Administration of the Government Generally

Administration of the Government Generally

P Passed

P HB1115

Information technology access by individuals who are blind or visually impaired. Creates the Information Technology Access Act to secure the benefits of access to information technology for individuals who are blind or visually impaired through the procurement of such technology in accordance with standards for equivalent access by both visual and nonvisual means. Identical to SB 1327.

Patron - Darner

P HB1449

Landscape Architecture Week. Establishes the second full week in April as Landscape Architecture Week in Virginia, in recognition of the many contributions of landscape architecture to the preservation of the physical beauty of the Commonwealth.

Patron - Murphy

P HB1635

Secretary of Commerce and Trade; additional duties. Requires the Secretary of Commerce and Trade to report to the General Assembly biennially summarizing major state programs and policies affecting urban areas and identifying sources of funding for projects in fiscally stressed urban areas.

Patron - Diamonstein

P HB1645

Opinions of the Attorney General. Adds city and town attorneys to those persons authorized to request an official opinion from the Attorney General. County attorneys are already so authorized.

Patron - Tate

P HB1670

Authority of department directors. Requires specified department directors in state government to appoint an agency information officer (AIO) from among the department's employees. The AIO would have two specific duties: (i) to ensure the coordinated planning, practical acquisition, effective development, and efficient use of information technology resources and communications services to meet the department's needs and (ii) to serve as the department's liaison to the Office of the Secretary of Technology. The bill is a recommendation of the Joint Commission on Technology and Science. Identical to SB 1095.

Patron - May

P HB1704

Retired state employees health insurance credit. Allows former state employees and teachers with at least 15 years of creditable service to receive the state retiree health insurance credit if, after leaving state service, they worked for a local government which does not elect to provide a retiree health insurance credit. The measure also clarifies that a former state employee who defers his retirement benefits is eligible to receive the health insurance credit upon the effective date of his deferred retirement. Persons who have been ineligible to receive the credit under the existing law, but would have been eligible if this measure had been in effect, may enroll within 180 days following this measure's effective date to receive the credit prospectively.

Patron - Dickinson

P HB1727

Secretary of Technology created. Creates the Secretary of Technology of the Commonwealth, who shall also function as Virginia's Chief Information Officer, and provides for the powers and duties thereof. The bill assigns responsibility to the Secretary for the Department of Information Technology, Innovative Technology Authority, Virginia Geographic Information Network Advisory Board, Virginia Information Providers Network Authority, and the new Department of Technology Planning (DTP), which is also created in the bill. The bill abolishes the Council on Information Management (CIM) and transfers its employees to the new DTP. The bill also repeals the Virginia Technology Council (VTC) and makes technical changes and corrections to accommodate the new Secretariat and the new DTP and the abolishment of CIM and VTC. The bill also contains technical amendments to the various listings of boards, commissions, and councils in Titles 2.1 and 9 that have changed names or been repealed in previous legislative sessions. Identical to HB 2188 and SB 808.

Patron - Scott

P HB1843

Health insurance credits; local social service employees, constitutional officers and sheriff's deputies. Provides that local social service employees, sheriffs, sheriff's deputies, and constitutional officers shall receive a health insurance credit to their monthly retirement allowance, which shall be applied to reduce the retired member's health insurance premium cost, provided the retiree's employer elects to participate in the credit program. The amount of each monthly health insurance credit payable under this section shall be $1 for each full year of the retired member's creditable service, not to exceed a maximum monthly credit of $30. This measure requires reenactment by the 2000 Session of the General Assembly.

Patron - Putney

P HB1844

Heath insurance credits; retired state employees and teachers. Increases the health insurance credit for retired state employees and teachers. The amount of each monthly health insurance credit payable under these sections shall increase from $2.50 to $4.00 per month for state employees and from $1.50 to $2.50 per month for teachers for each full year of the retired member's creditable service, not to exceed a maximum monthly credit of $120 for state employees and $75 for teachers.

