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ACROSS SESSIONS
- Subject Index: Since 1995
- Bills & Resolutions: Since 1994
- Summaries: Since 1994
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2010 SESSION
Chairman: Mamie E. Locke
Clerk: Ray Ferguson
Staff: Amigo Wade
Date of Meeting: February 17, 2010
Time and Place: 2:00 p.m., General Assembly Building, Senate Room B
Patron: Knight
Pawnbrokers; daily reports. Authorizes any local governing body to enact an ordinance requiring a pawnbroker to maintain and file a daily report electronically through the use of a disk, electronic transmission, or any other electronic means of reporting approved by a law-enforcement officer. Currently, such authorization is limited to any town with a population between 13,000 and 14,000.
Patron: Cox, M.K.
Department of Veterans Services; mental health and rehabilitative services. Eliminates the requirement that the Wounded Warrior Program cover only injuries sustained by military service personnel in combat areas. The bill contains a technical amendment.
Patron: Cosgrove
Common Interest Communities Board clarification for complaints. Specifies that each Association shall establish a procedure for resolution of complaints and must adhere to the created procedure. This bill was recommended by the Virginia Housing Commission.
Patron: Cosgrove
Fair Housing Board educational materials on the Fair Housing Law; affidavit. Establishes that the Fair Housing Board shall promulgate regulations regarding educational materials concerning the Fair Housing Law, and persons in the business of selling or renting dwelling units without a real estate broker shall submit an affidavit to the Board that they have read and understood the law. This is a recommendation of the Virginia Housing Commission.
Patron: Cosgrove
Aerospace Advisory Council. Removes the sunset provision, thereby making the Aerospace Advisory Council a permanent council.
Patron: Alexander
Funeral services; handling of human remains. Provides that, upon taking custody of a dead human body, a funeral service establishment shall maintain the body in a manner that provides complete coverage and is resistant to leakage or spillage. If the body is to be stored for more than 48 hours prior to disposition, the establishment shall maintain the body in refrigeration or have the body embalmed and, if the body is to be stored for more than 10 days at a location other than the establishment, disclose the location where the body is to be stored and the method of storage. This bill includes a provision stating that a body shall not be embalmed and shall be refrigerated if the family of the deceased objects to embalming on the grounds that it conflicts with their religious tenets or practices.
Patron: Toscano
Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act and the Landlord and Tenant law; definition of landlord. Provides that the definition of landlord in the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act and the Landlord and Tenant law does not include community land trust. The bill defines a community land trust.
Patron: Merricks
Board for Contractors; Class C license. Raises the threshold for which a person must have a Class C contractors license from less than $7,500 to less than $10,000. As a result, the Class B threshold is also raised from $7,500 or more to $10,000 or more.
Patron: Albo
Funeral services; disposition of remains. Requires a funeral services provider to either embalm or refrigerate human remains within 48 hours of the receipt of such remains, and clarifies that a body shall not be embalmed and shall be refrigerated if the family of the deceased objects to embalming on the grounds that it conflicts with their religious tenets or practices. The bill also provides that a person designated in a signed and notarized writing shall take priority over next of kin in making funeral arrangements, and clarifies procedures where the deceased has designated a person to make arrangements for his funeral and disposition of his remains on a U.S. Department of Defense Record of Emergency Data.
Patron: Cosgrove
Oceana/Fentress Military Advisory Council; membership. Adds the Executive Director of the Virginia National Defense Industrial Authority to the membership of the Oceana/Fentress Military Advisory Council.
Patron: McClellan
Uniform Statewide Building Code; appeals to the local board of building code appeals and the State Technical Review Board. Clarifies that any person aggrieved by a local building official's application of the Uniform Statewide Building Code may appeal to the local board of Building Code appeals. The bill also removes the authority of the State Technical Review Board to hear appeals from the Virginia Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Law and the Virginia Certification Standards adopted by the Board of Housing and Community Development.
Patron: McClellan
Industrialized Building Safety Law. Provides that any person aggrieved by the Department of Housing and Community Development's application of the Industrialized Building Safety Law appeal to the State Building Code Technical Review Board. Currently only local building officials, compliance assurance agencies, and industrialized building manufacturers are listed as being allowed such appeals. In addition, the bill deletes references to model code writing entities (except the National Fire Protection Association) and replaces them with the International Code Council.
