Whereas, it is immediately important to secure the voting rights of persons residing in certain sanitary districts; and

Whereas, in the judgment of the Legislature, these facts create an emergency within the meaning of the Constitution of Maine and require the following legislation as immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health and safety; now, therefore,

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:

Sec. 1. 38 MRSA §1104, sub-§1, as enacted by PL 1981, c. 466, §3, is amended to read:

1. Authorization. All the affairs of a sanitary district shall be are managed by an elected board of trustees which shall consist consists of not less than 3 trustees, or not less than 5 trustees in sanitary districts involving more than one municipality or one or more municipalities and residents of an unorganized territory. The exact number of trustees shall be is determined in accordance with section 1101. A sanitary district may alter the number of trustees by submitting the proposed alteration to the voters in the same manner as provided in section 1101, subsection 7. No municipality nor or unorganized territory within any sanitary district may have less than one trustee. A quorum of the trustees may conduct the affairs of the district even if there is a vacancy on the board of trustees.

In the case of a sanitary district whose territory does not extend beyond the boundaries of a single municipality and whose territory encompasses less than the entire area of the municipality, each trustee must be a resident of the district and any trustee who ceases to qualify for the office of trustee as a result of the application of this subsection shall vacate the office of trustee and the vacancy must be filled as provided in section 1105.

Sec. 2. 38 MRSA §1105, as amended by PL 1989, c. 890, Pt. A, §40 and Pt. B, §214, is further amended by adding after the first paragraph a new paragraph to read:

In the case of a sanitary district whose territory does not extend beyond the boundaries of a single municipality and whose territory encompasses less than the entire area of the municipality, when the term of office of a trustee expires, the trustee's successor must be elected at large by a plurality vote of the voters within the territory of the district.