Patron - Putney

P HB1905

Secretary of the Commonwealth; information on General Assembly members. Requires the Secretary of the Commonwealth to include information and photographs of members of the General Assembly in the Secretary's annual report to the Governor, and requires the Clerks of the House of Delegates and Senate to maintain these materials for the Secretary's use in the annual report. There are also technical amendments.

Patron - Hull

P HB1985

Freedom of Information. Rewrites the Freedom of Information Act as follows: (i) clarifies the definitions of "public body" and "public records"; (ii) adds a requirement that public officials read and familiarize themselves with FOIA; (iii) clarifies the procedure to be used by public bodies in responding to FOIA requests; (iv) clarifies what charges may be assessed by a public body for supplying requested records; (v) clarifies that public records maintained by a public body in an electronic data processing system or database shall be made available to a requester at reasonable cost; (vi) clarifies that excision of exempt fields of information from a database or conversion of data from one available format to another is not the creation of a new public record; (vii) creates a new section within FOIA to deal exclusively with the release of criminal records; (viii) clarifies the scholastic records exemption; (ix) narrows the working papers exemption for the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, members of the General Assembly, and other high-ranking government officials by defining (a)"working papers" as those records prepared by or for named public officials for their personal or deliberative use and (b) "Office of the Governor" as the Governor, his chief of staff, counsel, director of policy, cabinet secretaries, director of the Virginia Liaison Office, and those individuals to whom the Governor has delegated his authority in accordance with law; and by providing that no record which is otherwise open to inspection shall be deemed exempt by virtue of the fact that it has been attached to or incorporated within any working paper or correspondence; (x) clarifies the exemptions for legal opinions of local government attorneys and legal memoranda compiled specifically for use in litigation; (xi) combines current exemptions for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the ABC Board, and the Department of Corrections relating to security manuals, surveillance techniques, and architectural/engineering drawings of their facilities, etc., into a single exemption; (xii) adds a requirement that notice of meetings of public bodies be placed in a prominent public location at which notices are regularly posted and in the office of the clerk or chief administrator of the public body, with the use of electronic postings encouraged; (xiii) narrows the real property open-meeting exemption to discussions or considerations of the acquisition (and not the condition or use) of real property; (xiv) clarifies the consultation with legal counsel exemption for open meetings by defining the term "probable litigation"; (xv) clarifies the procedure to be followed by a public body in convening in a closed session; (xvi) provides that in a FOIA enforcement action in general district court, a corporate petitioner may appear through its officer, director or managing agent without the assistance of counsel; (xvii) provides that in a FOIA enforcement action, the public body shall bear the burden of proof to establish an exemption by a preponderance of the evidence; and (xviii) increases the penalties for FOIA violations from a minimum of $25 to $100, and for a subsequent violation, from a minimum of $250 to $500 and increases the maximum penalty for a subsequent violation from $1,000 to $2,500. The bill contain numerous technical amendments.

Patron - Woodrum

P HB1987

Commonwealth's surplus motor vehicles; welfare reform. Permits sale of the Commonwealth's surplus motor vehicles, prior to a public sale or auction, to local social service departments for resale at cost to TANF recipients. This would help the individuals achieve self-sufficiency and continued employment.

Patron - Jackson

P HB2075

Comprehensive Services Act. Adds oversight responsibilities to the State Executive Council for the Comprehensive Services Act (CSA) for At-Risk Youth and Families, to improve review of services provided to children under the Act. The Council would be responsible for overseeing implementation of a uniform assessment instrument, development of case management standards, and adoption of other quality assurance measures. Localities would be required to use multi-disciplinary teams in developing treatment plans, except for routine foster care cases. The CSA executive council would also be granted authority to withhold funding to local management teams that did not comply with the Act.

Patron - Dickinson

P HB2152

Privacy Protection Act; definitions. Clarifies that the definition of "information system" includes information collected or managed by means of the Internet.

Patron - Nixon

P HB2153

New Year's Day 2000. Provides that state offices shall be closed on Monday, January 3, 2000, to commemorate Virginia's legal holiday of New Year's Day. Since January 1, 2000, falls on a Saturday, the current statute provides that state offices would be closed on Friday, December 31, 1999. By moving the legal holiday to Monday, January 3, 2000, this bill provides a three-day weekend almost completely within the year 2000 to permit state agencies to deal with any computer glitches which may arise as a result of the century date change, without disrupting services to the public. The bill is a recommendation of the Joint Commission on Technology and Science.

