The act establishes the early intervention, deflection, and redirection from the criminal justice system grant program (grant program) in the behavioral health administration (BHA) to provide grants to fund programs and strategies that prevent people with behavioral health needs from becoming involved with the criminal justice system or that redirect individuals in the criminal justice system with behavioral health needs from the system to appropriate services. Local governments, federally recognized Indian tribes, hospitals, health-care providers, and community-based organizations are eligible for a grant; local law enforcement agencies are eligible for a grant only for the purpose of developing or expanding a co-responder community response program. In order to receive a grant, an applicant must offer a monetary contribution or in-kind contributions that directly support the services provided with the grant award. The BHA may waive the monetary or in-kind contribution requirement for applicants requesting a grant of less than $50,000. The BHA administers the grant program in consultation with the department of public safety. The act establishes a review committee to review grant applications and make recommendations to the BHA and department of public safety about which applicants should receive grants and the amount of each grant. After receiving and reviewing recommendations from the review committee and after consultation with the department of public safety, the BHA shall award grants. Each grant recipient must report to the BHA information about the use of the grant. The bill requires the general assembly to appropriate $50.7 million from the behavioral and mental health cash fund to the department of human services for the grant program. The act requires the general assembly to appropriate $3 million from the behavioral and mental health cash fund to the department of corrections (department) to provide medication-assisted treatment to individuals who are placed in the custody of the department. The department shall use the money for upgrades necessary to store medications at department facilities, for providing continuity of care for inmates with a substance use disorder between institutional settings and community-based treatment, and for facilitating long-term treatment and recovery of individuals upon release. The act requires the general assembly to appropriate $4 million from the behavioral and mental health cash fund to the judicial department for allocation to district attorneys for pretrial diversion programs. The judicial department is required to allocate $1.8 million of the money to recipients that provide diversion for individuals with behavioral health disorders. A district attorney who receives funding for a pretrial diversion program is required report the number of people screened for and referred to behavioral health treatment. The act creates the behavioral health information and data sharing program to award grants to counties to integrate the county jails' data systems with the Colorado integrated criminal justice information system. The division of criminal justice (division) within the department of public safety administers the program. The division is required to collaborate with the office of information technology to oversee the implementation of data-sharing systems or software necessary to exchange information with the Colorado integrated criminal justice information system. The act requires the general assembly to appropriate $3.5 million from the behavioral and mental health cash fund for the program. The act requires the state department of health care policy and financing (HCPF) to evaluate and determine whether the state should seek additional federal authority to provide screening, brief intervention, and care coordination services through the medical assistance program to persons immediately prior to release from jail or a department of corrections facility and to improve processes for determining and redetermining individuals for medical assistance eligibility. If HCPF determines that the state should request federal authority, HCPF must make the request and, if the requested federal authority is granted, provide the benefits. If HCPF determines that the state should not request federal authority, HCPF must submit a report to the joint budget committee of the general assembly that includes an alternate plan to ensure continuity of care for individuals being released from jail or prison. The act requires HCPF to determine whether federal authority is necessary to provide benefit coverage under the medical assistance program to people who are on work release from jail. The act requires each county jail to report quarterly about the number of inmates whose medicaid is suspended while incarcerated and the number of incarcerated inmates who are enrolled in, or whose medicaid is reinstated, prior to release. The act requires a county jail to provide medicaid enrollment or re-enrollment paperwork to a person who is incarcerated in the jail and is eligible for medicaid benefits when the person enters the county jail. The act requires an administrator of a community corrections program to partner with a county department of human or social services to facilitate enrolling each offender participating in the program into medicaid. The act makes the following appropriations from the behavioral and mental health cash fund: $50.7 million to the department of human services for use by the BHA for the grant program; $4 million to the judicial department for adult district attorney pretrial diversion programs; $3.5 million to the department of public safety for behavioral health information and data sharing grants, of which, $1,760,709 is reappropriated to the office of information technology; and $3 million to the department of corrections for its mental health subprogram. The act appropriates $81,164 from the general fund to the department of health care policy and financing. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
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The act expands the statutory list of state laws for which the attorney general may bring civil and criminal enforcement actions to include various statutory provisions relating to housing. The act also creates the fair housing unit within the department of law. When there is reason to believe that there is a potential violation of law that risks harm to a consumer, public health, or public safety, that is based on a substantiated complaint, the act permits the attorney general to investigate any person or organization that is otherwise subject to the attorney general's existing statutory authority. A complaint is not necessary if the information is provided by an agency of the federal, state, or a local government that regulates or provides protections for consumers, tenants, and mobile home residents. The attorney general may direct or subpoena any person whose testimony may be required about potential violations of law and may direct or subpoena the person to produce records the attorney general considers relevant to the inquiry. Nothing in the act impacts or affects banking examinations and regulations promulgated by primary federal and state banking authorities, notwithstanding the attorney general's existing legal authority. When the attorney general has reasonable cause to believe that any person, whether in this state or elsewhere, has engaged in or is engaging in a violation of certain housing-related statutes, the attorney general may take various steps, enumerated in the act, to investigate the possible violation. The act specifies requirements concerning the venue in which enforcement actions may be brought, the issuance of subpoenas and the production of documents, admissibility of testimony, remedies for failure to cooperate or to obey a subpoena, injunctive authority and assurances of discontinuances, penalties, and the limitations period governing the filing of an action alleging violations of housing-related statutes. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act establishes a revolving loan and grant program to provide assistance and financing to mobile home owners seeking to organize and purchase their mobile home parks. The division of housing (division) in the department of local affairs (department) is required to contract with at least 2, and not more than 3, loan program administrators, unless the division determines that there is only one qualified applicant during an open and competitive selection process, in which case the division may contract with a single administrator. The administrators are required to use money provided by the loan program to make loans to mobile home owners seeking to purchase their mobile home parks. The division is required to establish a grant program to provide grants to nonprofit organizations that provide technical and other assistance to eligible home owners seeking to organize to purchase their mobile home parks. The division is also required to establish a grant program to provide grants to eligible home owners to support programs to ensure the long term affordability of a resident-owned park, including by stabilizing lot rents and limiting rent increases. The mobile home park resident empowerment loan and grant program fund (fund) is created. The state treasurer is required to transfer $35 million of money from the affordable housing and home ownership cash fund that originates from the general fund to the fund. The money in the fund is continuously appropriated to the department to implement the loan and grant program; except that $384,019 is reappropriated to the office of the governor for use by the office of information technology to provide information technology services for the department and $29,571 is reappropriated to the department of law to provide legal services to the department. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The bill prohibits a law enforcement officer or an agent who assists, cooperates with, or otherwise facilitates a custodial interrogation ( interrogation) with a juvenile (law enforcement official) from using deception and false facts or beliefs (deception) to obtain a statement or admission from the juvenile. Any statement or admission obtained during the course of a juvenile custodial interrogation in which a law enforcement official knowingly uses deception is presumptively inadmissible against the juvenile in an evidentiary hearing unless the prosecution proves by clear and convincing evidence that the statement or admission was made voluntarily. The bill requires law enforcement officials to electronically record all juvenile custodial interrogations.The bill instructs the P.O.S.T. board to develop an in-person interactive training program for peace officers on the uniform standards regarding interrogations of juveniles. The training must provide education for peace officers on juvenile development and culture and its impact on interrogations; interpreting juvenile behavior during an interrogation; techniques for building and establishing rapport during an interrogation; constructing age appropriate questions; and cautions and considerations for interrogating juveniles in custody. (Note: Italicized words indicate new material added to the original summary; dashes through words indicate deletions from the original summary.) (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)
The bill makes the following modifications to statutory provisions governing special districts to increase the accountability of special districts to taxpayers: If a separate legal entity established by contract includes one or more special districts, requires the separate legal entity to file with the division of local government in the department of local affairs certain financial information pertaining to the special district. In such circumstances, the directors of the special district are also required to comply with oath and bond requirements for directors of special districts.Expands existing requirements on the information a metropolitan district must include on its public website to include information that is required by the service plan of the metropolitan district, by an ordinance or resolution adopted by the board of commissioners of a county, or by the governing body of a municipality, as applicable;Expands the applicability of statutory provisions governing the approval and oversight of special districts to specify that these provisions do not apply when a special district that was originally approved at any time thereafter becomes wholly included within the boundaries of one or more municipalities;Specifies information to be included in the financial plan that a new district submits along with its service plan;Removes an existing cap on the amount of the fee that a special district must pay the board of county commissioners for processing review of a service plan; For any proposed special metropolitan district that has any property within its boundaries that is zoned or valued for assessment as residential, enumerates certain acts that are disallowed for any service plan required to be filed by the district. A local government acting on a service plan is prohibited from approving a service plan for a special metropolitan district that permits any of these same acts the purchase of district debt by any entity with respect to which any director of the district has a conflict of interest necessitating disclosure .Clarifies requirements affecting the oversight by a municipality that is wholly contained within the boundaries of the municipality, especially in connection with an annexing municipality;Expands the circumstances under which material modifications of a special district's service plan are approved by the county or municipality, as applicable, to include the situation when the special district after initial approval of the plan becomes wholly included within the boundaries of a newly annexed municipality;Specifies that approval is also required for any action or omission of a special district that is materially inconsistent with the district's service plan. Expands the list of examples of acts or omissions necessitating approval.Authorizes a board of county commissioners for a district that lies entirely within the territorial boundaries of a county or the governing body of a municipality for a district that lies entirely within the boundaries of a municipality to impose a fee to offset the costs incurred by the county or municipality, as applicable, in reviewing the operations of the district and the district's compliance with its service plan. The fee is not payable more than once annually. Prohibits a member of the board of a district that approved the issuance of any debt while the member was serving on the board from thereafter acquiring any interest in the debt individually or on behalf of any organization or entity for which the board member is engaged as an employee, counsel, consultant, representative, or agent; except that this requirement does not apply to debt acquired indirectly through an investment fund if the member has no input into or control over the individual securities that