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2018 SESSION

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Senate Committee on General Laws and Technology

Chairman: Frank M. Ruff, Jr.

Clerk: Eric Bingham
Staff: Brooks Braun, Amigo Wade
Date of Meeting: February 26, 2018
Time and Place: 45 minutes after adjournment, Senate Room 3, Capitol
Updated to Remove HB 1257

H.B. 97

Patron: Bell, John J.

Virginia Public Procurement Act; methods of procurement; single or term contracts for professional services. Increases the maximum permissible aggregate or sum of all phases of single or term contracts for professional services that may be procured without requiring competitive negotiation from $60,000 to $80,000.

H.B. 101

Patron: Head

Board for Contractors; tradesmen licenses; expiration date. Provides that licenses for tradesmen shall expire three years from the date of issuance by the Board for Contractors. The bill requires the Board to sync the expiration date of a tradesman license, which is currently on a two-year cycle, to updates to the Uniform Statewide Building Code, which are typically on a three-year cycle.

H.B. 345

Patron: Stolle

Special Assistant to the Governor for Coastal Adaptation and Protection. Creates the executive branch position of Special Assistant to the Governor for Coastal Adaptation and Protection (the Assistant). The bill provides that the Assistant shall be the lead in developing and in providing direction and ensuring accountability for a statewide coastal flooding adaptation strategy. The bill directs the Assistant to initiate and assist with economic development opportunities associated with adaptation, to advance academic expertise at the Commonwealth Center for Recurrent Flooding and Resiliency, and to pursue federal, state, and local funding opportunities for adaptation initiatives.

H.B. 375

Patron: Davis

Prohibit certain local government practices that would require contractors to provide certain compensation or benefits. Prohibits local governing bodies from establishing provisions related to procurement of goods, professional services, or construction that would require a wage floor or any other employee benefit or compensation above what is otherwise required by state or federal law to be provided by a contractor to one or more of the contractor's employees as part of a contract with the locality. The prohibition shall not affect contracts between a locality and another party that were executed prior to January 1, 2019, or the renewal or future rebids of services thereof. The bill provides that localities shall not be prohibited from entering into contracts for economic development incentives in which the company receiving the incentives is required to maintain a certain stated wage level for its employees.

H.B. 398

Patron: Davis

Virginia Public Procurement Act; bid, performance, and payment bonds; waiver by localities; sunset. Adds a sunset date of July 1, 2021 to the provisions (i) authorizing 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 and (ii) prohibiting localities from entering into more than 10 such contracts per year.

H.B. 741

Patron: Leftwich

Virginia Division of Human Rights; informal determinations inadmissible in civil action. Provides that any informal determination made by the Virginia Division of Human Rights, prior to a public hearing held pursuant to § 2.2-520, as a result of an investigation or conciliation process involving an alleged unlawful discriminatory practice shall not be discoverable or admissible in evidence in any civil action.

H.B. 824

Patron: Knight

Regulation of short-term rentals; City of Lexington. Requires the City of Lexington to comply with various statutory provisions related to the short-term rental of property. The bill provides that (i) any business license that was required by any ordinance in effect regulating short-term rentals shall be null and void, (ii) any license taxes collected for short-term rentals subject to any ordinance in effect shall be refunded, and (iii) any taxpayer who was required to pay transient occupancy taxes for rental of real property for more than 30 days shall be refunded such payment. The bill mandates a deadline of September 30, 2018, for refunds and for the city to amend its existing ordinance.

H.B. 1041

Patron: Convirs-Fowler

Virginia Property Owners' Association Act; lot owner rights. Provides lot owners the right to be informed of the count and outcome of a vote on any matter requiring a vote by a property owners' association's membership in proportion to the lot owner's ownership interest. The bill removes the requirement that a recording of a meeting of the board of directors by a lot owner be by audio or visual means.

H.B. 1047

Patron: Torian

Manufactured Home Lot Rental Act; definition of manufactured home park. Reduces from 10 to five the number of manufactured homes required on a parcel of land under single or common ownership for purposes of being subject to the Manufactured Home Lot Rental Act (§ 55-248.41 et seq.).

H.B. 1262

Patron: Toscano

Department of General Services; disposition of surplus motor vehicles. Provides that the Department of General Services shall permit surplus motor vehicles to be donated prior to public sale or auction to Virginia community college educational foundations granted tax-exempt status under § 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code that operate car donation programs that assist low-income students participating in noncredit workforce training programs with overcoming transportation-related barriers to employment.

H.B. 1275

Patron: Aird

Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA); record exclusion for trade secrets supplied to the Virginia Department of Transportation. Excludes from the mandatory disclosure provisions of FOIA trade secrets, as defined in the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (§ 59.1-336 et seq.), supplied to the Department of Transportation as part of an audit, special investigation, or any study requested by the Department of Transportation. The bill provides that in order for such trade secrets to be excluded, the submitting party shall (i) invoke this exclusion upon submission of the data or materials for which protection from disclosure is sought, (ii) identify the data or materials for which protection is sought, and (iii) state the reasons why protection is necessary.

H.B. 1277

Patron: Garrett

Government Data Collection and Dissemination Practices Act; sharing and dissemination of data. Amends the Government Data Collection and Dissemination Practices Act (§ 2.2-3800 et seq.) to facilitate the sharing of data among agencies of the Commonwealth and between the Commonwealth and political subdivisions.

H.B. 1412

Patron: Helsel

Mental health awareness training; firefighters and emergency medical services personnel. Requires fire departments and emergency medical services agencies to develop curricula for mental health awareness training for their personnel. The bill provides that such personnel who receive the training shall receive appropriate continuing education credits.

H.B. 1453

Patron: Ware

Real estate appraisers; evaluations. Changes the definition of "evaluation" from an analysis, opinion, or conclusion relating to the nature, quality, value, or utility of specified interests in, or aspects of, identified real property to an opinion of the market value of real property or real estate that may be utilized in connection with a real estate-related financial transaction where an appraisal by a state-certified or state-licensed appraiser is not required by the state or federal financial institution's regulatory agency engaging in, contracting for, or regulating such real estate-related financial transaction or regulating the financial institution or lender engaged in or about to engage in such real estate-related financial transaction. The bill requires that an evaluation meet the format requirements of the federal Interagency Appraisal and Evaluation Guidelines, include sufficient information in clear and understandable language to allow a person to understand the opinion of the market value of real property or real estate, and contain the statement: "This is not an appraisal performed in accordance with the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice."

H.B. 1533

Patron: Kory

Virginia Property Owners' Association Act; applicability. Provides that the Virginia Property Owners' Association Act (§ 55-508 et seq.) shall be applicable to any development established prior to the former Subdivided Land Sales Act (§ 55-336 et seq.) (i) located in a county with an urban county executive form of government, (ii) containing 500 or more lots, (iii) each lot of which is located within the boundaries of a watershed improvement district established pursuant to Article 3 (§ 10.1-614 et seq.) of Chapter 6 of Title 10.1, and (iv) each lot of which is subject to substantially similar deed restrictions.