Patron - Scott

P HB2188

Patron - May

P HB2229

State purchasing contracts; charitable corporations. Allows the Division of Purchases and Supply to permit § 501 (c) (3) corporations which operate to provide primary health care services to indigent and uninsured persons to purchase directly from contracts established for state agencies and public bodies if they meet certain criteria. This is a recommendation of the Joint Commission on Health Care.

Patron - Hamilton

P HB2245

Department of Veterans' Affairs; hiring preference for veterans. Clarifies that the Director of the Department of Veterans' Affairs shall give a preference to veterans in hiring personnel for the Department in accordance with existing law.

Patron - Phillips

P HB2267

Tributary plans; sediments and suspended solids. Adds sediment and suspended solids as pollutants which are to be the subject of tributary plans. Currently, tributary plans are to include provisions to reduce the flow of nutrients into the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. This bill would require the plans to include, as is the current requirement with nutrients, specific strategies, goals, commitments and methods of implementation to achieve reductions in sediment and suspended solids from nonpoint sources sufficient to achieve living resource goals, particularly those related to habitat conditions necessary to support submerged aquatic vegetation.

Patron - Murphy

P HB2343

Powers and duties of the Department of Personnel and Training (DPT); acceptable Internet use policy for state employees. On and after December 1, 1999, requires DPT to establish an acceptable Internet use policy (AIUP) for state employees as part of its existing statutory duty to develop state personnel policies. The AIUP is required to (i) prohibit use of the state's computers and communications services for sending, receiving, viewing, or downloading illegal material and (ii) establish strict disciplinary measures for violations thereof. Agency heads may supplement the Department's AIUP as they deem appropriate. The bill also amends the Restrictions on State Employee Access to Information Infrastructure Act by including the term "lasciviousness" within the definition of "sexually explicit." In a second enactment clause, heads of state agencies whose officers and employees are exempt from the Virginia Personnel Act are required to adopt the Department's AIUP for their employees. The bill is a recommendation of the Joint Commission on Technology and Science.

Patron - Jones, S.C.

P HB2381

Governor's Development Opportunity Fund. Gives the Governor the discretion to reduce the minimum number of new jobs required to be created, as a condition for eligibility for assistance from the Governor's Development Opportunity Fund, when the average wage of the new jobs created is at least twice the prevailing wage for that locality or region. The Governor may reduce the number of new jobs required to be created to no less than one-half the number of jobs that would otherwise be required to be created. This bill is identical to SB 1247.

Patron - Blevins

P HB2460

Economic development; Virginia Investment Partnership Act. Establishes two grant programs to be paid, subject to appropriation, from the Virginia Investment Partnership Grant Fund. One program provides for a grant of $25 million to an eligible Virginia manufacturer who makes an investment of $100 million that results in the creation of at least 1,000 new, permanent full-time jobs. The terms of the grant are to be set forth in a memorandum of agreement, subject to review by the House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees. The grant will be payable over a period of five to seven years, beginning the sixth year after the investment is complete and verified. The second program provides grants for existing Virginia manufacturers making a capital investment of at least $25 million but do not qualify for the first grant program. The amount of the grant an eligible manufacturer may receive shall be determined by the Secretary of Commerce and Trade, based on recommendations of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership and approved by the Governor. The grant amount determination shall be made by applying guidelines, to be reviewed by the chairmen of the House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees, that take into account the number of new jobs created, wages paid, amount of the investment, net present value of benefits to Virginia, and other factors. The amount of a grant any eligible manufacturer is eligible for shall not exceed $3 million or 10 percent of the amount appropriated to the program's sub-fund. No more than $6 million in grants shall be approved in any year. An overall cap of $30 million in grant awards outstanding at any time is established. These grants will be payable, subject to appropriation, over five years beginning in the sixth year after the investment is completed and verified.

