Sen. Bill DeSteph

Commending the Virginia Beach Lifesaving Service.

Celebrating the life of the Honorable LinwoodA. Holton, Jr.

Commending the Honorable Paul S. Trible, Jr.

School boards; school resource officers; employment;threat assessment. Requires each school board to enter into acollaborative agreement with the local law-enforcement agency toemploy at least one school resource officer in each public elementaryand secondary school in the local school division. The bill providesthat no school board shall be granted any full or partial waiverfrom such staffing requirements and that no school board that failsto fully comply with such staffing requirements is eligible for anygrant or waiver from the Commonwealth, Board of Education, or Departmentof Education. The bill also requires each division superintendentto include on the threat assessment team established for each publicelementary and secondary school in the local school division at leastone school resource officer employed in the school.

Celebrating the life of the Honorable FrankDuVal Hargrove, Sr.

Group Violence Intervention Board; Divisionof Group Violence Intervention; Project Ceasefire Grant Fund; Project Exit Grant Fund; report. Establishes the Group Violence InterventionBoard to coordinate and assist federal, state, and local group violenceintervention efforts. The bill also establishes within the Departmentof Criminal Justice Services (the Department) the Division of GroupViolence Intervention (the Division), to be headed by an executivedirector appointed by the Director of the Department. The bill providesthat the Division is responsible for (i) coordinating the effortsof members of state and local law enforcement, community members,and social services providers to combat group violence; (ii) servingas a clearinghouse for research, best practices, and strategies that may be utilized in the implementation, execution, and evaluationof group violence interventions; and (iii) implementing and administeringvarious federal, state, and local grant funds that aid group violenceintervention efforts. Finally, the bill creates the Project CeasefireGrant Fund, which provides money to organizations that are involvedin group violence intervention efforts, and creates the Project ExitGrant Fund, which provides money to organizations that assist formergang members or individuals attempting to leave gangs.

Certain crimes committed while participating in a riot; civil action for damages caused during a riot or unlawful assembly; affirmative defense; reduction in law-enforcement agency operating budget; penalty. Creates a civil action for damages caused during a riot or unlawful assembly if a person with the lawful authority to direct a law-enforcement agency uses that authority to prohibit law-enforcement officers from taking action that would prevent or materially mitigate significant bodily injury, death, or damage or destruction of property caused by or related to a riot or unlawful assembly. The bill also creates an affirmative defense in a civil action for wrongful death or injury to a person or property that such action arose from injury or damage sustained by a participant in furtherance of a riot. If such affirmative defense is raised, the court shall, upon the defendant's motion, stay the proceedings during the pendency of the criminal proceedings.This bill also directs that any locality that reduces the operating budget of its local law-enforcement agency shall (i) receive no appropriation in the general appropriation act for highway system maintenance and operations or for maintenance and operation of roads; (ii) receive no allocation of highway funds for roads within such locality; and (iii) receive no payments for maintenance, construction, or reconstruction of highways.The bill also makes it a Class 1 misdemeanor to (a) electronically publish another person's personal identifying information with the intent to (1) incite violence or commit a crime against such other person or (2) threaten or harass such other person in a manner as to place the person in reasonable fear of bodily harm; (b) maliciously block access to any business; (c) maliciously obstruct a highway; and (d) injure, destroy, or tamper with a conspicuously marked law-enforcement vehicle. Additionally, this bill makes it a Class 6 felony to commit an assault and battery while participating in a riot and to interfere with a conspicuously marked law-enforcement vehicle occupied by a law-enforcement officer with the intent to prevent a law-enforcement officer from performing his official duties.

Short-term rental properties; definition; locality requirements and restrictions. Prohibits, except as provided,localities from (i) requiring or allowing the approval of neighborsor the neighborhood for the operation of short-term rental properties;(ii) imposing requirements or restrictions that exceed those of regularproperties, including special parking and occupancy restrictions;or (iii) restricting short-term rentals by geographic location withinthe locality by means other than the normal general land use and zoning authority. The bill expands the current definition of short-termrental to include any house provided for such purpose.

Commending Clyde E. Cristman.

Study; Secretary of Administration; State Board of Elections; electronic return of voted military-overseas ballots; pilot program; report. Requests the Secretary of Administration to oversee and develop a charter and directives for the State Board of Elections to form a working group to study implementation of electronic return of voted military-overseas ballots. In conducting its study, the State Board of Elections with the working group shall study and develop initial instructions and procedures that (i) consider issues related to accessibility, auditability, authentication, verification, and security through encryption, in order to ensure that any process implemented would guarantee the accuracy and integrity of voted military-overseas ballots, and (ii) recommend (a) security measures necessary to reasonably secure the transmission, processing, and storage of voter data from interception and unauthorized access; (b) methods for verifying and authenticating the identity of the voter electronically when registering to vote and when requesting a ballot from and returning a ballot to the voter's jurisdiction; (c) methods for the encryption of voted ballots; and (d) a procedure for security reviews after an election. The study shall focus on implementation of electronic return of voted military-overseas ballots first as a limited pilot program in 2023 and later on a statewide basis. An executive summary and report shall be submitted as no later than the first day of the 2023 Regular Session of the General Assembly.