Consumer insurance council - recreation - membership - meetings - expense reimbursement - sunset review. The act recreates and reenacts the consumer insurance council and its duties and responsibilities, as they existed prior to the repeal of the council on July 1, 2018, with the following modifications: The council's authority to issue annual consumers' choice awards to health insurers is not reenacted; The council is to consist of at least 6 members and not more than 15 members, consumers not engaged in the insurance industry may serve on the council, the council is to reflect the state's demographic diversity in addition to geographic diversity but need not include representation from each congressional district in the state, and the commissioner is to timely appoint members to the council; Members are to be reimbursed for actual and necessary expenses incurred in traveling to and from council meetings, including any required dependent care and dependent or attendant travel, food, and lodging expenses; The council is to meet quarterly and may request to meet up to 4 more times per year; and The council is authorized to submit recommendations to the commissioner, and the commissioner is required to timely respond to council recommendations. The council is scheduled for sunset review and repeal on September 1, 2029. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Criminal mental health programs - extension - report - appropriation. In 2018, the general assembly established the mental health criminal justice diversion pilot program (pilot program) and the mental health criminal justice grant program (grant program). The act extends the grant program an additional year and removes the cap on the total of all grants awarded per year. The act also requires the state court administrator to provide reports to specified committees of the general assembly concerning both the pilot program and the grant program. The act appropriates $442,543 to the judicial department for the grant program. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Juvenile detention beds - cap reduction - report - appropriation. Under current law, the cap on the number of juvenile detention beds is 382. For the 2019-20 and future state fiscal years, the act lowers the cap to 327. The division of youth services is directed to submit a report to the joint budget committee concerning statutory and rule changes and the financing necessary to create flexibility in the allocation of juvenile detention beds among judicial districts. The act reduces appropriations to the department of human services to reflect the lowering of the cap. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Revised uniform unclaimed property act. The act replaces the current provisions relating to the disposition of unclaimed property with the "Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act" (RUUPA), as adopted by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws in 2016, but including a number of Colorado-specific amendments. The RUUPA responds to current transactions and practices, in particular electronic records, and seeks to promote uniformity among state laws regarding the disposition of unclaimed property. The RUUPA is subdivided into 15 parts, which are summarized as follows: Part 1 establishes general provisions, including definitions for terms used in the RUUPA and authority for the administrator, who is the state treasurer, to make rules related to the RUUPA; Part 2 establishes standards to determine if property is abandoned. Under the RUUPA, property is presumed abandoned if it is unclaimed by its apparent owner after a specified period of time known as the dormancy period. Some of the dormancy periods in the RUUPA are shorter than current law. This part also includes a number of sections that are included in current law to exempt property from the RUUPA. Part 3 establishes priority rules for determining when the state may take custody of property that is presumed abandoned; Part 4 requires a holder of property presumed to be abandoned to provide a report to the administrator and to retain certain records; Part 5 establishes the notice that the administrator must provide to the apparent owner; Part 6 establishes how the administrator takes custody of property after it has been abandoned; Part 7 permits the administrator to sell property at a public sale after notice; Part 8 relates to the administration of property and keeps the requirement that the proceeds of property sold be deposited in the existing unclaimed property trust fund and the unclaimed property tourism promotion trust fund; Part 9 addresses claims to recover property from the administrator and includes existing provisions to allow offsets against the claim for child support; judicial restitution, fines, fees, or surcharges; and delinquent taxes and claims of the state; Part 10 permits the administrator to request a report from a person and to examine records to determine compliance with the RUUPA; Part 11 provides a holder with the right to appeal the administrator's determination concerning the holder's liability to deliver property or payment to the state; Part 12 establishes penalties for a holder that fails to comply with the RUUPA; Part 13 governs agreements between an apparent owner and a person commonly known as a "finder" who locates and recovers abandoned property on behalf of the owner; Part 14 addresses the confidentiality and security of information related to the abandoned property; and Part 15 includes miscellaneous provisions relating to the uniformity of construction, electronic signatures, a local government opt-out, and transitional interpretation. The act also includes the "Unclaimed Life Insurance Benefits Act", which establishes the duty of an insurer to compare names of insured with the death master file and to verify a match found on the list. Benefits that are not able to be paid to designated beneficiaries or owners whom cannot be found are transferred to the administrator in accordance with the RUUPA. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Contract performance and payment bonds. Under current law, when a person, company, firm, corporation, or contractor (contractor) enters into a contract with a county, municipality, school district, or, in some instances, any other political subdivision of the state, to perform work in connection with a project that has specified characteristics, the contractor is required to execute performance bonds and payment bonds. The act specifies that some of these bonding requirements apply to certain construction contracts situated or located on publicly owned property using public or private money or public or private financing. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Plumbing - registrants' demonstration of competency upon reinstatement - inspections. Section 1 of the act allows the state plumbing board (board) to require plumbing apprentices and plumbing contractors to demonstrate competency before reinstatement of an expired registration. To reinstate a license or registration that has been expired for 2 or more years, a person must demonstrate competency by: Providing verification of a license in good standing from another state and proof of active practice in that state for the year previous to the date of receipt of the reinstatement application; Satisfactorily passing the state plumbing examination; or Any other means approved by the board. To reinstate a license or registration that has been expired for less than 2 years (other than the first renewal or reinstatement of a license for which, as a condition of issuance, the applicant successfully completed a licensing examination), a person must have completed 8 hours of continuing education for every 12 months that have passed after the later of the last date of renewal or reinstatement. The board is required to adopt rules establishing continuing education requirements and standards. Section 2 requires state plumbing inspectors, an incorporated town or city, county, city and county, or qualified state institution of higher education (inspecting entity) to conduct a contemporaneous review of each plumbing project inspected to ensure compliance with the plumbing law, including specifically licensure and apprentice requirements. However, each inspecting entity need not perform a contemporaneous review for each inspection of a project. Each inspecting entity shall develop standard procedures to advise inspectors on how to conduct a contemporaneous review. Each inspecting entity must post its standard procedures on its public website and provide the director of the division of professions and occupations within the department of regulatory agencies with a link to the web page on which the standard procedures have been posted or, if the inspecting entity does not have a website, provide its current procedures to the director for posting on the board's website. The board can issue a cease-and-desist order to an inspecting entity that is conducting inspections that do not comply with statutory requirements. Specified provisions of the act are contingent upon House Bill 19-1172 becoming law. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Oil and gas operations - air quality regulation - local government authority - oil and gas conservation commission - composition - authority - financial assurance requirements - pooling - appropriation. The act prioritizes the protection of public safety, health, welfare, and the environment in the regulation of the oil and gas industry by modifying the oil and gas statutes and by clarifying, reinforcing, or establishing various aspects of local governments' regulatory authority over the surface impacts of oil and gas development. Current law specifies that local governments have so-called "House Bill 1041" powers, which are a type of land use authority over oil and gas mineral extraction areas, only if the Colorado oil and gas conservation commission (commission) has identified a specific area for designation. Sections 1 and 2 of the act repeal that limitation. Section 3 directs the air quality control commission to review its rules to consider whether to adopt more stringent rules and to adopt rules to minimize emissions of methane and other hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, and oxides of nitrogen. Section 4 clarifies that local governments have land use authority to regulate the siting of oil and gas locations to minimize adverse impacts to public safety, health, welfare, and the environment and to regulate land use and surface impacts, including the ability to inspect oil and gas facilities; impose fines for leaks, spills, and emissions; and impose fees on operators or owners to cover the reasonably foreseeable direct and indirect costs of permitting and regulation and the costs of any monitoring and inspection program necessary to address the impacts of development and enforce local governmental requirements. Section 4 also allows a local government or oil and gas operator to request the director of the commission to convene a technical review board to evaluate the effect of the local government's preliminary or final determination on the operator's application. Section 5 repeals an exemption for oil and gas production from counties' authority to regulate noise. The remaining substantive sections of the act amend the "Oil and Gas Conservation Act" (Act). The legislative declaration for the Act states