Patron: Watts
Veterans services agencies; designees for certain ex officio members. Authorizes the Commissioner of the Department of Veterans Services, the Chairs of the Board of Veterans Services, the Board of Trustees of the Veterans Services Foundation and the Joint Leadership Council of Veterans Service Organizations to designate persons to attend meetings of certain veterans services agencies on their behalf.
Patron: Edmunds
Governor's Development Opportunity Fund; criteria for awarding grants and loans. Provides that criteria to be used in awarding grants and loans from the Governor's Development Opportunity Fund shall include (i) job creation, (ii) private capital investment, and (iii) anticipated additional state tax revenue expected to accrue to the state and affected localities as a result of the capital investment and jobs created.
Patron: Sherwood
Funeral services. Provides that when a person dies while on active military duty and has designated an individual to make arrangements for his funeral and disposition of his remains on a U.S. Department of Defense Record of Emergency Data, the designee shall be responsible for making such arrangements.
Patron: Dance
Suspension of state mandates. Allows the Governor, upon application by a locality, to suspend any mandate, or portion thereof, for a period not to exceed two years, prescribed by any unit of the executive branch of state government on a locality upon a finding that it faces fiscal stress and the suspension of the mandate or portion thereof would help alleviate the fiscal hardship. Under existing law, the Governor may suspend such mandates for up to one year.
Patron: Janis
Virginia Register Act; filing of agency regulations; use of electronic signatures. Provides that final regulations filed with the Virginia Registrar must be accompanied by a statement or certification, either in original or electronic form, that the regulations are full, true, and correctly dated. Currently, such regulations must be accompanied by a signed statement or certification.
Patron: Oder
Board for Contractors; certification of accessibility mechanics. Provides for the certification of accessibility mechanics by the Board for Contractors. An "accessibility mechanic" is an individual who erects, constructs, installs, alters, services, repairs, tests, or maintains wheelchair lifts, incline chairlifts, certain dumbwaiters, and private residence elevators, in accordance with the Uniform Statewide Building Code.
Patron: Oder
Board for Contractors; prerequisite for obtaining business license. Requires any contractor applying for or renewing a business license in any locality to furnish prior to the issuance or renewal of the business license either (i) satisfactory proof that he is duly licensed or certified as a contractor or (ii) a written statement, supported by an affidavit, that he is not subject to licensure or certification as a contractor or subcontractor. The bill also prohibits any locality from issuing or renewing a business license unless the contractor has furnished his contractor license or certificate number or evidence of being exempt licensure as a contractor. The bill contains a technical amendment.
Patron: Oder
Board for Contractors; membership. Adds a certified water well systems provider to the Board for Contractors. The bill contains a technical amendment.
Patron: Cox, M.K.
Department of Veterans Services; processing of disability claims. Requires the Department of Veterans Services to replace its existing case management technology, which replacement is required to support highly sophisticated electronic claims preparation.
Patron: Rust
Uniform Statewide Building Code; violations; nonresidential property. Provides that a court may order violations of the Uniform Statewide Building Code on nonresidential buildings or structures be abated or otherwise remedied if the violations remain when the court is authorized to assess civil penalties. Currently the court is required to order abatement for residential buildings or structures but is not authorized to do so if the building or structure is nonresidential.
Patron: Landes
Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation. Removes obsolete language from various sections of Title 54.1 and repeals one obsolete section of Title 54.1. This bill is a recommendation of the Virginia Code Commission.
Patron: Landes
Administrative Process Act; exemptions. Removes obsolete exemptions from the Administrative Process Act for the Virginia Medicaid Prior Authorization Advisory Committee, which no longer exists, and a nonstock corporation created by the Commissioner of the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs, which is not authorized to promulgate regulations. The bill also removes the exemption from the regulatory promulgation process for preliminary program permit fees of the Department of Environmental Quality. Permanent fees have been established by the Department and the exemption is no longer necessary.
Patron: Landes
Federal rent control declared unnecessary. Repeals § 55-248.1, which pertains to federal rent control declared unnecessary and notification of the Housing Expediter. This bill is a recommendation of the Virginia Code Commission.
Patron: Merricks
Board for Housing and Community Development; powers; Virginia Building Code Academy. Provides that the levy of two percent of building permit fees for the support of the Virginia Building Code Academy also is not limited to building permits but also applies to permits issued in connection with the enforcement of amusement device regulations.
