Sen. Creigh Deeds

Charter; City of Covington; consolidated schooldivision; salaries. Amends the charter for the City of Covingtonto help facilitate the consolidation of the school divisions of theCity of Covington and Alleghany County. The bill sets out the salaryof a school board member of such consolidated school district andshall become effective on July 1, 2022, provided that the consolidationof the City of Covington and Alleghany County school divisions isapproved by the Board of Education prior to that date.

Electric utilities; closure of carbon-emitting generating units. Requires each owner of a large carbon-emitting power plant to provide notice to relevant localities and state agencies about the decision to close the plant within 30 days of making such decision The bill requires localities in which such facilities are located, and planning district commissions in such localities, to conduct public hearings regarding the impending closure within six months of receipt of such notice. The bill requires the Division of Energy to maintain a public website listing the facilities subject to the requirements of the bill and their anticipated closure dates. As part of an integrated resource plan, the bill requires each utility to submit a facility retirement study for its carbon-emitting facilities and disclose the study to relevant localities and state agencies.

Absentee voting; mandatory processing of returned absentee ballots before election day; central absentee voter precinct in the office of the general registrar. Requires certain actions to be taken to process absentee ballots that are returned by mail before election day. The general registrar is required to (i) examine the ballot envelopes to verify completion of the required voter affirmation; (ii) mark the pollbook, or the absentee voter applicant list if the pollbook is not available, that the voter has voted; and (iii) direct the officers of election at a central absentee precinct to open the sealed ballot envelopes and insert the ballots in optical scan counting equipment or other secure ballot container without initiating any ballot count totals. Under current law, the general registrar is required to conduct preprocessing of absentee ballots before election day only as needed. To facilitate preprocessing as provided in the bill, the bill requires a central absentee voter precinct to be established and maintained in each locality. Additional central absentee voter precincts may be established at the discretion of the governing body.

Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity; definitions; small business. Redefines "small business" for the purpose of programs for the Department of Small Business and SupplierDiversity to allow a cooperative association organized pursuant toChapter 3 (Cooperative Associations) of Title 13.1 as a nonstockcorporation to qualify as a small business if it is at least 51 percentindependently controlled by one or more members who are U.S. citizensor legal resident aliens and, together with affiliates, has 250 orfewer employees or average annual gross receipts of $10 million orless averaged over the previous three years. The bill also redefines "small business" for the purpose of programs for the Virginia Public Procurement Act to allow a cooperative association organized pursuantto Chapter 3 (Cooperative Associations) of Title 13.1 as a nonstockcorporation to qualify as a small business if it is controlled byone or more members who are U.S. citizens or legal resident aliensand, together with affiliates, has 250 or fewer employees or averageannual gross receipts of $10 million or less averaged over the previousthree years.

Nurse practitioners; practice without a practice agreement. Reduces from five to two the number of years of full-time clinical experience a nurse practitioner must have to be eligible to practice without a written or electronic practice agreement. The provisions of the bill expire on July 1, 2022.

Study; Department of Behavioral Health andDevelopmental Services; database of criminal justice, behavioral health, and other human services records; report. Requests the Departmentof Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to establish a workgroup to study the feasibility of developing a secure, de-identified,renewable, and relational database of criminal justice, behavioral health, and other human services records to facilitate developmentof more effective interventions.