Electric Personal Assistive Mobility Device Regulations; Increases minimum age requirements relating to use of helmets for electric personal assistive mobility devices.
HB 841 changes Florida's motor vehicle registration process by requiring renewal records to be kept electronically instead of using physical validation stickers. This directly affects all Florida vehicle owners who currently receive and attach paper stickers to license plates showing expiration dates. The bill removes all existing rules about physical stickers, including their placement, design, and renewal requirements, while maintaining current plate replacement schedules and fees. It updates the law to reflect digital record-keeping as the standard method for tracking registration renewals.
Office of the Corrections Ombudsman; Creates Office of Corrections Ombudsman within legislative branch; provides for staff; specifies duties of office; provides for appointment of Corrections Ombudsman; requires that Ombudsman meet certain criteria; requires Legislature to establish Corrections Oversight Committee on or before certain date; provides duties & membership of committee; requires DOC to provide Ombudsman & committee members with access to certain department facilities & records; authorizes Ombudsman & committee members access to such facilities unannounced; requires confidentiality of in-person communications between incarcerated persons or facility staff members & Ombudsman or committee member; provides that correspondence between incarcerated person & office is privileged; provides that decision, or failure, to file complaint with office does not impact inmate grievance procedure; provides that office need not investigate or process complaints in order received; requires office to submit to President of Senate & Speaker of House of Representatives specified report annually; provides appropriation. APPROPRIATION: $250,000
Infrastructure and Resiliency; Revises definition of term "qualifying project"; provides that DEP has exclusive authority to execute coastal resiliency projects through public-private partnerships; authorizes DEP to take certain actions to encourage investment from private sector in coastal resiliency projects; requires DEP to publish certain information on its website.
Professional Services Contracts; Providing that a professional services contract between a design professional and a contracting party, rather than between a design professional and a public agency, may require the design professional to indemnify and hold harmless the contracting party, and its officers and employees, only against certain liability and damages; specifying that a professional services contract must require a design professional to perform to a certain level of professional skill and care; prohibiting a professional services contract from subjecting a design professional to a different standard of care, etc.
Pub. Rec./Private Investigators; Provides exemption from public record requirements for personal identifying & location information of current & former private investigators licensed by DACS & spouses & children of such private investigators; provides for future legislative review & repeal of exemption; provides statement of public necessity.
Community Rehabilitation Programs; Provides minimum standards community rehabilitation program must meet to qualify to enter into cooperative agreements with Division of Blind Services to provide certain services; authorizes director of division to temporarily waive certain requirements for certain purposes; provides that community rehabilitation programs that meet specified requirements are considered priority service providers for program funding; authorizes division to enter into cooperative agreements with noncommunity rehabilitation program private vendor; provides requirements for such cooperative agreements; requires Florida Association of Agencies Serving Blind, Inc., to coordinate with division to ensure annual cooperative agreements meet certain needs.
Noncriminal Traffic Infractions Resulting in Vehicle Crashes; Provides specified penalties & requires hearing for certain infractions which resulted in crash with another vehicle; requires persons convicted of certain infractions which resulted in crash with another vehicle to carry higher bodily injury or death coverage limits for specified time period; provides exception.
Public Records/Sealed Criminal History Records; Expanding an existing public records exemption to include sealed criminal history records of persons adjudicated guilty of certain acts or nonviolent misdemeanor offenses; authorizing disclosure of criminal history records to a state attorney for a specified purpose; providing for future review and repeal of the expanded exemption; providing a statement of public necessity, etc.
Animal Cruelty ; Provides that failure to report suspected animal cruelty is grounds for certain disciplinary actions; clarifies that authorization to furnish medical records related to veterinary medical services to certain parties includes, but is not limited to, instances where veterinarian suspects animal cruelty; defines; requires certain individuals to report incidents of animal cruelty to certain officials; requires that veterinarian, veterinary technician, or other animal treatment provider employee who makes good faith report of animal cruelty to certain officials be held harmless from certain liability, disciplinary action, & retaliation; provides penalties for certain veterinarians, veterinary technicians, or animal treatment provider employees or volunteers who knowingly alter or destroy medical record for purpose of concealing animal cruelty.
Veterinary Medicine; Citing this act as the “Veterinary Workforce Innovation Act”; increasing the amount of time for which prescriptions based solely on a veterinary telehealth evaluation may be issued for certain drugs; providing requirements for veterinary professional associates to receive certificates of registration from the Department of Business and Professional Regulation; requiring the department to make a list of veterinary professional associate registrants publicly available on its website; authorizing the department to rescind the registration of a veterinary professional associate under certain circumstances, etc.
Public Officers and Employees; Requiring that, beginning on a specified date, secretaries and executive directors of departments, chief administrative officers of certain units of state government, members of commissions and licensing boards, chairs of governing boards or certain chief executives of certain statewide entities, or any persons appointed to hold state office in the executive branch of state government be United States citizens and residents of this state; providing that such an office is automatically deemed vacant if the person holding that office does not meet certain requirements; requiring the Commission on Ethics to investigate certain lobbyists or principals who make prohibited expenditures, etc.
