PRINTER'S NO. 1808
No. 1535 Session of 1979
INTRODUCED BY THOMAS, YAHNER, WENGER, KLINGAMAN, W. W. FOSTER,
MADIGAN, GRIECO, STAIRS, WILT, COLE, DeVERTER, PITTS, STUBAN,
CALTAGIRONE AND D. R. WRIGHT, JUNE 21, 1979
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON STATE GOVERNMENT, JUNE 22, 1979
AN ACT
1 Providing for a Lands Management Commission within the
2 Department of General Services.
3 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
4 hereby enacts as follows:
5 Section 1. Declarations of purpose.
6 Whereas, The Legislature hereby finds and declares that in
7 order to ensure economic and efficient land use, increase and
8 improve production and provide food for residents of State-
9 operated institutions, State-owned lands shall be transferred to
10 the Lands Management Commission as is provided by this act; and
11 Whereas, The Legislature enacted the act of June 15, 1972
12 (P.L.395, No.117), providing for an inventory of all
13 Commonwealth real property, except highway rights-of-way to be
14 prepared by the Department of General Services.
15 Section 2. Definitions.
16 The following words and phrases when used in this act shall
17 have, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, the
1 meanings given to them in this section:
2 "Commission." The Lands Management Commission within the
3 Department of General Services which is established by this act.
4 "Institution." Any facility operated by the Department of
5 Public Welfare and Department of Justice for care, treatment,
6 confinement or rehabilitation of residents.
7 "Institutional Equipment." Any equipment used for land use
8 production and maintenance, owned by an institution and
9 transferred to the commission as provided in this act.
10 "Institutional farm." Any land owned by the Department of
11 Welfare and Department of Justice which is transferred to the
12 commission as provided in this act and which:
13 (1) is presently operated as a farm;
14 (2) was formerly operated as a farm and remains capable
15 of producing institutional land products; or
16 (3) lies adjacent to any such presently or formerly
17 operated farms.
18 "Institutional land products." Livestock and livestock
19 products and poultry products, fruits and fruit products,
20 vegetables and vegetable products, grains and hays, timber and
21 timber products and the products derived therefrom and other
22 products derived from the business of farming, including such
23 other products as may be manufactured, derived, or prepared from
24 the heretofore mentioned products, raw or processed, which are
25 used as food for man or animals.
26 "Land use facility." Any processing plant, milking stable,
27 institution equipment storage building, barn, silo, grain
28 storage building, swinery or any other building owned by an
29 institution, used in its land-use production and maintenance
30 operations and transferred to the commission as provided in this
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1 act.
2 Section 3. Lands Management Commission established;
3 composition; quorum.
4 There is hereby established within the Department of General
5 Services a Lands Management Commission composed of nine members
6 as follows; the Secretary of General Services, who shall be
7 chairman, the Secretary of Public Welfare, the Attorney General,
8 the Secretary of Agriculture, the Chairman of the House
9 Agriculture Committee, the Chairman of the Senate Agriculture
10 Committee and three farmers appointed from a list of names
11 submitted to the Governor by chartered farm organizations. The
12 terms of said farmer members shall be for six years. The terms
13 shall be staggered and one member shall be appointed every two
14 years. The initial appointments of farmer members shall be for
15 terms of two, four and six years. No business may be transacted
16 by the commission in the absence of a quorum which consists of
17 five members. The commission shall annually file a report at the
18 end of the fiscal year with the Governor and the members of the
19 General Assembly.
20 Section 4. Powers, duties and responsibilities of the
21 commission.
22 The purpose of the commission is to manage institutional
23 lands for the most efficient production of food products for
24 residents and land maintenance of institutions. The commission
25 shall have full power and authority over institutional farms,
26 including their management, employees, production and any
27 leasing of such farm lands. Revenue derived from the leasing of
28 lands shall be retained by the commission for use in modernizing
29 the farm operation and securing additional equipment for
30 operation of the farms. The commission may seek such technical
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1 assistance as it requires from the College of Agriculture of the
2 Pennsylvania State University, the United States Soil
3 Conservation Service, and the United States Agricultural
4 Stabilization and Conservation Service. The commission shall
5 promulgate rules and regulations relating to the implementation
6 of this act.
7 Section 5. Appointment of Land Management Director; qualifica-
8 tions; powers and duties.
9 (a) The commission shall appoint a Land Management Director
10 who, in addition to qualifications established by the
11 commission, shall have owned, operated or managed a farm for at
12 least five years within ten years immediately prior to the
13 appointment. The Land Management Director is the chief executive
14 officer of the commission and is responsible for conducting the
15 operation of the lands. He shall prepare an annual report of the
16 operations, including a list of all receipts and expenditures
17 and shall present it to the commission at the end of each fiscal
18 year.