that it is in the public interest to "foster" the development of oil and gas resources in a manner "consistent" with the protection of public health, safety, and welfare, including protection of the environment and wildlife resources; this has been construed to impose a balancing test between fostering oil and gas development and protecting public health, safety, and welfare. Section 6 states that the public interest is to "regulate" oil and gas development to "protect" those values. Currently, the Act defines "waste" to include a diminution in the quantity of oil or gas that ultimately may be produced. Section 7 excludes from that definition the nonproduction of oil or gas as necessary to protect public health, safety, welfare, the environment, or wildlife resources. Section 7 also repeals the requirement that the commission take into consideration cost-effectiveness and technical feasibility with regard to actions and decisions taken to minimize adverse impacts and repeals the limitation of the term "minimize adverse impacts" to wildlife resources. The 9-member commission currently includes the executive directors of the departments of natural resources and public health and environment as ex officio members, 3 members who must have substantial experience in the oil and gas industry, and one member who must have training or experience in environmental or wildlife protection. Section 8 reduces the number of industry members to one and requires one member with training or substantial experience in wildlife protection; one member with training or substantial experience in environmental protection; one member with training or substantial experience in soil conservation or reclamation or technical expertise relevant to the issues considered by the commission; one member who is an active agricultural producer or a royalty owner; and one member with training or substantial experience in public health. This version of the commission is repealed on the earlier of July 1, 2020, or the date on which 3 specific rules promulgated by the commission have become effective. On that date, section 9, which creates a professional 5-member commission (along with the 2 ex officio executive directors), becomes effective. Section 10 requires the director of the commission to hire up to 2 deputy directors. Upon receipt of a request for a technical review, the director is required to appoint technical review board members. The Act currently specifies that the commission has exclusive authority relating to the conservation of oil or gas. Section 11 clarifies that nothing in the Act alters, impairs, or negates the authority of: The air quality control commission to regulate the air pollution associated with oil and gas operations; The water quality control commission to regulate the discharge of water pollutants from oil and gas operations; The state board of health to regulate the disposal of naturally occurring radioactive materials and technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials from oil and gas operations; The solid and hazardous waste commission to regulate the disposal of hazardous waste and exploration and production waste from oil and gas operations; or A local government to regulate land use related to oil and gas operations, including specifically the siting of an oil and gas location. Currently, an operator first gets a permit from the commission to drill one or more wells within a drilling unit, which is located within a defined area, and then notifies the applicable local government of the proposed development and seeks any necessary local government approval. Section 12 requires operators to file, with the application for a permit to drill, either: Proof that the operator has already filed an application with the affected local government to approve the siting of the proposed oil and gas location and of the local government's disposition of the application; or proof that the affected local government does not regulate the siting of oil and gas locations. Section 12 also specifies that, until the commission has promulgated rules regarding 3 specific topics and the rules have become effective, the director may delay the final determination regarding a permit if the director, following a public comment period, determines that the permit requires additional analysis to ensure the protection of public health, safety, and welfare or the environment or requires additional local government or other state agency consultation. Pursuant to commission rule, an operator may submit a statewide blanket financial assurance of $60,000 for fewer than 100 wells or $100,000 for 100 or more wells. Section 12 directs the commission to adopt rules that require financial assurance sufficient to provide adequate coverage for all applicable requirements of the Act. Current law allows the commission to set numerous fees used to administer the Act and sets a $200 or $100 cap on the fees. Section 12 eliminates the caps and requires the commission to set a permit application fee in an amount sufficient to recover the commission's reasonably foreseeable direct and indirect costs in conducting the analysis necessary to assure that permitted operations will be conducted in compliance with all applicable requirements of the Act. Current law gives the commission the authority to regulate oil and gas operations so as to prevent and mitigate "significant" adverse environmental impacts to the extent necessary to protect public health, safety, and welfare, taking into consideration cost-effectiveness and technical feasibility. Section 12 requires the commission to protect and minimize adverse impacts to public health, safety, and welfare, the environment, and wildlife resources and protect against