Sections 1 through 5. The bill allows a rural school district to hire a nonlicensed person to fill a vacant licensed teacher position if, after trying to fill the position with a licensed teacher, the board of education of the district passes a resolution declaring a critical shortage of licensed teachers. The hiring school district must provide professional development and support to the nonlicensed person. The nonlicensed person is subject to the same employment and evaluation provisions that apply to licensed teachers. Section 6. The bill creates a process and standard by which a rural school district, group of rural school districts, or board of cooperative services may obtain waivers of statutes and rules. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The district attorney of each judicial district, with the approval of the boards of county commissioners comprising the district, currently fixes the salaries of any assistant district attorney, chief deputy district attorney, and deputy district attorney in the district. There are currently no minimum salary amounts in law for these positions. The bill establishes minimum salary amounts for these positions based upon the salary ranges of certain employees of the state public defender's office. The county or counties making up a judicial district currently pay the entire amount of the salaries of all deputy, chief deputy, and assistant district attorneys working in the district. The bill requires the state to pay a percentage of the salaries, starting at a lower percentage and scaling up to the following percentages after 4 years: Assistant district attorney - 80%; Chief deputy district attorney - 50%; Deputy district attorney - 20%. The bill allows the boards of county commissioners of the counties within a judicial district, in consultation with the district attorney, to make a one-time irrevocable election to require an assistant district attorney to become a member of the public employees' retirement association's defined benefit plan. In such case, the state would pay 80% and the counties would pay 20% of the employer contribution for an assistant district attorney. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The bill requires the state housing board to work cooperatively with the Colorado housing and finance authority to promulgate rules that will result in the reduction of duplicative inspections required by low-income housing programs. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
If a court determines that a criminal defendant is currently serving in the United States armed forces or is a veteran of such forces (military defendant) and has been diagnosed as having any of certain mental health problems relating to his or her military service, the court shall: Order the person preparing the presentence report to consult with the federal department of veterans affairs or another agency or person with suitable knowledge or experience, for the purpose of providing the court with information regarding treatment options available to the defendant, including federal, state, and local program options; and Consider such treatment options, as well as the treatment recommendations of any diagnosing or treating mental health professionals, in imposing sentence. If the court determines that a military defendant suffers sexual trauma, traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, or mental health problems during his or her service in the United States armed forces and the defendant is eligible for probation, the court shall consider such fact favorably in determining whether to grant probation and in assessing whether he or she should be ordered into a federal or community-based treatment service program. The bill allows a court to order the criminal conviction records of a military defendant to be sealed when certain conditions are satisfied. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
Currently, 'United States Mountain Standard Time' (MST) is the standard time within Colorado, except during the annual period of 'daylight saving time' (the second Sunday in March through the first Sunday in November), during which MST is advanced one hour. The bill makes daylight saving time the year-round standard time within the state, but takes effect only: If approved by Colorado voters in the November 2018 general election; and When the other states wholly or partially in the Mountain time zone also adopt permanent daylight saving time for the states or portions thereof within that time zone.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
Water Resources Review Committee. The bill appropriates $5 million from the Colorado water conservation board construction fund to the Colorado water conservation board to make loans and grants to enable the recipients to dredge existing reservoirs located in the South Platte river basin to restore the reservoirs' full decreed storage capacity. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The bill requires that, before the executive board of a unit owners' association (HOA) in a common interest community brings suit against a developer or builder on behalf of unit owners, the board must: Notify all unit owners; and Except when the HOA contracted with the developer or builder for the work complained of or the amount in controversy is less than $100,000, obtain the approval of a majority of the unit owners after giving them detailed disclosures about the lawsuit and its potential costs and benefits. The bill also limits the amount and type of contact that a developer or builder that is potentially subject to a lawsuit may have with individual unit owners while the HOA is seeking their approval for the lawsuit. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The bill clarifies that high occupancy vehicle lanes are lanes on which a vehicle carrying 2 or more individuals, including the driver, may travel and that high occupancy toll lanes are lanes on which a vehicle carrying fewer than 2 individuals, including the driver, must pay a toll. The bill also raises the priority of currently unfunded projects to expand the capacity of interstate highway 25 between the town of Castle Rock and the town of Monument and between state highway 14 and state highway 66 (high priority projects) by: Requiring the department of transportation (CDOT) to put the high priority projects above all other unfunded projects on its priority list for project funding; Requiring all federal money received by CDOT that the federal government does not require to be allocated for other projects and that CDOT has not previously allocated for other projects to be used to fund the high priority projects before being used to fund other projects; and Requiring any environmental studies or other studies required to be completed before the high priority projects may begin to be completed no later than 6 months following the effective date of the bill and prohibiting study findings from being used to prevent the high priority projects from being undertaken.