Authorizes a locality, where the bid, performance, and payment bond requirements are waived, to waive the requirement for prequalification for a bidder or contractor with a current Class A contractor license for nontransportation-related construction contracts in excess of $100,000 but less than $300,000 upon a written determination made in advance by the local governing body that waiving the requirement is in the best interests of the locality. The bill prohibits localities from entering into more than 10 such contracts per year in which the bidder or contractor's prequalification requirement has been waived. The bill contains technical amendments.
Continues the Virginia Solar Energy Development Authority and renames it the Virginia Solar Energy Development and Energy Storage Authority. The measure expands the purposes of the authority to include positioning the Commonwealth as a leader in research, development, commercialization, manufacturing, and deployment of energy storage technology. The powers of the Authority are expanded to include (i) promoting collaborative efforts among Virginia's public and private institutions of higher education in research, development, and commercialization efforts related to energy storage; (ii) monitoring relevant developments nationally and globally; and (iii) identifying and working with the Commonwealth's industries and nonprofit partners. The size of the Authority is expanded from 11 to 15 members.
Allows a privately retained counsel in a criminal case to withdraw from representation without leave of court after certification of a charge by a district court by providing written notice within 10 days of the certification to the client, the attorney for the Commonwealth, and the circuit court, provided such withdrawal occurs pursuant to the terms of a written agreement between the attorney and the client. The bill also directs the Judicial Council to review the current process for withdrawal of privately retained counsel in civil cases and submit a report by November 1, 2017, to the Chairmen of the House and Senate Committees for Courts of Justice.
Requires the owner or operator of a coal combustion residuals unit (CCR unit) to identify water pollution and address corrective measures to resolve it, evaluate the clean closure of the CCR unit by recycling the ash for use in cement or moving it to a landfill, and demonstrate the long-term safety of the CCR unit. The bill requires the owner or operator of each CCR unit to transmit its assessment to the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and other agencies or legislative committees by December 1, 2017. The bill requires the Director of DEQ to delay the issuance of a permit to close any CCR unit until May 1, 2018, or the effective date of any legislation adopted during the 2018 Regular Session of the General Assembly that addresses the closure of CCR units, whichever occurs later.
Restructures the membership of the board of directors (the Board) of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership Authority (the Authority), designates the Board as a supervisory board within the statutory definition of "supervisory," sets out the minimum qualifications for appointments to the Board, and sets out additional powers and duties required of the Board, including development of a strategic plan for economic development, a marketing plan, and an operational plan. The bill also establishes a Division of Incentives within the Authority to track, manage, and coordinate economic development incentives. Under the bill, the Division is required to obtain certification from the Attorney General prior to certifying that an approved project has met the investment and job creation requirements and the review of the Attorney General prior to seeking the repayment of any public funds from an approved project due to a failure of the project to meet the investment and job creation requirements set forth in the contract or memorandum of understanding. The bill establishes a position of internal auditor and two advisory committees and requires (i) each commissioner of the revenue to provide certain tax information and (ii) the Virginia Employment Commission to provide certain employment information to the Authority as may be necessary to facilitate the administration and enforcement by the Authority of performance agreements with businesses that have received incentive awards. The bill contains an emergency clause. This bill is identical to
Requires Northern Virginia Community College (i) in consultation with the Department of Education, to contract with a partner organization to develop, market, and implement high-quality and effective computer science training and professional development activities for public school teachers throughout the Commonwealth for the purpose of improving the computer science literacy of all public school students in the Commonwealth and (ii) to establish an advisory committee for the purpose of advising the college and its partner organization on the development, marketing, and implementation of such training and professional development activities. This bill is identical to
Restructures the membership of the board of directors (the Board) of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership Authority (the Authority), designates the Board as a supervisory board within the statutory definition of "supervisory," sets out the minimum qualifications for appointments to the Board, and sets out additional powers and duties required of the Board, including development of a strategic plan for economic development, a marketing plan, and an operational plan. The bill also establishes a Division of Incentives within the Authority to track, manage, and coordinate economic development incentives. Under the bill, the Division is required to obtain certification from the Attorney General prior to certifying that an approved project has met the investment and job creation requirements and the review of the Attorney General prior to seeking the repayment of any public funds from an approved project due to a failure of the project to meet the investment and job creation requirements set forth in the contract or memorandum of understanding. The bill establishes a position of internal auditor and two advisory committees and requires (i) each commissioner of the revenue to provide certain tax information and (ii) the Virginia Employment Commission to provide certain employment information to the Authority as may be necessary to facilitate the administration and enforcement by the Authority of performance agreements with businesses that have received incentive awards. The bill contains an emergency clause. This bill incorporates
