Rep. Rae Cousins

Commending Marie Ridder.

Commending Bishop Kim W. Brown.

Commending Blake Corum.

Commending Dr. Ben Fitzgerald III.

Commending the ASK Childhood Cancer Foundation.

Petition for modification of a sentence; eligibility;procedures. Provides a process for a person serving a sentencefor any conviction or a combination of any convictions who remainsincarcerated in a state or local correctional facility or securefacility and meets certain criteria to petition the circuit courtthat entered the original judgment or order to (i) suspend the unservedportion of such sentence or run the unserved portion of such sentence concurrently with another sentence, (ii) place such person on probationfor such time as the court shall determine, or (iii) otherwise modifythe sentence imposed.

Study; JLARC; scope and cost of penalizing possessionof drugs as a felony. Directs the Joint Legislative Audit andReview Commission to study the scope and cost of the current lawsin the Commonwealth penalizing possession of drugs as a felony.

Collective bargaining by public employees; labor organization representation. Repeals the existing prohibitionon collective bargaining by public employees. The bill creates thePublic Employee Relations Board, which shall determine appropriatebargaining units and provide for certification and decertificationelections for exclusive bargaining representatives of state employeesand local government employees. The bill requires public employersand employee organizations that are exclusive bargaining representativesto meet at reasonable times to negotiate in good faith with respectto wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment. Thebill repeals a provision that declares that, in any procedure providingfor the designation, selection, or authorization of a labor organizationto represent employees, the right of an individual employee to voteby secret ballot is a fundamental right that shall be guaranteed from infringement.

Water certificates or permits; compliance withwater quality standards. Requires the State Water Control Boardto ensure all activities allowed under any water certificate or permitare in compliance with the water quality standards promulgated bythe Board.

Campaign finance; prohibited personal use of campaignfunds; complaints, hearings, civil penalty, and advisory opinions.Prohibits any person from converting contributions to a candidate or hiscampaign committee to personal use. Current law only prohibits such conversionof contributions with regard to disbursement of surplus funds at thedissolution of a campaign or political committee. The bill provides that acontribution is considered to have been converted to personal use if thecontribution, in whole or in part, is used to fulfill any commitment,obligation, or expense that would exist irrespective of the person's seeking,holding, or maintaining public office but allows a contribution to be used forthe ordinary and accepted expenses related to campaigning for or holdingelective office, including the use of campaign funds to pay for the candidate'schild care expenses that are incurred as a direct result of campaign activity.The bill provides that any person subject to the personal use ban may requestan advisory opinion from the State Board of Elections on such matters. The billdirects the State Board of Elections to adopt emergency regulations similar tothose promulgated by the Federal Election Commission to implement theprovisions of the bill and to publish an updated summary of Virginia campaignfinance law that reflects the State Board of Elections' and Attorney General'sguidance on the provisions of such law that prohibit the personal use ofcampaign funds and any new regulations promulgated by the State Board ofElections.