the fund purchases; Prior to issuing debt to a director of a metropolitan district or to an entity with respect to which a director of a metropolitan district must make disclosure of a conflict of interest, the bill requires the board of the metropolitan district to receive a statement of a registered municipal advisor certifying that the interest rate of the debt does not exceed the lesser of: The interest rate allowed under a method of calculation specified in the bill; or The current market interest rate for the debt based on criteria determined by the municipal advisor, examples of which are listed in the bill; Requires all meetings of a board of a special district that are held solely at physical locations to be held at physical locations that are within the boundaries of the district or that are within the boundaries of any county in which the district is located, in whole or in part, without exceptions or the possibility of a waiver;Clarifies that the powers of the board of directors of any metropolitan district are limited by the district's service plan;On and after September 1, 2022, prohibits a metropolitan district from entering into any new contract or agreement as of that date to furnish covenant enforcement and design review services. On and after September 1, 2022, the bill prohibits a metropolitan district from renewing any existing agreement entered into prior to that date to furnish covenant enforcement and design review services. Upon the expiration of the agreement, the master association or similar entity contracting with the metropolitan district is required to assume covenant enforcement and design review services.Under current law, under specified circumstances, the board of county commissioners or the governing body of the municipality that has adopted a resolution of approval of the special district may require the board of the special district to file an application for a finding of reasonable diligence every 5 years. The bill makes this an annual requirement. Makes proof of the commission of such act by a preponderance of the evidence proof that the director has breached the director's fiduciary duty and the public trust. (Note: Italicized words indicate new material added to the original summary; dashes through words indicate deletions from the original summary.) (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)
The act creates specific elements for public benefits theft in the theft statute. A person commits public benefits theft when a person intentionally misrepresents or withholds a material fact for determining eligibility, and does so for the purpose of obtaining or retaining public benefits for which the person is not eligible. A person's conduct that is limited to the elements of public benefits theft is not subject to prosecution pursuant to any other provision of the theft statute. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act finds that some criminal defendants were not effectively advised of immigration consequences to a guilty plea, and therefore, these defendants did not knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily enter a guilty plea. The act authorizes these persons to petition the court for an order vacating the guilty plea. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Current law regulating campaign finance does not set limits on contributions to candidates for school district director. The act: Sets aggregate limits on contributions to candidates for school district director from persons other than small donor committees for any regular biennial or special school election in the amount of $2,500; and Sets aggregate limits on contributions to candidates for school district director from small donor committees for any regular biennial or special school election in the amount of $25,000. The act requires that these aggregate contribution limits be periodically adjusted for inflation consistent with other contribution limits. The new contribution limits are subject to existing statutory provisions governing the disclosure of campaign contributions. The act contains requirements governing when a candidate for school district director is required to disclose information concerning campaign contributions and clarifies that such candidates are required to file their disclosure with the secretary of state. The act applies to the portion of any election cycle or for the portion of the calendar year remaining after July 1, 2022, and for any election cycle or calendar year commencing after said date. For the 2022-23 state fiscal year, the act appropriates $7,500 to the department of state for hardware/software maintenance required for the act's implementation. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
During the 2021 session, the general assembly created a civil infraction as penalty for violations of the law that do not rise to criminal conduct and included procedures for civil infractions. The act repeals those provisions and replaces them with new procedures for handling civil infractions. The act makes conforming amendments related to civil infractions. The act makes clean-up changes to other provisions to conform to changes made to criminal sentencing provisions during the 2021 session. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Colorado's statutory homestead exemption exempts a portion of a homestead from seizure to satisfy a debt, contract, or civil obligation. Section 2 increases the amount of the homestead exemption: From $75,000 to $250,000 if the homestead is occupied as a home by an owner of the home or an owner's family; and From $105,000 to $350,000 if the homestead is occupied as a home by an owner who is elderly or disabled, an owner's spouse who is elderly or disabled, or an owner's dependent who is elderly or disabled. Section 3 expands the meaning of "homestead" to expressly include a "dwelling", and section 4 defines a dwelling as conventional housing and personal property that is actually used as a residence, including any vehicle, trailer, vessel, camper coach, mounted equipment, railway car, shipping or cargo container, shed, yurt, or tiny home. Under current law, the proceeds from a homestead exemption or, if a homestead property is sold by the owner, the proceeds from the sale are exempt from execution or attachment for a period of 2 years if the person entitled to the exemption keeps the exempted proceeds separate and apart from other money. Section 5 expands this period to 3 years and extends the exemption to apply to proceeds from insurance covering destruction of homestead property, which proceeds are held for use in restoring or replacing the homestead property. Section 6 increases the maximum amounts of existing exemptions from levy and sale under a writ of attachment or execution for certain types of property and creates new exemptions for: Firearms and hunting and fishing equipment; Economic impact payments; Health savings accounts; and Money placed into a life expectancy set-aside account or similar reserve fund, escrow, or impound account, which money is derived from reverse mortgage proceeds that are designated for specific uses. Section 6 also recreates and decreases an exemption for money in depository accounts. Sections 6, 7, and 8 remove a requirement that a person must deposit child support payments in an account designated for the child and, with regard to child support payments and unemployment benefits, not commingle funds in order to claim an exemption for child support payments or an exemption for unemployment benefits. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)