Clarifies the definition of public record. The bill also (i) defines "personal contact information" that is excluded from FOIA's mandatory disclosure provisions in certain cases; (ii) clarifies that a requester has the right to inspect records or receive copies at his option; (iii) clarifies language in certain record exclusions under FOIA that certain records may be disclosed at the discretion of the custodian; (iv) consolidates the personnel record exclusion with the limitation on the application of that exclusion, and specifically clarifies that the name, in addition to position, job classification, and salary, of a public employee is public information as per opinions of the Attorney General and the FOIA Council; (v) eliminates, effective July 1, 2018, the exclusion for the Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority relating to operating and marketing strategies; (vi) eliminates the exclusion for correspondence of local officials as unnecessary; (vii) consolidates various public safety exclusions relating to building plans and drawings and critical infrastructure into a single exclusion; (viii) eliminates the exclusion for administrative investigations of the Department of Human Resource Management, as the exclusion is already covered under the personnel records exclusion; (ix) expands the exclusion for personal information provided to the Virginia College Savings Plan to cover qualified beneficiaries, designated survivors, and authorized individuals, which terms are defined in the bill; (x) consolidates the various record exclusions for the Department of Health Professions and the Department of Health into single exclusions for each Department; (xi) clarifies certain Department of Social Services exclusions; (xii) provides an exclusion for local finance boards that provide postemployment benefits other than pensions; and (xiii) eliminates the record exclusion for Virginia Wildlife Magazine. The bill also limits the application of the working papers exemption by stating that information publicly available or not otherwise subject to an exclusion under FOIA or other provision of law that has been aggregated, combined, or changed in format without substantive analysis or revision shall not be deemed working papers. The bill contains numerous technical amendments. This bill is a recommendation of the Freedom of Information Advisory Council pursuant to the
Increases the grace period after which collection activity for unpaid court fines, costs, forfeitures, penalties, and restitution may be commenced from 30 days to 90 days after sentencing or judgment. The bill also establishes the requirements for deferred or installment payment agreements that a court must offer a defendant who is unable to pay court-ordered fines, costs, forfeitures, and penalties. The bill requires that a court take into account a defendant's financial circumstances, including whether the defendant owes fines and costs to other courts, in setting the terms of a payment agreement, but such decision shall not be based solely on the amount of fines and costs owed. The bill fixes the maximum down payments that a court may require as a condition of entering a payment plan and provides that payments made within 10 days of their due date are timely made. The bill precludes a court from denying a defendant the opportunity to enter into a payment agreement solely because of the crime committed, the total amount owed or that such amount has been referred to collections, any previous default by the defendant or failure to establish a payment history, or the defendant's eligibility for a restricted driver's license. The bill allows all costs and fines owed by a defendant to any one court to be incorporated into one payment agreement and allows a defendant to request a modification of the terms of the agreement, which shall be granted upon a good faith showing of need. The bill requires a court to consider a request by a defendant who has defaulted on a payment agreement to enter into a subsequent agreement and requires the court to fix a down payment for subsequent payment agreements. Finally, the bill provides that the payment agreement includes restitution unless the court has entered a separate order regarding the payment of restitution. This bill is identical to
Provides that any law-enforcement officer who is listed as a driver in a motor vehicle accident report submitted to the Department of Motor Vehicles will not have the accident listed on his driving record if he was driving a motor vehicle provided by a law-enforcement agency in the course of his employment and was operating the motor vehicle in the performance of his official duties at the time of such accident. This bill is identical to
Enacted, Chapter 783 (effective 9/1/17)
Provides that the 11 members of the Board of Commissioners of the Virginia Port Authority appointed by the Governor no longer serve at the pleasure of the Governor and may be removed prior to the expiration of a five-year term only for cause. The bill changes from nonvoting ex officio member to voting member the status of two members of the Board of Commissioners of the Virginia Port Authority appointed by the Governor, one of whom represents the Port of Richmond and is from the City of Richmond or the County of Chesterfield, Hanover, or Henrico and one of whom represents the Virginia Inland Port and is from the City of Winchester or the County of Clarke, Frederick, or Warren. This bill is identical to