Patron - Baker

P HB2506

Capital Access Fund for Disadvantaged Businesses. Creates a permanent nonreverting fund to be used to provide loan guarantees, loan loss reserves, and interest rate write-downs for economically disadvantaged businesses. The Virginia Small Business Financing Authority and the Director of the Department of Minority Business Enterprise shall jointly develop Fund guidelines.

Patron - Drake

P HB2564

Division of Purchases and Supply; procurement of computers and related peripheral equipment. Provides that blanket purchasing agreements for computers and related peripheral equipment emphasize performance criteria, including price, quality, and delivery, without regard to brand name.

Patron - Reid

P HB2569

Early intervention services. Clarifies that early intervention services provided to infants and toddlers with disabilities in accordance with Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act are not home health services, and thus the organizations providing those services are not required to be licensed as home care organizations. This measure is virtually identical to Senate Bill 1196, with the exception of minor differences in syntax and the citation for the federal law, Part H of the Individuals with Disabilities Act.

Patron - Christian

P HB2632

Department for the Aging; duties; exemption from the Public Procurement Act. Provides for the Department for the Aging to contract for the administration of the ombudsman program with (i) a statewide organization granted tax-exempt status under §501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue code and experienced in aging programs or (ii) designated area agencies on aging. The bill also authorizes the Department to contract with such entity or entities, without competitive sealed bidding or competitive negotiation (an exemption to the Public Procurement Act), to administer elder rights programs under Public Law 89-73. The bill contains technical amendments.

Patron - Darner

P HB2638

Freedom of Information Act; procedure for responding to request for records. Allows public bodies, when responding to request for information, to post requested records on a website or to deliver the records through an electronic mail address provided by the requester.

Patron - Devolites

P HB2702

Virginia Tourism Authority Act. Creates the Virginia Tourism Authority to, among other things, issue periodicals and carry and charge for advertising therein; raise money in the corporate, nonprofit, and nonstate communities to finance the Authority's activities; support and encourage each locality to foster its own tourism development programs; enter into agreements with public or private entities that provide participating funding to establish and operate tourism centers, funded jointly by the entity and the authority, as shall be determined by the Executive Director, and as approved by the Authority; encourage, stimulate, and support tourism in the Commonwealth by promoting, marketing, and advertising the Commonwealth's many tourist attractions and locations; encourage, stimulate and support the film industry in the Commonwealth; and do all things necessary or proper to administrate and manage the Governor's Motion Picture Opportunity Fund. All rights of the Authority shall be exercised by a board of directors consisting of the Secretary of Commerce and Trade, the Secretary of Finance, and eleven members appointed by the Governor, subject to confirmation by the General Assembly. The bill also provides for the Governor to appoint the Executive Director of the Authority, who shall serve as the President and chief executive officer of the Authority. The Executive Director shall report to, but not be a member of, the Board of Directors. Under the bill, the Authority is granted an exemption from the Public Procurement and Personnel Act, as well as from taxation. The newly created Authority will perform the tourism functions currently exercised by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership Authority.

Patron - Drake

P SB728

Department of Personnel and Training; state health insurance plan. Provides that part-time state employees shall be entitled to purchase health insurance coverage through a health insurance plan administered by the Department of Personnel and Training. The health insurance coverage automatically terminates upon the occurrence of (i) the applicant's death, (iii) alternate health insurance coverage being obtained by the applicant, (iii) the applicant's separation from state services, or (iv) any applicable condition outlined in the policies and procedures of the Department governing its administration of health insurance plans. The plan for part-time employees may differ from the other plans for state employees and the state shall not contribute to the cost of the premium. To be eligible, part-time employees must work 20 or more hours per week for at least six months.

Patron - Edwards

P SB806

Virginia Freedom of Information Act; notice of public meetings. Permits public bodies to employ methods of electronic notice of meetings in lieu of, or in addition to, U.S. mail notification (e.g., posting on website, electronic mail notification, and list service). The bill is a recommendation of the Joint Commission on Technology and Science.

