This Bill creates a tax exemption for non-profit owned swimming pools in New Castle County and Kent County. Sussex County has no similar exemption statute.
This Senate Concurrent Resolution creates a Delaware Youth Drug Prevention Curriculum Task Force to examine available drug prevention programs and to recommend a course of action to educate our youth about the dangers of drug, alcohol, and tobacco use to reduce the chance that youth will experiment with these substances.
This Act brings Delaware sex offender registration laws into compliance with the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act ("SORNA") by standardizing the tier designation of sex offenders are assigned based upon offense of conviction. This Act removes discretion previously granted to the Board of Parole to redesignate sex offenders and standardizes designation in a manner consistent with established Superior Court precedent. See State v. Brown, 2013 WL 2149882 (Del. Super. 2013); Lane v. Board of Parole, 2012 WL 5509711 (Del. Super. 2012). Finally, this Act streamlines the designation process by directing review to the Superior Court in the first instance.
This Act prohibits the use and dissemination of information obtained from the machine readable zone of a driver's license or identification card issued by the Division of Motor Vehicles, with limited exceptions. This Act seeks to protect members of the public at large from having their personal information used for purposes other than those enumerated in this act. Various states have taken similar action to protect the personal information of citizens. This Act is modeled after legislation that was passed in Virginia. The Act is substituted for Senate Bill No. 255 and differs from Senate Bill No. 255 by (1) moving the legislation to Subchapter I (General Provisions) of Chapter 25 (Prohibited Trade Practices) of Title 6 of the Delaware Code; (2) providing a definition for the term “merchant”; (3) correcting the name of the Division of Motor Vehicles; (4) clarifying the existence of both a private cause of action and enforcement authority by the Department of Justice’s Consumer Protection Unit; (5) changing the term “criminal activity” to “unlawful activity” wherever it appears; (6) clarifying the Act’s language relating to check services companies; and (7) making technical corrections to conform the Act to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
Importers, manufacturers and dealers of “destructive weapons” are licensed and regulated under Federal law. Under existing Delaware law, importers, manufacturers and dealers of destructive weapons are not permitted to deliver them to purchasers in Delaware who are otherwise permitted to own such weapons, such as military or police forces. This Bill will permit properly licensed importers, manufacturers and dealers to possess and store destructive weapons in this State and engage in activities associated with the sale and delivery of such weapons to (or from) qualified purchasers. All other changes made by this Act are technical corrections to conform the existing law to the guidelines of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
The Certification of Adoption of Sustainability and Transparency Standards Act (the “Act”) establishes a voluntary disclosure regime to foster dialogue around sustainability and responsibility among participating Delaware business entities and their various stakeholders. Because issues relating to sustainability and responsibility are fact-specific and fact-intensive and may vary greatly depending on, among other things, the size of the entity, the nature of its business and operations, and the industry in which it operates, the Act does not prescribe specific standards, measures of performance or criteria for evaluating performance. Rather, consistent with the enabling approach of Delaware business laws generally, the Act requires the governing body of each entity seeking certification under the Act to adopt principles, guidelines and standards to guide its business activities in a sustainable and responsible manner, as well as metrics for assessing whether it has met its objectives. Although Section 5003D of the Act grants the Secretary of State of the State of Delaware (the “Secretary of State”) the authority and discretion to provide the form of application for certification under the Act, the Act does not contemplate that State officers will make qualitative judgments regarding the standards or metrics that an entity adopts. The Act also does not contemplate or require that State officers determine qualitatively whether an entity has been operated in a sustainable and responsible manner. The Secretary of State's certification is focused on information acknowledged by an authorized representative of the entity regarding its adoption of procedures to operate sustainably and responsibly and its commitment to disclose, at least annually, such procedures. To that end, Section 5003D of the Act requires an entity applying for certification under the Act to make disclosures regarding the sustainability and responsibility standards it has adopted, the metrics it uses to evaluate whether it has met those standards, and its performance in meeting those standards. The Act is entirely voluntary. The decision whether to seek certification is in the sole discretion of each entity. The Act imposes no obligations on any Delaware entities that have not elected certification. (Of course, any person or entity that misrepresents an entity's certified status may be subject to civil or criminal fines or penalties.) The Act does not impose fines or penalties on entities that elect not to seek certification, nor does it impose penalties or fines on entities that, having become certified, fail to satisfy their own performance standards. Moreover, the Act specifies that fiduciary liability shall not be imposed as a result of, among other things, the decision whether or not to seek certification or the failure to meet specific sustainability and responsibility standards.
This Act ensures that the spouses of those killed in the line of duty are able to receive benefits for the remainder of their lives regardless of future marital status. When a surviving spouse remarries, the surviving spouse's benefit is reduced to 90% of the original benefit for the first 10 years after the remarrying and must be reduced to 75% of the original benefit thereafter until the death of the surviving spouse. Spouses of fallen first responders should not be forced to make decisions to carry on with their lives based on financial considerations.
This Act makes a technical correction to § 7021 of Title 25 so that it is consistent with § 7043 of Title 25. Section 7021 is the original rent increase section. It requires a landlord to provide a minimum 60 days notice of a rent increase and was not revised when § 7043, which requires a minimum of 90 days notice of a rent increase, was enacted in 2013.
Unmanned aircraft systems are capable of introducing contraband into detention facilities without undergoing correctional officer inspections. This bill seeks to prohibit the use of unmanned aircraft systems (drones) to introduce contraband into detention facilities. This bill makes it a class F felony to deliver or attempt to deliver contraband by use of a drone.
As a public school safety measure, this bill requires that any door to a classroom will be equipped with a lock that can be locked from either side of the door. Many doors are currently not capable of locking from the inside. Locking the door(s) to a classroom from inside the classroom would enable precluding a school intruder from entering that classroom. The Act permits schools 5 years from the date of enactment to bring existing structures into compliance with this requirement. New construction and major renovations must comply with the requirement immediately upon enactment.
