The office of information technology (office) is required to initiate the procurement of information technology (IT) resources and is required to participate in other IT procurement-related activities on behalf of a state agency; except that a state agency may initiate solicitations and contracts for IT resources with prior approval of the procurement official of the office. If a state agency does not receive written approval or disapproval from the procurement official for the office within 30 business days after submitting a procurement request to the office for review, the state agency may assume that it has received the prior approval of the office and is authorized to initiate the procurement or solicitation process. The balance of the existing technology risk prevention and response fund (fund) is capped at $50 million. The office may contribute money to the fund from the operations and maintenance fees associated with the billing practices of the office. Any money appropriated from the general fund to the office or a state agency for the procurement of IT resources or projects that is unexpended or unencumbered at the end of a fiscal year as a result of savings achieved in connection with such procurement must be transferred to the fund. A contract for the licensing of software applications that are designed to run on generally available desktop or server hardware cannot limit a governmental body's ability to install or run the software on the hardware of the governmental body's choosing. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
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The legislative oversight in connection with any telecommunications coordination within state government is moved from the joint technology committee of the general assembly to the department of public safety's legislative oversight committee pursuant to the "State Measurement for Accountable, Responsive, and Transparent (SMART) Government Act". On July 1, 2023, the powers, duties, and functions related to public safety telecommunications coordination within state government (public safety communications) are transferred from the chief information officer in the office of information technology to the department of public safety (department). The transferred powers, duties, and functions are allocated to the division of homeland security and emergency management (division) in the department. In addition, employees, property, and policies of the office of information technology related to public safety communications are transferred to the division on July 1, 2023. The office of public safety communications (office) and the director of the office are created in the division. The public safety communications revolving fund (revolving fund) is also created. The money in the revolving fund is continuously appropriated to the office to pay the direct and indirect costs, including personal services and operating costs, associated with administering public safety communications. The office is required to develop a method for billing users of the office's services the full cost of the services. The billing method is required to be implemented on or before July 1, 2023. Revenue generated from such billing is credited to the revolving fund. The office is authorized to seek, accept, and expend gifts, grants, donations, and bequests from private or public sources for the direct and indirect costs associated with administering public safety communications. The existing state public safety communications network is relocated to the office. The act specifies the duties and responsibilities of the director of the office that were formerly the duties and responsibilities of the chief information officer of the office of information technology. The duties and responsibilities include: Formulating recommendations for a current and long-range public safety communications plan and administering the plan; Reviewing all existing and future state-owned public safety communications applications, planning, networks, systems, programs, equipment, and facilities and establishing priorities for those applications; Approving or disapproving the acquisition of public safety communications equipment by any state entity; Establishing and enforcing public safety communications policies, procedures, standards, and records for management of public safety communications networks and facilities for all state entities; Reviewing, assessing, and ensuring compliance with federal and state public safety communications regulations pertaining to the needs and functions of state entities; Advising the governor and general assembly on public safety communications matters; Administering the public safety communications trust fund; Adopting recommended standards for the replacement of analog-based radio equipment with digital-based radio equipment for purposes of dispatching and related functions within the department of public safety; and For purposes of serving the radio communications needs of state departments, adopting standards and policies and setting a recommended timetable for the replacement of existing radio public safety communications equipment with a system that satisfies the requirements of the federal communications commission public safety national plan. The director of the office may enter into contracts, formerly entered into by the chief information officer, with specified public entities and may act as a public safety communications network provider to provide public safety radio communications between or among 2 or more counties or state agencies. The act specifies when users of public safety radio systems, including public entities and privately owned businesses, will be charged fees for the service, including the cost of material, labor, and overhead. The executive director of the department is required to exercise the powers, duties, and functions regarding the existing tactical and long-term interoperable communications plan to improve the ability of the public safety agencies of state government to communicate with public safety agencies of the federal government, regions, local governments, and other states. The director of the office is required to update and revise the tactical and long-term interoperable communications plan at least once every 3 years. The act relocates the existing public safety communications trust fund, specifies the sources of money in the trust fund, specifies the purposes for which money in the trust fund must be used, and requires $7,250,000 to be transferred from the general fund or any other fund to the trust fund during state fiscal years 2023-24 and 2024-25. The chief information officer is required to begin the transfer of the public safety telecommunications program to the department of public safety on July 1, 2022. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Under current law, with limited exceptions, a public trustee must release a deed of trust upon the satisfaction of certain preconditions, one of which is the production of the original canceled evidence of debt such as a note or bond as evidence that the indebtedness secured by the deed of trust has been paid. To this requirement, the act adds another exception. That is, a holder of the original evidence of debt may request the release of a deed of trust without producing or exhibiting the original evidence of debt if the holder: Agrees to indemnify and defend the public trustee against any claim for damages resulting from the action of the public trustee taken in accordance with the request; Provides the public trustee a current address for the original grantor, assuming party, or current owner when requesting the release of the deed of trust; and Files the request for the release of the deed of trust electronically via the county's electronic recording system. The act also removes language requiring a title insurance company to be "qualified" as well as licensed in Colorado for certain purposes relating to the release of a deed of trust. Further, the act makes necessary changes to the statutory form that is used to request a deed of trust without producing the evidence of debt. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act creates the middle-income housing authority (authority) for the purpose of acquiring, constructing, rehabilitating, owning, operating, and financing affordable rental housing projects for middle-income workforce housing. The authority is governed by a board of directors composed of appointees by the governor with the consent of the senate. The bill specifies requirements governing the appointment of board members and other administrative details. The board must solicit project proposals by October 1, 2022. Rental units in affordable rental housing projects must provide middle-income workforce housing with stable rents. The authority is a "public entity" and is a "special purpose authority" for the purpose of TABOR. The authority is authorized to exercise the powers necessary to acquire, construct, rehabilitate, own, operate, and finance affordable rental housing projects, including but not limited to: The power to issue bonds in connection with its affordable rental housing projects payable solely from revenues from affordable rental housing projects and with no recourse to the state; The power to enter into public-private partnerships and to contract with experienced real estate professionals to develop and operate affordable rental housing projects; The power to employ its own personnel or contract with public or private entities, or both, for services necessary or convenient to the conduct of all of the authority's activities; To provide assistance to tenants in its rental housing to enable a transition to home ownership; and To establish one or more controlled entities to carry out its activities.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act requires the director of the Colorado energy office (office) and the executive director of the department of local affairs to appoint an energy code board (board) that will develop for adoption by counties, municipalities, and state agencies 2 sets of model codes. The director of the office and the executive director of the department shall also appoint an executive committee for the board. The board shall develop a model electric and solar ready code on or before June 1, 2023, and a model low energy and carbon code on or before July 1, 2025. The office shall, independent of the board, identify model green code language for adoption by counties, municipalities, and state agencies. Every element of either model code adopted by the board must be approved by two-thirds of the board. If two-thirds of the board fail to adopt an element required by statute for either model code, the executive committee must vote on that element. An element of either model code must be approved by the majority of the executive committee to be adopted. In the event of a conflict between the 2021 international energy conservation code, the 2024 international energy conservation code, the model electric ready and solar ready code, or any other model codes adopted by either a local government or divisions in the executive branch and either the Colorado plumbing code or the national electric code, the Colorado plumbing code or the national electric code prevails. The act establishes when the office of the state architect, the division of housing, and the division of fire prevention and control must adopt and enforce codes that achieve equivalent or better energy performance than the codes adopted by the board as follows: On or before January 1, 2025, the office of the state architect, the division of housing, and the division of fire prevention and control shall adopt and enforce an energy code that achieves equivalent or better energy performance than the 2021 international energy conservation code and the model electric and solar ready code developed by the board; and On or before January 1, 2030, the office of the state architect, the division of housing, and the division of fire prevention and control shall adopt and enforce an energy code that achieves equivalent or better energy and carbon emissions performance than the model low energy and carbon code developed by the board. Likewise, the act establishes when municipalities and counties must adopt and enforce codes that achieve equivalent or better energy performance than the codes adopted by the board as follows: On or after July 1, 2023, and before July 1, 2026, municipalities and counties that update a building code shall adopt and enforce an energy code that achieves equivalent or better energy performance than the 2021 international energy conservation code and the model electric and solar ready code developed by the board; and On or after July 1, 2026, municipalities and counties that update a building code shall adopt and enforce an energy code that achieves equivalent or better energy performance than the model low energy and carbon code language developed by the board. However, rather than either the model electric and solar ready code or the model low energy and carbon code, a rural county that