Patron - Schrock

P SB808

Patron - Schrock

P SB971

Commonwealth's surplus motor vehicles; welfare reform. Permits sale of the Commonwealth's surplus motor vehicles, prior to a public sale or auction, to local social service departments for resale at cost to current TANF recipients. This would help the individuals achieve self-sufficiency and continued employment.

Patron - Puckett

P SB1023

Freedom of Information. Rewrites the Freedom of Information Act as follows: (i) clarifies the definitions of "public body" and "public records"; (ii) adds a requirement that public officials read and familiarize themselves with FOIA; (iii) clarifies the procedure to be used by public bodies in responding to FOIA requests; (iv) clarifies what charges may be assessed by a public body for supplying requested records; (v) clarifies that public records maintained by a public body in an electronic data processing system or database shall be made available to a requester at a reasonable cost; (vi) clarifies that the excision of exempt fields of information from a database or conversion of data from one available format to another is not the creation of a new public record; (vii) creates a new section within FOIA to deal exclusively with the release of criminal records; (viii) clarifies the scholastic records exemption; (ix) narrows the working papers exemption for the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, members of the General Assembly, and other high-ranking government officials by defining (a) "working papers" as those records prepared by or for named public officials for their personal or deliberative use and (b) "Office of the Governor" as the Governor; his chief of staff, counsel, director of policy, Cabinet Secretaries and the Director of the Virginia Liaison Office; and those individuals to whom the governor has delegated his authority pursuant to § 2.1-39.1; and by providing that no record which is otherwise open to inspection shall be deemed exempt by virtue of the fact that it has been attached to or incorporated within any working paper or correspondence; (x) clarifies the exemptions for legal opinions of local government attorneys and legal memoranda compiled specifically for use in litigation; (xi) combines current exemptions for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the ABC Board, and the Department of Corrections relating to security manuals, surveillance techniques, and architectural/engineering drawings of their facilities, etc., into a single exemption; (xii) adds a requirement that notice of meetings of public bodies be placed in a prominent public location at which notices are regularly posted and in the office of the clerk or chief administrator of the public body, with the use of electronic postings encouraged; (xiii) narrows the real property open-meeting exemption to discussions or considerations of the acquisition (and not the condition or use) of real property; (xiv) clarifies the consultation with legal counsel exemption for open meetings by defining the term "probable litigation"; (xv) clarifies the procedure to be followed by a public body in convening in a closed session; (xvi) provides that in a FOIA enforcement action in general district court, a corporate petitioner may appear through its officer, director or managing agent without the assistance of counsel; (xvii) provides that in a FOIA enforcement action, the public body shall bear the burden of proof to establish an exemption by a preponderance of the evidence; and (xviii) increases the penalties for FOIA violations from a minimum a $25 to $100, and for a subsequent violation, from a minimum of $250 to $500 and increases the maximum penalty for a subsequent violation from $1,000 to $2,500. The bill contain numerous technical amendments.

Patron - Bolling

P SB1026

Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA); electronic communication meetings. Exempts from FOIA's restrictions on electronic communications meetings (i) any public body (a) in the legislative branch of state government or (b) responsible to or under the supervision, direction, or control of the Secretary of Commerce and Trade or the Secretary of Technology or (ii) the State Board for Community Colleges. The bill does not apply to any session of the General Assembly. The bill adopts the basic requirements of nonelectronic communication public meetings as the required procedure for holding electronic communication meetings. The bill (i) defines "electronic communication means," "emergency," and "meeting"; (ii) requires that, except in an emergency, notice of a meeting must be provided no less than seven days before the meeting in a manner reasonably calculated under the circumstances to apprise the public of the meeting information; (iii) requires that notice for emergency meetings be given contemporaneously with notice provided to members of the public body or Board in a manner reasonably calculated under the circumstances to apprise the public of the meeting information; (iv) for purposes of establishing the participation requirement, requires that every location where a member of the public body or Board is physically present must be in Virginia and open and accessible to the public; (v) after the presence of three members or a quorum is established, permits members of the public body or the Board who are not physically present in Virginia or at a location open and accessible to the public to participate in the meeting and vote; and (vi) requires public bodies and the Board, when they use the bill, to file reports thereon by October 15, 2000. The bill contains an emergency clause, expires on July 1, 2000, and is a recommendation of the Joint Commission on Technology and Science.

