The Vermont Statutes Online

Title 24 : Municipal and County Government

Chapter 121 : Intermunicipal Cooperation and Services

Subchapter 003 : Union Municipal Districts

• § 4863. Approval of agreement

  (a) Any participating municipality may enter into the agreement for the formation of the union municipal district at any annual or special meeting of such municipality duly warned for such purpose.

  (b) The vote on the question of accepting the agreement shall be by printed ballot substantially as follows:

  Shall the (name of municipality) enter into an agreement for the formation of a union municipal district to be known as “ ”.

  (c) All elections in the separate municipalities shall be held on the same day. The vote shall be by Australian ballot as provided for in 17 V.S.A. chapter 55, subchapter 3.

  (d) Where three or more municipalities are concerned in the voting, and at least two approve the agreement, rejection of the agreement by one or more shall not defeat the creation of a district composed of the municipalities voting affirmatively on the question, if the joint survey committee decides that it is feasible or practical to continue the district as a geographic unit, unless the agreement as proposed expressly provides that specific participating municipalities or a minimum number of participating municipalities shall approve the agreement. Members from municipalities rejecting the agreement may take no part in the decision of the joint survey committee, or in any subsequent matters relating to the agreement rejected by the municipalities they represent.

  (e) The governing body of the district may authorize the inclusion of additional municipalities outside of the district. Any authorized municipality may take action to enter into the district according to the approval procedures contained herein.

  (f) A municipality which is a member of a union municipal district may vote to withdraw from the union municipal district if one year has elapsed since said union municipal district has become a body politic and corporate as provided in section 4865 of this title and if the union municipal district has not voted to bond for construction and improvements as provided in section 4866 of this title.

  (g) When a majority of the voters of a member municipality present and voting at a meeting of such municipality duly warned for that purpose shall vote to withdraw from a union municipal district, the vote shall be certified by the clerk of that municipality to the governing body of the union municipal district. Thereafter, the governing body of the union municipal district shall give notice to the remaining member municipalities of the vote to withdraw and such body shall hold a meeting to determine whether it is in the best interests of the district to continue to exist. Representatives of the member municipalities shall be given an opportunity to be heard at such meeting together with any other interested persons. After such meeting, the governing body may declare the district dissolved immediately or as soon thereafter as each member municipality’s financial obligations have been satisfied, or it may declare that the district shall continue to exist despite the withdrawal of the member municipality.

  (h) A vote of withdrawal taken after a union municipal district has become a body politic and corporate but less than one year after that date shall be null and void. A vote of withdrawal taken after the union municipal district has voted to bond itself for construction and improvements shall likewise be null and void.

  (i) The membership of the withdrawing municipality shall terminate as of one year following the vote to withdraw or as soon after such one year period as the financial obligations of said withdrawing municipality have been paid to the union municipal district. (Added 1969, No. 197 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; amended 1973, No. 250 (Adj. Sess.), § 3; 2001, No. 6, § 12(c), eff. April 10, 2001; 2003, No. 122 (Adj. Sess.), § 85h.)