(a) The Legislature finds that performance review and performance measurement are valuable tools for identifying serious impairments of commercial solid waste facilities operated by county or regional solid waste authorities and fostering accountability and effective and efficient facility operations.

(b) The Solid Waste Management Board shall conduct a biennial performance review of each county and regional solid waste authority that operates a commercial solid waste facility: Provided, That the Solid Waste Management Board may conduct a performance review at any time it determines a performance review to be necessary.

(c) The Solid Waste Management Board shall develop and maintain a system of annual and quarterly or more frequent performance measures useful in gauging the productivity and operational health of county and regional solid waste authorities operating commercial solid waste facilities. The authorities shall provide the performance measurement data in accordance with the legislative rule required under subsection (d) of this section.

(d) No later than August 1, 2006, the Solid Waste Management Board in consultation and collaboration with the Public Service Commission, shall propose legislative rules for promulgation in accordance with the provisions of article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code, to implement a performance review process and system of quarterly performance measures designed pursuant to subsections (b) and (c) of this section.

(e) For the purposes of this section, "performance review" means an accountability system which establishes benchmarks to evaluate and determine the effective and efficient performance of a county solid waste authority operating a commercial solid waste facility or regional solid waste authority operating a commercial solid waste facility.

(f) For the purposes of this section, "performance measures" means outcome and output measures. "Outcomes" represent effects or results of programs. "Outputs" represent the units of services or activities produced.

(g) In promulgating the rules required by subsection (d) of this section, the Solid Waste Management Board shall establish criteria to be considered in conducting performance reviews, establish benchmarks to identify serious impairments, establish a recommendation process for correcting impairments and establish penalties for failure to comply, including a process for temporary intervention by the Solid Waste Management Board to correct impairments.

(h) When the Solid Waste Management Board determines through a performance review or regular monitoring of performance measures that an authority's commercial solid waste facility is seriously impaired and the authority does not correct the impairments, the intervention process may include, but is not limited to, the following methods:

(1) Appointing a team of improvement consultants to conduct on-site reviews and make strategic recommendations toward remedy of the serious impairments;

(2) Directing the authority's board of directors to prioritize and target its funds strategically toward alleviating the serious impairments;

(3) Recommending to the agencies that appoint the members of the authority's board of directors, as provided by subsection (b), section three, and subsection (b), section four of this article, that one or more members of the authority's board of directors be replaced;

(4) The Director of the Solid Waste Management Board, or his or her designee, may temporarily during intervention, preside as chair of the county or regional solid waste authority board meetings; and

(5) Exercising powers of supersedure provided under section twenty-six, article three of this chapter.

(i) The State Auditor in consultation and collaboration with the Solid Waste Management Board and the Public Service Commission shall establish a uniform chart of accounts delineating common revenue and expense account naming conventions to be adopted by all county and regional solid waste authorities, beginning no later than July 1, 2006.

(j) The chief inspector and supervisor of local government offices shall conduct an annual examination on the financial report of county and regional solid waste authorities with an audit occurring every third year. Additionally, the chief inspector, upon request by the Solid Waste Management Board, shall conduct an audit of any county or regional solid waste authority that operates a commercial solid waste facility as a part of the performance review required by this section. The definitions of "examination", "audit" and "review" provided in section one-a, article nine, chapter six of this code apply to this subsection.