Patron - Newman

P SB1095

Patron - Ticer

P SB1109

Volunteer rescue squads and fire departments; participation in public auctions of surplus materials. Permits sale of the Commonwealth's surplus materials prior to a public sale or auction to any volunteer rescue squad or volunteer fire department established prior to July 1, 1984, or after July 1, 1984, as approved by the governing body of the locality.

Patron - Wampler

P SB1111

Department of General Services; disposition of surplus materials. Provides for the Department of General Services to establish procedures for permitting surplus tangible property to be sold by departments, divisions, institutions, and agencies of the Commonwealth to Virginia charitable corporations granted tax-exempt status under § 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code and operating as clinics for the indigent and uninsured, and organized for the delivery of primary health care services (i) as federally qualified health centers or (ii) at a reduced or sliding fee scale or without charge.

Patron - Schrock

P SB1127

Capital Access Fund for Disadvantaged Businesses. Creates a permanent nonreverting fund to be used to provide loans and loan guarantees for disadvantaged businesses. The Virginia Small Business Financing Authority and the Director of the Department of Minority Business Enterprise will jointly develop guidelines. This is a recommendation of the Joint Subcommittee Studying the Status and Needs of African-American Males in Virginia. This bill is identical to HB 2506.

Patron - Maxwell

P SB1142

Patron - Norment

P SB1143

Economic development; Virginia Investment Partnership Act. Establishes two grant programs to be paid, subject to appropriation, from the Virginia Investment Partnership Grant Fund. One program provides for a grant of $25 million to an eligible Virginia manufacturer who makes an investment of $100 million that results in the creation of at least 1,000 new, permanent full-time jobs. The terms of the grant are to be set forth in a memorandum of agreement, subject to review by the House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees. The grant will be payable over a period of five to seven years, beginning the sixth year after the investment is complete and verified. The second program provides grants for existing Virginia manufacturers making a capital investment of at least $25 million but do not qualify for the first grant program. The amount of the grant an eligible manufacturer may receive shall be determined by the Secretary of Commerce and Trade, based on recommendations of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership and approved by the Governor. The grant amount determination shall be made by applying guidelines, to be reviewed by the chairmen of the House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees, that take into account the number of new jobs created, wages paid the amount of the investment, present net value of paid benefits to Virginia, and other factors. The amount of a grant any eligible manufacturer is eligible for shall not exceed $3 million or 10 percent of the amount appropriated to the program's sub-fund. No more than $6 million in grants shall be approved in any year. An overall cap of $30 million in grant awards outstanding at any time is established. These grants will be payable, subject to appropriation, over five years beginning in the sixth year after the investment is completed and verified.

Patron - Trumbo

P SB1196

Early Intervention Services System. Clarifies that early intervention services to infants and toddlers with disabilities in accordance with part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act are not home health services, and service providers are not required to be licensed as home health organizations.

Patron - Trumbo

P SB1241

Comprehensive services; membership requirements. Allows parents who are employed by public or private programs which receive funds from the CSA or agencies represented on a community and policy management team to be parent representatives on community policy and management teams and family assessment and planning teams, provided that they do not interact directly on a regular basis with the children. Notwithstanding this restriction, foster parents may serve as parent representatives. Current law prohibits parents employed by these entities from being parent representatives.

Patron - Ticer

P SB1247

Governor's Development Opportunity Fund. Provides that the Governor shall have discretion to reduce the number of new jobs required to no less than half of the amount that would have normally been required to receive a fund grant or loan when the average wage of new jobs created is at least twice the prevailing wage (not including benefits) for the locality or region. The bill also eliminates the prohibition on a locality receiving funding for more than one project in a fiscal year. This bill is identical to HB 2381.

Patron - Forbes

P SB1265

Department for the Aging; powers and duties. Adds to the mission of the Department, the responsibility of assisting state, local and nonprofit agencies in identifying opportunities to improve services to the elderly.