applies for and is not awarded a grant that significantly assists in energy code adoption and enforcement training is instead required to adopt and enforce an energy code that achieves equivalent or better energy performance than one of the 3 most recent editions of the international energy conservation code. The act also creates 2 primary grant programs that will be administered by the office: The building electrification for public buildings grant program to provide grants to local governments, school districts, state agencies, and special districts for the installation of high-efficiency electric heating equipment; and The high-efficiency electric heating and appliances grant program to provide grants to local governments, utilities, nonprofit organizations, and housing developers for the installation of high-efficiency electric heating equipment in multiple structures within a neighborhood and the purchase of electrical installations and upgrades necessary to support the installation of high-efficiency electric equipment. The clean air building investments fund, a continuously appropriated cash fund, is established by the act to fund the creation, implementation, and administration of both of these grant programs. Lastly, the act also requires the following transfers from the general fund: $3 million to the energy fund created for the office to issue grants and provide training related to the 2021 international energy conservation code, electric and solar ready codes, and low energy and carbon codes; $150,000 to the energy fund created for the office for the costs associated with administering the board; $10 million to the clean air building investments fund for the creation, implementation, and administration of the building electrification for public buildings grant program; and $10,850,000 to the clean air building investments fund for the creation, implementation, and administration of the high-efficiency electric heating and appliances grant program.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act requires the Colorado energy office (office), in collaboration with the department of local affairs (department) and the Colorado resiliency office (resiliency office), to develop a grid resilience and reliability roadmap (roadmap) for improving the resilience and reliability of electric grids in the state (grid), which roadmap must include guidance on how microgrids may be used to harden the grid, improve grid resilience and reliability, deliver electricity where extending distribution infrastructure may not be practicable, and operate autonomously and independent of the grid, when necessary. In developing the roadmap, the office, department, and resiliency office are required to engage interested persons throughout the state in stakeholder meetings and consider stakeholder input. The roadmap may identify: The potential benefits of developing microgrids, including whether and how developing microgrids improves grid resilience and reliability; The critical facilities and infrastructure and the high-risk communities that should be prioritized for microgrid projects (projects); and Recommendations regarding potential legislative or administrative changes needed to help facilitate projects, including needed statutory or rule changes, key factors to consider regarding the safety, development, maintenance, and deployment of microgrids, metrics for evaluating the costs and benefits of microgrids, financial and technical support for microgrid deployment, and education and outreach programs, including apprenticeship programs. The office is required to post a draft of the roadmap on its website on or before July 1, 2024, and the office and department are required to post the completed roadmap on their websites. The office is also required to submit a copy of the roadmap to the public utilities commission (commission), and, on or before March 1, 2025, in collaboration with the department, present the roadmap to the legislative committees of reference with jurisdiction over energy matters. On a periodic basis at least every 5 years, the office, department, and resiliency office are required to review the roadmap and, if necessary, update it. If the roadmap is updated, it must be posted on the office's and department's websites and submitted to the commission and the legislative committees of reference with jurisdiction over energy matters. For the 2022-23 state fiscal year, $22,470 is appropriated from the general fund to the office of the governor for use by the Colorado energy office to develop the roadmap. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Under existing law, a pawnbroker is a person who regularly engages in the business of making contracts for purchase or purchase transactions in the course of his or her business. The act amends the definition of pawnbroker so that a person who is regularly engaged in the business of making purchase transactions is a pawnbroker only if the person also engages in the business of making contracts for purchase. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act allows a person whose residence has been destroyed or rendered uninhabitable by a natural disaster or by other means to maintain residency for purposes of voting at the address of the destroyed residence if the person intends to return to the residence once it is replaced or becomes habitable. In such a case, the person's residence given for motor vehicle registration and for state income tax purposes is not required to be the same as the person's residence for voting purposes. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act concerns provisions of a public school contract, which is defined in the act as an agreement between a public school contracting entity and a contractor where the principal purpose is to acquire supplies, services, or construction or to dispose of supplies for the direct benefit of or in support of a public school other than an agreement for the acquisition of certain types of professional services. For public school contracts executed on or after July 1, 2022, the act requires specified provisions to be included in a public school contract, states that a public school contract shall be deemed to include such provisions if they are inadvertently or otherwise omitted, and specifies that certain specified types of terms or conditions in a public school contract, including any provision that conflicts with Colorado law or rules or any provision required to be included in a public school contract, are void. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)