adverse environmental impacts on any air, water, soil, or biological resource resulting from oil and gas operations. Section 12 also requires the commission to adopt rules that require alternate location analyses for oil and gas facilities that are proposed to be located near populated areas and that evaluate and address the cumulative impacts of oil and gas development. Finally, section 12 directs the commission to promulgate rules to: Ensure proper wellbore integrity of all oil and gas production wells, including the use of nondestructive testing of weld joints and requiring certification of several categories of oil and gas workers; Allow public disclosure of flowline information and to evaluate and determine when a deactivated flowline must be inspected before being reactivated; and Evaluate and determine when inactive, temporarily abandoned, and shut-in wells must be inspected before being put into production or used for injection. Section 13 modifies the commission's administrative procedures, including by taking into account determinations made by administrative law judges. Current law authorizes "forced" or "statutory" pooling, a process by which "any interested person", typically an operator who has at least one lease or royalty interest, may apply to the commission for an order to pool oil and gas resources located within a particularly identified drilling unit. After giving notice to interested parties and holding a hearing, the commission can adopt a pooling order to require an owner of oil and gas resources within the drilling unit who has not consented to the application (nonconsenting owner) to allow the operator to produce the oil and gas within the drilling unit notwithstanding the owner's lack of consent. Section 14 requires that the owners of more than 45% of the mineral interests to be pooled must have joined in the application for a pooling order and that the application include either: Proof that the applicant has already filed an application with the affected local government to approve the siting of the proposed oil and gas facilities and of the local government's disposition of the application; or proof that the affected local government does not regulate the siting of oil and gas facilities. Section 14 also specifies that the operator cannot use the surface owned by a nonconsenting owner without permission from the nonconsenting owner. Current law also sets the royalty that a nonconsenting owner is entitled to receive at 12.5% of the full royalty rate until the consenting owners have been fully reimbursed (out of the remaining 87.5% of the nonconsenting owner's royalty) for their costs. Section 14 raises a nonconsenting owner's royalty rate during this pay-back period from 12.5% to 13% for gas and 16% for oil and makes corresponding reductions of the portions of the nonconsenting owner's royalty from which the consenting owners' costs are paid. Current law requires the commission to ensure that the 2-year average of the unobligated portion of the oil and gas conservation and environmental response fund does not exceed $6 million and that there is an adequate balance in the environmental response account in the fund to address environmental response needs. Section 15 directs the commission to ensure that the unobligated portion of the fund does not exceed 50% of total appropriations from the fund for the upcoming fiscal year and that there is an adequate balance in the account to support the operations of the commission and to address environmental response needs. Section 16 specifies that for permit-specific conditions for wildlife habitat protection, the commission is required to consult with and obtain consent from a surface owner only if the permit-specific conditions directly impact the affected surface owner's property or use of that property. Section 17 amends preemption law by specifying that both state agencies and local governments have authority to regulate oil and gas operations and establishes that local government requirements may be more protective or stricter than state requirements. Section 18 appropriates $851,010 to the department of natural resources to implement the act. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Republican river water conservation district - expansion of boundaries - board of directors - composition and meeting schedule. The boundaries of the Republican river water conservation district are currently established by statute as certain counties and portions of counties that are within the Republican river basin. The act expands the boundaries by including the district areas where groundwater pumping depletes the flow of the Republican river as contemplated by applicable United States supreme court case law. The composition of the district's board of directors is adjusted accordingly. Current law requires the Republican river water conservation district board of directors to conduct regular quarterly meetings in January, April, July, and October. The act changes these months to February, May, August, and November. The act requires that each director of the board of directors, at the time of the director's appointment, must be a resident of Colorado; a resident of a county that is, in whole or in part, within the boundaries of the district; and an owner of real property that is within the boundaries of the district from which the director is appointed, as well as within the county or ground water management district from which the director is appointed. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
