Sen. Bruce C. Ennis

This Act allows special investigators with the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families to make arrests and render assistance to other police officers. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

State economic development officials pursue economic development opportunities that, if realized, would have significant impact on Delaware's future economic health and competitiveness. Such situations frequently require expeditious action and the need to enhance Delaware's transportation infrastructure on a timeline and schedule that is outside the 6 year Capital Transportation Program. To meet these challenges, this Act establishes the Transportation Infrastructure Investment Fund to provide economic assistance for renovation, construction, or any other type of improvements to roads and related transportation infrastructure in order to attract new businesses to Delaware, or for the expansion of existing Delaware businesses, when such an economic development opportunity would create a significant number of direct, permanent, quality, full-time jobs.

This Act expands the permitted uses of unclaimed electric cooperative capital credits to include investments in energy services for low income members and energy efficiency, renewable energy, battery storage, electrification and emerging energy technology programs. The bill also amends the annual reporting requirements to include an itemization of the amount allocated each year to low income assistance, energy efficiency and renewable technologies, and non-profit donations.

This Act amends the Delaware Hazardous Substance Control Act to reflect recent amendments to the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). This Act protects state, county, and municipal government entities from being deemed liable as “owners or operators” of hazardous substance release sites when they take title to or control of such properties through the exercise of their lawful governmental powers. Additionally, this Act protects land banks established pursuant to the Delaware Neighborhood Conservation and Land Banking Act when they assume ownership of potentially contaminated properties in accordance with the provisions and requirements of the Land Banking Act.

The purpose of the Bill is to update the existing beekeeping code to better reflect current practices.

This act designates the Bellanca Cruisair as the official historical aircraft of Delaware.

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 will enable New Castle County to collect delinquent sewer service charges under the procedures established by Chapter 87 of Title 9 for the collection of delinquent county taxes. Under the existing method for New Castle County established by Chapter 22, Subchapter II (Monition Method of Sale in New Castle County), of Title 9 for the collection of delinquent sewer service charges, a jury trial must be held if the property owner or an interested party submits an affidavit of defense denying the service charges in whole or in part. In addition, under Section 2211 of Title 9, County Council must first levy the delinquent sewer service charges as an assessment prior to the institution of any legal proceedings. This Act removes the existing sewer monition method of sale in its entirety and will enable New Castle County to collect delinquent sewer service charges in the same manner as taxes are collected under the less burdensome and more efficient monition method of sale established by Chapter 87 of Title 9.

This Act authorizes the Department of Agriculture to impose civil penalties consistent with the amounts imposed in other states when livestock have been found to have run at large on the public highways or on unenclosed land within the State. This Act adds a provision as exists in the Delaware False Claims Act, 6 Del. C §1204(f), allowing for the enforcement as judgments of administrative orders that are final and no longer subject to judicial review. Lastly, the Act makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act allows for the transfer of a particular parcel of land in Smyrna along Route 13. In the 147th General Assembly, the State was allowed to transfer this parcel of land, where a fire tower once stood, to the Town of Smyrna, but the land could only ever be used for a public purpose. The parcel in question is surrounded on both sides by parcels owned by the same private citizen. The Town and the private citizen wish to exchange their respective parcels so that the private citizen’s two parcels are thereafter contiguous. Because the land reverts to the ownership of the State if it ever stops being used for a public purpose, the Town cannot deed the land to the private individual. Therefore, this Act allows the State to receive the parcel from the Town and to then re-convey it to the Town without the requirement that it be forever used for a public purpose. The reconveyance will, however, allow the State to put an antenna on any water tower that the Town may build on the parcel or an adjacent parcel.