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The bill excludes information relating to violations of the requirement for a single point of contact or dual tracking from the published notice that precedes a foreclosure sale. The bill also clarifies: That the deadline for a public trustee or sheriff (officer) conducting a foreclosure to continue a foreclosure sale is the scheduled date and time of the sale; and What happens if a foreclosure sale violates an automatic stay under the federal bankruptcy code, depending on whether full payment of the successful bid amount is received by the officer. The procedures that apply if a foreclosure sale is set aside by court order are established to mirror the procedures that follow a rescission of a public trustee sale. In addition, a person rescinding a foreclosure sale is no longer required to send envelopes along with their rescission paperwork. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
Under current law, felony murder, a death resulting during the commission of a specifically listed felony, is a class 1 felony. The bill makes felony murder a class 2 felony subject to crime of violence sentencing and modifies the affirmative defense. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The bill requires the Colorado commission on higher education (commission) to conduct a review of and report on an analysis of program costs and student outcomes for undergraduate and graduate degree programs offered by the university of Colorado and Colorado state university. The bill sets forth the components of the degree program review and analysis, including information concerning the cost of the degree program to the student and to the institution of higher education (institution), the average time to complete the degree program, and employment and earnings outcomes for graduates. As part of its review, the commission shall identify the highest-cost degree programs to students and to the institution and the lowest performing degree programs with respect to graduate employment and earnings, and shall analyze the return on investment for those degree programs to graduates and to the institution. Two years after the date of the first report, the commission shall complete the review and analysis required in the bill for all state institutions that were not included in the first report. Every 2 years thereafter, the commission shall update the review and analysis of undergraduate and graduate degree programs for all state institutions. The commission's report shall be submitted to certain committees of the general assembly. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
In the 2016 legislative session, the general assembly enacted Senate Bill 16-197, which changed the system for licensing establishments that are authorized to sell alcohol beverages in sealed containers to customers for consumption off the licensed premises, referred to as the 'retail sale' or 'sale at retail' of alcohol beverages. Some of the changes made by the 2016 legislation include: Authorizing persons licensed to sell at retail on or before January 1, 2016, to obtain multiple retail licenses, subject to a tiered schedule, to restrictions based on proximity to another retail licensed premises, and to other requirements and limitations; Allowing retail liquor stores to sell a broad array of nonalcohol products, subject to a 20% limit on gross sales revenue from the sale of nonalcohol products; Requiring retail licensees to check the identification of consumers purchasing alcohol beverages to verify that they are at least 21 years of age; Prohibiting employees of certain alcohol beverage licensees who are under 21 years of age from selling malt, vinous, or spirituous liquors; and Changing the hours during which fermented malt beverages may be sold from between 5 a.m. and 12 midnight to between 8 a.m. and 12 midnight. The bill modifies portions of the 2016 legislation as follows: Modifies the definition of a liquor-licensed drugstore to specify that the licensee need not be a drugstore but must have a licensed drugstore within its premises ( section 1 ); Excludes revenues from the sale of cigarettes, tobacco products, nicotine products, and lottery products from the calculation of the cap on a retail liquor store's gross revenues from the sale of nonalcohol products ( sections 1 and 3 ); Imposes the proximity restrictions on a retail liquor store that is seeking permission to relocate its premises to ensure the new location is not within 1,500 feet of another business licensed to sell at retail, or, if in a small town, within 3,000 feet of another business with a retail sales license ( section 2 ); Allows a liquor-licensed drugstore that applied for a new liquor-licensed drugstore license before October 1, 2016, to obtain multiple retail licenses, subject to the schedule established in the 2016 legislation ( section 4 ); Allows a corporation member of a controlled group of corporations that owns or has an interest in a liquor-licensed drugstore to obtain interests in additional liquor-licensed drugstores in the same manner as any other member of the controlled group, but the entire group is subject to the limits on the total number of multiple licenses allowed under current law; ( section 4 ) Restores the hours for permitted sales of fermented malt beverages to between 5 a.m. and 12 midnight ( section 5 ); Clarifies that employees of a licensed tavern or lodging and entertainment facility that regularly serves meals, which employees are under 21 years of age, are not prohibited from selling alcohol beverages ( section 5 ); Repeals the requirement that retail sales licensees check customers' identification to verify their age ( sections 4 and 5 ); and Exempts liquor-licensed drugstores from the prohibition against having an automated teller machine on the premises from which individuals enrolled in public assistance programs administered by the department of human services may obtain cash benefits through the electronic benefits transfer service ( section 6 ).(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
