(A) The legislative delegation of any county, including the Senator, may, by majority vote at a duly called meeting, initiate a referendum in that county to determine the wishes of the registered electors residing in the geographical areas of all special purpose and public service districts (districts) with regard to budgetary powers and election of the governing bodies of the districts.
(B) The referendum must be conducted only at the time of a general election. Ballots must be printed with the following questions printed on them:
[] Shall the governing body of (insert name) district be elected and have fiscal autonomy to approve a budget and instruct the local auditor to fix a millage sufficient to raise the budget amount? [] Shall the governing body of (insert name) district be appointed by and have its annual budget subject to final approval of the governing body of the county in which it is located? Mark one.
(C) The county election commission shall count the ballots and certify the results to the county legislative delegation.
(D)(1) In those districts in which the registered electors vote to have elected governing bodies, the governing body of each district shall hold an election at the time of the next general election after certification of the results of the referendum by the county election commission. Notice of the election must be published in a newspaper of general circulation in the district which shall contain detailed information concerning the election. The notice must be published not less than five nor more than fifteen days before the date of the election. All members of the governing bodies must be elected in nonpartisan elections for four-year terms, except of those initially elected one-half minus one in the case of odd-numbered governing bodies and one-half in the case of even-numbered governing bodies must be elected for terms of two years. At the expiration of the two-year terms, members elected for those terms must be elected for terms of four years.
(2) Any governing body of a special purpose district may decide that its members may be elected from the district at large, at large with residency requirement, or from single member election districts.
(3) To place the name of a candidate on the ballot, qualified electors of the district shall file with the county election commission, not less than sixty days before the date of the election, a petition which shall contain the names of qualified electors of a number equal to not less than five hundred qualified electors of the district or five percent of the total number of electors of the district, whichever is the lesser.
(4) The number of members elected under the provisions of this subsection must be the same number as provided by law for the number of members for each district.
(E) In those districts in which the registered electors vote to have appointed district governing bodies, the governing body of the county in which the district is located is vested with power to appoint the governing body of that district and shall exercise the budgetary approval process over the budget of the district.
(F) The provisions of this section apply only to districts existing prior to March 7, 1973, but not to any district whose governing body is elected by the qualified electors and which governing body has the authority to levy taxes.
HISTORY: 1984 Act No. 512, Part II, Section 70.
Validity
For validity of this section, see Ex parte Georgetown Cty. Water & Sewer Dist., 284 S.C. 466, 327 S.E.2d 654 (1985).