School districts - organization. The act creates an alternate process for the dissolution and annexation of a school district. Pursuant to the act, if a school district meets specified criteria, the board of education of the school district (local school board) may seek dissolution and annexation of the school district by convening an organization planning committee (committee) that consists of representation from the local school board of the dissolving school district and the local school boards of the contiguous school districts. The local school board of the dissolving school district must notify the commissioner of education (commissioner) when a committee is formed. The committee must create a proposed plan of organization (plan) that dissolves the convening school district and annexes the territory of the dissolved school district to one or more of the contiguous school districts. The act specifies the issues that the committee must consider in creating the plan. After adopting the proposed plan, the committee must submit the proposed plan to the commissioner and the local school boards of the affected school districts and provide notice of public hearings on the proposed plan. After holding public hearings, the committee must work with the commissioner to develop and adopt a final plan of organization. Within a set time after the final plan is adopted, the local school board of each affected school district must adopt the final plan by written resolution. If a local school board does not adopt the plan and there are only 2 affected school districts, or if the plan is not approved by at least 2 of the affected school districts, the committee is dissolved. If fewer than all but at least 2 of the affected school districts approve the plan, the committee may continue and prepare a new plan that involves only the school districts of the local school boards that approved the final approved plan. Following approval of a final plan by the local school boards of all of the affected school districts, the county clerk and recorder for each affected county must file a map and legal description of the annexing school districts with the commissioner. The final plan takes effect on the date specified in the plan, and the final plan must be available for public review upon request. If the dissolved district has a certain level of indebtedness that is not bonded indebtedness, an annexing school district, after the effective date of the annexation and subject to voter approval, may levy a temporary tax of a specified amount on the annexed property to retire the indebtedness. The act clarifies that, if the dissolving school district has bonded indebtedness existing as of the date of the dissolution and annexation and the annexing school district or school districts do not vote to assume the amount of the bonded indebtedness, the bonded indebtedness continues to be paid by the existing levy against the property of the dissolved school district, collected by the annexing school district or school districts. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Area technical colleges - capital construction and equipment requests. The act establishes a grant program to provide up to $4 million annually to area technical colleges (ATC) for specified capital construction and equipment purchases. An ATC may submit a request to the Colorado commission on higher education (commission). If there is more than one request in a year, the ATCs must prioritize the requests. The commission may include the grant request in its budget request for ATCs in the following state fiscal year. If the commission includes more than one request, it must prioritize the requests. If the ATC receives grant money, the ATC must submit a report back to the commission in any year in which it expends grant money.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Register of historic places - approval of multiple property documentation form - state historical society - requirement that applicant obtain consent of affected landowners. Prior to taking any action to approve a multiple property documentation form (form) or to request the approval of the keeper of the national register of historic places of an executed form, the act requires the state historical society to require the applicant to obtain the consent, evidenced by a signature, of each owner of the land and property included within the region of lands described in the form who provided any information or granted access to their land or property.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Farm stands - retail sale of goods permitted - compliance with other applicable laws. The act defines "farm stand" to mean a temporary or permanent structure used for the sale and display of agricultural products resulting from agricultural operations that are conducted on the principal use site on which the farm stand is located. The act permits a farm stand to sell and display agricultural products resulting from agricultural operations not conducted on the principal use site to the extent permitted by the applicable local government. The act permits a farm stand to be located on a parcel of any size. The retail sale of goods to the public by a farm stand must include goods or other agricultural products that are grown or produced on the principal use site on which the farm stand is located or may include agricultural products resulting from agricultural operations that are not conducted on the principal use site to the extent permitted by the applicable local government. The act does not prohibit a local government from requiring the operator of a farm stand to obtain a valid license or permit or to comply with any other applicable laws prior to operating the farm stand, but in no way shall such local permitting, licensing, or other applicable legal requirements deny the use of the site as a farm stand. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