Patron: Armstrong
Funeral services; disputes between next of kin. Provides a judicial process for determining who makes the decision for the arrangements for a decedent's funeral or the disposition of his remains when there is a dispute between the next of kin.
Patron: May
Innovation and Entrepreneurship Investment Authority (IEIA) and the Commonwealth Research and Commercialization Fund (CRCF). Updates obsolete references to the predecessors of the IEIA and the CRCF.
Patron: Miller, J.H.
Uniform Statewide Building Code; penalty for violation. Increases the civil penalty for a second or subsequent violations from $150 to $350 and the total for violations arising from the same operative set of facts from $3,000 to $4,000. HB 299 and HB 493 have been incorporated into this bill.
Patron: Bulova
Property Owners' Association Act; fees for disclosure packet; when collected. Clarifies that for associations that are not professionally managed, all fees for providing the required disclosure packet shall be collected at the time of delivery of the disclosure packet and shall be an assessment against the lot and collectible as any other assessment. The bill contains technical amendments.
Patron: Peace
General Assembly deadlines; computation of time. Provides that when an act of the General Assembly or local governing body, order of the court, or administrative regulation or order requires an action to be completed or taken on a Saturday, Sunday, legal holiday, or any day or part of a day on which the state or local government office is closed, the act may be performed or the action may be taken on the next business day that is not a Saturday, Sunday, legal holiday, or day when the state or local government office is closed.
Patron: Griffith
Board for Architects, Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, Certified Interior Designers and Landscape Architects; limitation of liability contract clauses. Allows entities consisting of design professionals to include limitation of liability clauses in their contracts to perform services; but provides that individual licensees are not relieved of any responsibility that may exist for services performed by reason of employment or other relationship with an entity. The bill contains a technical amendment.
Patron: Lingamfelter
Virginia Condominium Act and the Virginia Property Owners' Association Act; display of the flag of the United States. Provides that a unit owners' or property owner's association shall not prohibit or otherwise adopt or enforce any policy restricting a unit or lot owner from displaying upon property to which that owner has a separate ownership interest or a right to exclusive possession or use the flag of the United States whenever such display is in compliance with the federal Flag Code. The bill also provides that the unit owners' or property owners' association may establish reasonable restrictions as to the size, place, duration, and manner of placement or display of the flag provided the restrictions are necessary to protect a substantial interest of the unit owners' or property owners' association. Under the bill, if an action is brought by a unit owners' or property owners' association to enforce a rule pertaining to display of the flag, the unit or lot owner may assert as an affirmative defense that the rule does not protect a substantial interest of the association.
Patron: Hugo
Precious metals dealers; penalties for violation. Makes automatic a two-year revocation of a permit as a precious metals dealer for upon a second conviction for violation of the precious metal dealer's law.
Patron: Cox, M.K.
Lieutenant Governor; membership on certain boards, councils and commissions. Adds the Lieutenant Governor to the membership of the board of directors of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership Authority, the board of directors of the Virginia Tourism Authority, and the Council on Virginia’s Future. Removes the Lieutenant Governor from the membership of the board of trustees of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Disability Commission.
Patron: Sickles
Statewide Fire Prevention Codes appeal from local fire code decisions. Provides that any local fire code may provide for an appeal to the local board of appeals for fire code violations, and if no such local board exists, to the State Building Code Technical Review Board.
Patron: Brink
Uniform Statewide Building Code; buildings or structures built on state-owned property. Provides that the Uniform Statewide Building Code shall also apply to buildings or structures built on state-owned property. The bill requires the Department of General Services to act as the building official for all buildings or structures built on state-owned property. The bill provides that it shall not, however, apply to uninhabitable structures, equipment, or wiring owned by a public service company, a certificated provider of telecommunications services, or a franchised cable operator that are built on rights-of-way owned or controlled by the Commonwealth Transportation Board.
Patron: Scott, J.M.
Manufactured Housing Licensing and Transaction Recovery Fund Law. Clarifies that when the buyer of a manufactured home that is a single section unit fails to accept delivery, the manufactured home dealer may retain actual damages of $1,000. The bill also provides that the authority of the Manufactured Housing Board to authorize up to five percent of the Manufactured Housing Transaction Recovery Fund balance for educational purposes and to pay staff expenses related to regulatory functions.