city, or if there be no such court, then by the
judge of the circuit court having jurisdiction within such city.
cH. 396] ACTS OF ASSEMBLY 637

The judge in making appointments for terms beginning July first,
nineteen hundred and forty-two, and thereafter, shall so arrange the mem-
bership that at all times one member of the local board of each county
shall also be a member of the board of supervisors, except in those in-
stances where the board of supervisors has determined otherwise, in which
case one member of the local board of public welfare shall be selected from
a list of three persons submitted by the board of supervisors.

One member of the local board of any city of the second class may be
a member of the council or other governing body of such city. The mem-
bers of each such local board first appointed under the provisions of this
act shall be appointed one for a term of one year, one for a term of two
years, and one for a term of three years; subsequent appointments shall
be for a term of two years each, except appointments to fill vacancies,
which shall be for the unexpired terms. Members of any such local boards
may be suspended or removed for cause by the State board or by the judge
or other officer, board or body authorized to appoint the members of the
said local board. ,

(d) Two members of the local board of a county or city of the
second class shall constitute a quorum.

(e) Each member of the local board of a county or of a city of the
second class, shall be paid his necessary traveling and other expenses
incurred in attendance upon meetings and while otherwise engaged in the
discharge of his duties as such member. In addition to such expenses, the
board of supervisors or other governing body of each county and the
council, or other governing body of each city of the second class may, out
of the general fund of such county or city, pay to each member of the local
board of such county or city, as compensation for his services as such
member, not in excess of one hundred dollars per year; but no such
county or city shall be reimbursed out of either State or Federal funds for
any part of such compensation so paid.

(f) Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section, in any
county which has adopted, or shall hereafter adopt, the county executive
form of organization and government, and in any county which has
adopted or shall hereafter adopt, the county manager form of organization
and government provided for in sections twenty-seven hundred and sev-
enty-three-a to twenty-seven hundred and seventy-three-n, both inclusive,
of the Code of Virginia, and in any county in which the clerk of the board
of supervisors is some person other than the county clerk and in which
county such clerk of the board of supervisors acts as executive manager of
the county under appointment by said board by virtue of the provisions of
section twenty-seven hundred and seventy-a of the Code of Virginia, the
local board shall, while such form of organization and government remains
in effect in such county, be appointed by the board of county supervisors,
board of supervisors or other governing body of such county, and the said
board of county supervisors, board of supervisors or other governing body
may fix within the limits hereinabove set forth, the compensation of such
local board, and in any county which has adopted, or shall hereafter adopt,
the county manager form of organization and government provided for in
sections twenty-seven hundred and seventy-three-n one to twenty-seven
hundred and seventy-three-n fifty-six, both inclusive, of the Code of Vir-
ginia, the local board shall, while such form of organization and govern-
ment remains in effect in such county, be appointed by the county mana-
ger, who may fix, within the limits above set forth, the compensation of
the members of such board.

Section 8. Local Superintendent ; Local Employees.—(a) Subject
to the personnel standards and rules and regulations of the State board
the local board in each county and city shall appoint a superintendent of
public welfare, referred to in this act as a “local superintendent”, and
shall either employ, or authorize the local superintendent to employ, such
other employees as may be required by the State board to administer this
act in such county or city. The local superintendent shall be appointed
from a list of eligibles furnished by the commissioner and in any county
in which the clerk of the board of supervisors is some person other than
the county clerk and in which county such clerk of the board of super-
visors acts as executive manager of the county under appointment by said
board by virtue of the provisions of section twenty-seven hundred and
seventy-a of the Code of Virginia, the executive manager may, if approved
by the commissioner, be appointed or designated as local superintendent.

(b) The local superintendent and other employees shall serve at
the pleasure of the local board, subject to the provisions of the Merit
System Plan, and if such other employees be employed by the local super-
intendent they shall serve at the pleasure of the local superintendent,
within the provisions of the Merit System Plan.

(c) Any local superintendent and any such employee who does not
meet the personnel standards established by the State board may be re-
moved by the commissioner.

(d) The local superintendent and other persons employed here-
under by the local board or local superintendent of any county or city
shall be paid such compensation by such county or city as shall be fixed
by the local board within the compensation schedules provided in the
Merit System Plan.

(e) Except as otherwise provided in this act, all existing provisions
of law in relation to superintendents of public welfare of counties and of
cities of the second class shall continue in force. ,

(f{) Ifin any city of the first class the designation of the local super-
intendent as “superintendent of public welfare” conflicts with the title of
any other officer therein, the official title of such local superintendent shall
be fixed by the local board, subject to approval of the commissioner, so as
to distinguish the local superintendent from such other officer or officers.

(g) The terms of all superintendents of public welfare of counties
and of cities of the second class in office on the day immediately preceding
the effective date of this act shall expire at the same time that this act
takes effect.

(h) Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section,
except those provisions relating to personnel standards and rules and
regulations of the State board, in any county which has adopted, or shall
hereafter adopt, the county executive form of organization and govern-
ment, and in any county in which the clerk of the board of supervisors 1s
some person other than the county clerk and in which county such clerk
of the board of supervisors acts as executive manager of the county under
appointment by said board by virtue of the provisions of section twenty-
seven hundred and seventy-a of the Code of Virginia, the board of county
supervisors or board of supervisors, shall, while such form of organization
and government remains in effect in such county, appoint the local super-
intendent, to serve at the pleasure of the board of county supervisors, or
board of supervisors, and fix his compensation, and employ such other
employees to serve at the pleasure of the board of county supervisors, or
board of supervisors, as may be required in the administration of this act
in such county and fix their compensation ; the board of county supervis-
ors or board of supervisors, may, however, authorize the local board to
exercise all such powers, or authorize the local board to exercise such
powers in so far as they relate to the local superintendent and the local
superintendent to exercise such powers in so far as they relate to the
employees required in the administration of this act in such county.