Sen. Bill Montford

Youth in Confinement; Prohibiting a youth from being placed in disciplinary confinement; authorizing a youth to be placed in emergency confinement if certain conditions are met; limiting the allowable length of time for emergency confinement; authorizing a youth to be placed in medical confinement under certain circumstances; requiring sheriffs and chief correctional officers to adopt model standards relating to youth, etc.

Cost-of-living Adjustments to State Employee Salaries; Authorizing annual cost-of-living adjustments to base rates of pay of eligible state employees, beginning in 2021; requiring the Office of Economic and Demographic Research to calculate the percentage for the adjustment in a specified manner; specifying conditions under which a cost-of-living adjustment is not implemented, etc.

Disposition of Insurance Proceeds; Adding requirements for mortgagees and assignees holding certain insurance proceeds pending completion of all or part of damage repairs; specifying requirements for the disposition of certain insurance proceeds received by financial institutions and their subsidiaries relating to mortgage loans they hold; providing an exception from a requirement for a financial institution or subsidiary to endorse certain negotiable instruments, etc.

Apalachicola Environmental Stewardship Act; Providing that this act may be referred to as “The Apalachicola Environmental Stewardship Act”; appropriating a sum annually for a specified timeframe from the Florida Forever Fund to the Apalachicola Area of Critical State Concern for specified purposes; renaming the Apalachicola Bay Area of Critical State Concern as the Apalachicola Area of Critical State Concern; providing additional principles for guiding development within the Apalachicola Area of Critical State Concern to include projects that protect and improve water quality, etc.

State Hemp Program; Revising the definition of the term “food” to include hemp extract for purposes of the Florida Food Safety Act; providing that a person operating a minor food outlet that sells hemp extract is not exempt from certain food permit requirements; providing that hemp extract that does not meet certain requirements will be considered adulterated or misbranded; prohibiting the sale of certain hemp extract products to individuals under a specified age, etc.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health; Revising the definition of “mental illness”; requiring that respondents with a serious mental illness be informed of the essential elements of recovery and be provided assistance with accessing a continuum of care regimen; prohibiting the court from considering substantive information in the transfer evaluation unless the evaluator testifies at the hearing; revising the requirements for when a person may be taken to a receiving facility for involuntary examination; requiring that the state attorney represent the state as the real party of interest in an involuntary proceeding, subject to legislative appropriation, etc.

Emergency Mitigation and Response; Establishing the Hurricane Michael Recovery Task Force adjunct to the Division of Emergency Management to make recommendations to the Legislature regarding additional assistance needed in the response to recovery from and mitigation of the effects of Hurricane Michael in certain areas; requiring the task force to review the local, state, and federal activities conducted and the resources provided in such areas, the effectiveness of such efforts, and any additional assistance necessary; subject to the appropriation of funds, creating the Hurricane Housing Recovery Program to provide funds to local governments for certain affordable housing recovery efforts, etc. APPROPRIATION: $585,000

Voting Systems; Defining the term “automatic tabulating equipment” for purposes of the Florida Election Code; revising procedures governing the canvassing of returns to specify usage of a voting system’s automatic tabulating equipment; clarifying the circumstances under which ballots must be processed through automatic tabulating equipment in a recount; specifying the manner by which a manual recount may be conducted, etc.

Health Care for Children; Requiring the Department of Health to create and make available electronically a pamphlet with specified information; requiring hospitals that provide birthing services to provide the informational pamphlet to parents during postpartum education; requiring certain health care practitioners to ensure that the pamphlet is provided to parents after a planned out-of-hospital birth; revising applicable provisions for the reimbursement of school-based services by the Agency for Health Care Administration to certain school districts, etc.

FSU Day; Recognizing February 12, 2020, as FSU Day in Florida, etc.