19 (b) As authorized or directed by the commission, the Land
20 Management Director shall also:
21 (1) Prepare the annual budget request for the operation
22 of the institutional lands and submit it to the commission
23 for approval and submission to the budget office.
24 (2) Receive and approve all requisitions for supplies
25 and equipment.
26 (3) Recruit and approve assistant managers to supervise
27 each institutional operation.
28 (4) Implement all orders of the commission.
29 (5) Supervise all other employees of the commission.
30 (6) Transfer supplies, equipment, facilities, food
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1 stuffs and produce from one institutional farm to another to
2 promote efficiency and improve land management.
3 (c) From the total amount of products produced on
4 institutional farms, the Land Management Director shall provide
5 each of the institutions under the control of the Department of
6 Public Welfare and Department of Justice, at wholesale market
7 cost, a proportionate amount of these products based on the
8 population and dietary needs of each institution and each of
9 these institutions shall use the commodities provided by the
10 Land Management Director for their annual food requirements. By
11 September 30 of each year, each institution shall present to the
12 Land Management Director a requisition request for food products
13 and commodities the institution will need during the next fiscal
14 year.
15 (d) If, during the year, an institution finds that it needs
16 other or additional commodities not included in the requisition
17 request for the year, the institutional superintendent shall
18 forward a supplemental request for the additional or other
19 commodities to the Land Management Director at least 30 days
20 before the Land Management Director is to deliver such other
21 commodities to the institution. An institution may purchase
22 commodities from other sources if the Land Management Director
23 certifies in writing that he will be unable to supply the needed
24 commodities at the time such commodities will be needed by the
25 institution. If institutional farms produce more commodities
26 than can be consumed by the institutions, the Land Management
27 Director first shall sell this surplus to other State agencies
28 which request it at the wholesale market price for the products.
29 Section 6. Transfers to commission; utility continuance.
30 (a) Within six months upon passage of this act, the
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1 Department of Public Welfare shall transfer all institutional
2 farms and all easements, mineral rights, appurtenances,
3 institutional equipment, institutional land products,
4 inventories and land-use facilities thereon or attached thereto,
5 to the commission.
6 (b) Any institutional lands heretofore declared surplus by
7 the Department of Public Welfare and Department of Justice shall
8 transfer immediately upon passage of this act to the commission
9 unless said lands are under lease agreements, then shall
10 transfer to the commission immediately upon expiration of said
11 lease.
12 (c) In the event a water supply system, a sewage disposal
13 system or any other utility or service facility involved in the
14 operation of an institution is hereby transferred to the
15 commission, an easement is hereby granted to the institution
16 affected to enable the institution to continue, uninterrupted,
17 the water supply system, the sewage disposal system or the
18 utility or service facility so transferred. If an institutional
19 farm is dependent upon a water supply system, a sewage disposal
20 system or any other utility or service facility located on the
21 property of an institution, an easement is hereby granted to the
22 commission to enable the commission to continue, uninterrupted,
23 the water supply system, the sewage disposal system or the
24 utility or service facility involved.
25 Section 7. Establishment of land use division lines; appeal to
26 commission; remedy.
27 (a) The Land Management Director shall, immediately after
28 being appointed, employ a surveyor to establish the division
29 line between the lands being transferred to the commission and
30 the property remaining under the control and authority of the
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1 Department of Public Welfare and Department of Justice. In
2 establishing the division line, the Land Management Director
3 shall cooperate fully with the Secretary of Public Welfare and
4 the Attorney General to ensure that property, essential to their
5 respective institutions, shall not be transferred to the
6 commission. In the event of disagreement over the placement of
7 the division line, the disposition of institutional equipment or
8 the disposition of the land use facilities, the Land Management
9 Director and the department shall, within 60 days, appear before
10 the commission for a hearing on the matter. The commission shall
11 decide the matter in all cases.
12 (b) The property or lands remaining under the control and
13 authority of the Department of Public Welfare and Department of
14 Justice may be maintained by a contractual arrangement between
15 the commission and at the option of the Department of Public
16 Welfare and Department of Justice.
17 Section 8. Transfer of operations.
18 All personnel, allocations, appropriations, agreements,
19 leases, claims, demands and causes of action of any value
20 whether or not subject to litigation on the date of this act,
21 equipment, files, records, classified data files, plans, maps,
22 air photographs, and all other materials which are used,
23 employed, or expended in connection with the duties, powers or
24 functions of the land use operations of the Department of Public
25 Welfare and Department of Justice are hereby transferred by this
26 act to the Lands Management Commission of the Department of
27 General Services with the same force and effect as if the
28 appropriations had been made to and said items had been the
29 property of the Lands Management Commission of the Department of
30 General Services in the first instance and if said contracts,
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1 agreements, leases and obligations had been incurred or entered
2 into by the Lands Management Commission of the Department of
3 General Services.
4 Section 9. Effective date.
5 This act shall take effect July 1, 1980.
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