Rep. Sean Lynn

Under current law, the possession, use, or consumption of a personal use quantity of marijuana remains a crime for those under the age of 21 despite being a civil violation for adults. This Act makes the possession, use, or consumption of a personal use quantity of marijuana a civil violation for juveniles. This Act also makes conforming amendments to subsection (i), regarding expungement of a single criminal offense under subsection (c), as, after the effective date of this Act, subsection (c) will no longer contain a criminal offense.

This bill expands upon the existing at-store recycling program regarding the use of single-use plastic bags. The existing requirements will continue, however stores subject to this program will now be limited from providing single-use plastic bags for only specific uses thereby encouraging a shift to reusable bags. The purpose of the bill, as detailed in the preamble, is to clean up Delaware’s communities and watersheds, reduce storm water and trash management costs to taxpayers, and promote the health and safety of watersheds, wildlife and humans, and the ecosystem’s food chain. On January 1, 2021 this bill enacts a ban on stores providing single-use plastic bags at check-out.

This bill enables a key component of the Take Care Delaware program, a partnership between law enforcement and schools to adopt a trauma-informed approach to children who have been identified at the scene of a traumatic event. The Take Care Delaware program, which will start as a pilot, operates by a police officer or emergency-care provider alerting a child’s school about the child’s presence at a traumatic event that the police officer or emergency-care provider responded to. In order to avoid violations of the State Bureau of Investigation’s dissemination statute and the Victim’s Bill of Rights in Title 11, this bill creates a narrow exception to both statutes that allows police officers and emergency-care providers to send the child’s name to their school district or charter school so that the child’s teachers can ensure the child is handled in a trauma-informed way. The Take Care Delaware program is based on the national “Handle With Care” model and includes training and other best practices for law enforcement and schools to prevent and mitigate the negative impact of childhood exposure to trauma.

This Act makes the possession or consumption of alcohol by an individual under 21 years of age a civil offense. This Act also prohibits including information concerning a civil violation of the underage possession or consumption law on an individual’s certified criminal record.

This bill adds the intentional touching of another person with semen to the definition of sexual contact. By doing so, the act of a person intentionally touching another person with semen without consent becomes the crime of unlawful sexual contact third degree.

This Act establishes that the age of offense and not the age of arrest determines jurisdiction for a person facing charges. Currently, if a person commits a delinquent act before age 18 but is arrested after age 18, the offense is automatically heard before the adult court of jurisdiction. See Howard v. State, 612 A.2d 158 (Del. 1992) (Table). This Act reverses this procedure so that if the offense occurs before the age of 18 and the arrest is after a person’s 18th birthday, but before their 21st birthday, the Family Court will have jurisdiction. However, this Act makes clear that this Act does not preclude prosecuting a person to whom the Act applies as an adult, as permitted in Title 10.

This bill creates an Expanded Learning Opportunities Subcommittee as part of the Interagency Resource Management Committee (IRMC) to provide research, recommendations, and coordination regarding before and after school programs and summer learning opportunities for school-age children. The chairperson of the subcommittee is also added to the Interagency Resource Management Committee as a non-voting member. The creation of an Expanded Learning Opportunities Subcommittee was one of the primary recommendations of the Statewide Afterschool Initiative Task Force, which was created by the 148th General Assembly. The Task Force felt that the design and delivery of services would be enhanced by a standing body tasked with tracking developments across the country and in the State, with a view towards encouraging the development of programs and funding models that maximize positive outcomes.

This Act amends the Charter of the City of Dover to give the City Council the authority to impose and collect a lodging tax.

The Act allows the Kent County Levy Court to impose a lodging tax not greater than 3% in Kent County. This Substitute places the lodging tax imposed by the Act in the same Delaware Code provision where the New Castle County lodging tax is placed and where the Sussex County lodging tax is proposed to be placed by House Bill No. 228 (150th General Assembly). This change in placement also results in excluding rentals by the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control from the lodging tax established by § 8112 of Title 9. This change also does the following: (1) Makes clear that the lodging tax power under § 8112(a) of Title 9 refers to New Castle County. (2) Makes technical corrections to the language of the Act, and existing law, to conform it to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act revises the Delaware Native Species Commission by doing the following: 1. Adds a member from the Delaware Department of Transportation. 2. Removes the requirement that Governor appointees be citizens of this State. 3. Requires that the members who represent stakeholder commercial interests represent those interests in Delaware. 4. Adds 2 additional public members.