(a) The Roanoke River Basin Bi-State Commission shall consist of 18 members with each state appointing nine members. The North Carolina delegation to the Commission shall consist of the six members of the General Assembly of North Carolina appointed to the North Carolina Roanoke River Basin Advisory Committee and three nonlegislative members who represent different geographical areas of the North Carolina portion of the Basin and who reside within the Basin’s watershed, to be appointed by the Governor of North Carolina. The Virginia delegation to the Commission shall be appointed as determined by the Commonwealth of Virginia.

(b) Members of the North Carolina House of Representatives, the North Carolina Senate, the Virginia House of Delegates, the Virginia Senate, and federal legislators, who have not been appointed to the Commission and whose districts include any portion of the Basin, may serve as nonvoting ex officio members of the Commission.

(c) Except as provided in this subsection, members of the North Carolina delegation to the Commission shall serve at the pleasure of the Governor of North Carolina. The Governor of North Carolina may not remove a legislative member of the North Carolina delegation to the Commission during the legislator’s term of office, except that the Governor may remove any member of the North Carolina delegation to the Commission for misfeasance, malfeasance, or nonfeasance as provided in N.C. Gen. Stat. § 143B-13 A legislative member of the North Carolina delegation to the Commission who ceases to be a member of the General Assembly of North Carolina shall cease to be a member of the Commission. The terms of members of the Virginia delegation to the Commission shall be determined by the Commonwealth of Virginia.

(d) Each state’s delegation to the Commission may meet separately to discuss Basin-related issues affecting their state and may report their findings independently of the Commission. (2002-177, s. 1; 2005-37, ss. 2, 3; 2012-200, s. 28(a).)