Sen. Bruce C. Ennis

Individuals who volunteer their services through stand-alone EMS companies have been a valuable part of public safety to the citizens of the State of Delaware. To try to bolster the ranks of these volunteers, this bill exempts anyone applying for membership of a volunteer EMS company from paying the cost of a background check done by the State of Delaware Bureau of Identification.

This bill reduces the required number of meetings that the Advisory Council on Video Lottery Planning and the Advisory Council on Charitable Gaming Planning must hold each calendar year and authorizes the Lottery Director to add certain sports lottery players to an involuntary exclusion list by order.

This Act enables the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control to employ Seasonal Patrol Officers without conferring on the seasonal patrol officers all the powers of investigation, detention, and arrest conferred by law on peace officers or constables under § 4701(a)(8) of Title 7. Seasonal patrol officers will assist the Department's park rangers and have limited powers to enforce the Division of Parks and Recreation's rules and regulations. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act creates the crimes of unlawful possession of a drug masking product, punishable as a class A misdemeanor, and unlawful distribution, delivery, or sale of a drug masking product, punishable as a class E felony. Drug masking products are designed to be added to human urine or human hair to defraud alcohol or drug urine screening tests.

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 will expand New Castle County’s limited authority to lease park land or land held in public trust to include leases for erecting, maintaining and operating wireless communications facilities. State law currently limits public land leases to those for recreational purposes and related activities. At common law, the State legislature must approve transfers or changes in the use of park land; however, this function may be delegated to municipalities through legislative action. This Act is intended to abrogate the restrictions on permitted uses for public parks, held in a public trust as provided in the common law, including the restrictions set forth in Anderson v. Mayor and Council of Wilmington, 137 A.2d 521 (Del. Ch. 1958) and Lord v. City of Wilmington, 332 A.2d 414 (Del. Ch. 1975), aff'd, 378 A.3d 635 (Del. 1977), and to amend state law to permit specifically a wireless communications lease on such land as minimally intrusive and with the approval of County Council.

This Act authorizes the Department of Health and Social Services to transfer to the Town of Smyrna excess land around the Delaware Hospital for the Chronically Ill, which borders on Lake Como, for $1.00. The land shall be used to expand the size of the park around Lake Como.

The opioid epidemic spreading through Delaware has reached critical levels, with 210 fentanyl-related deaths in 2017. This legislation will update the schedule for Fentanyl analogues, consistent with language used by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The Forensic Chemistry Unit at the Division of Forensic Science has confirmed the presence of these analogues in Delaware, but some of which are not currently scheduled under Title 16. This is directly related to continuous structural modifications of Fentanyl by illicit manufacturers. This legislation will close that gap and provide clarity to Title 16, consistent with federal law, by addressing ever-changing structural modifications being made in the illicit manufacture of Fentanyl. This legislative is aimed to curb the manufacture and distribution of illicit Fentanyl analogues and has no impact on the legal manufacture of Fentanyl for medical use.

This Act revises the membership of the Fund Committee for special animal welfare license plates by including the Executive Directors of organizations instead of the presidents of the organization’s board of directors and adds the Executive Director of the Brandywine Valley SPCA to the Fund Committee. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Bill establishes the pilotage rates for the Pilots’ Association for the Bay and River Delaware for 2020, 2021 and 2022.