Patron - Walker

P SB1302

State grievance procedure; decisions of hearing officers. Provides that in grievances arising out of the Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services which challenge allegations of patient abuse, the Director of the Department of Employee Relations Counselors shall determine whether the decision is consistent with law.

Patron - Hanger

P SB1327

Patron - Whipple

F Failed

F HB1500

Public support for the arts. Directs that one half of one percent of the budget amount for any capital project shall be dedicated to the Virginia Commission for the Arts.

Patron - Diamonstein

F HB1540

Department of Personal and Training; state health insurance plan. Permits in-state graduate students who attend public institutions of higher education in the Commonwealth and are receiving a stipend from such institutions to purchase health insurance coverage, for themselves and their dependents, under the state employee health insurance plan.

Patron - Shuler

F HB1541

Department of Personnel and Training; state health insurance plan. Permits part-time state employees and full-time graduate students to purchase health insurance coverage through a health insurance plan authorized by the Department of Personnel and Training. The plan for part-time employees may differ from the other plans for state employees.

Patron - Shuler

F HB1607

Health insurance credits; retired sheriffs and deputies. Provides that retired sheriffs and deputies who rendered at least 15 years of creditable service shall receive a health insurance credit to their monthly retirement allowance, which shall be applied to reduce the retired member's health insurance premium cost, provided the retiree's employer elects to participate in the credit program. The amount of each monthly health insurance credit payable under this section shall be $1.50 for each full year of the retired member's creditable service, not to exceed a maximum monthly credit of $45. Localities which participate in VRS may also elect to provide an additional one-dollar health insurance credit per month per full year of the retired member's creditable service. The additional amount may not exceed a monthly credit of $30.

Patron - Davies

F HB1643

Retired state employees health insurance credit; state health plan. Allows former state employees with at least 15 years of creditable service to participate in the state health plan, receive the retiree health insurance credit, or both, if after leaving state service they worked for a local government which does not elect to provide a retiree health insurance credit. Currently, a retired state employee is barred from participating in the state health plan if he failed to elect to participate in the plan within 31 days following the effective date of retirement. The measure also clarifies that a former state employee who defers his retirement benefits is eligible to receive the health insurance credit, to participate in the state health plan, or both, upon the effective date of his deferred retirement. Persons who have been ineligible to participate in the state health plan or receive the credit under the existing law, but would have been eligible if this measure had been in effect, may enroll within 180 days following this measure's effective date to receive such benefits prospectively.

Patron - Tate

F HB1659

Freedom of Information Act; public bodies. Includes foundations which exist for the primary purpose of supporting a public institution of higher education in the definition of "public body."

Patron - Marshall

F HB1687

Life insurance benefits; retired state employees. Provides that retired state employees, including employees retired for disability, shall have group life insurance benefits equal to their annual salaries as of their retirement dates. Currently, a retiree's group life insurance benefits are reduced annually until they are equal to 50 percent of his annual salary as of his retirement date.

Patron - Kilgore

F HB1772

Heath insurance credits; retired state employees. Increases maximum monthly credit to $100 from $75 for retired state employees.

Patron - Parrish

F HB1827

Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services; exemption. Exempts local, state and federal laboratories from regulations promulgated by the Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services for the certification of laboratories.

Patron - Phillips

F HB1855

Service credit for calculation of annual leave. Requires that the calculation of service credit used for the purpose of calculating annual leave be uniform for all employees regardless of the date hired.

Patron - Murphy

F HB1900

Lobbying; constitutional officers and their deputies and employees. Broadens the definition of local government employee, for lobbying registration purposes, to include local constitutional officers and their deputies and employees. Under current law, the chief administrative officer of each local government is required to register with the Secretary of the Commonwealth and file a lobbying registration statement if any local government employees will act as lobbyists on its behalf. The bill does not change current provisions that exempt from the registration requirements locally elected officials acting in their official capacity or local government employees whose job duties do not regularly include influencing or attempting to influence legislative or executive action.

Patron - Joannou

F HB1981

Prepayment of bonded indebtedness. Provides that 10 percent of the annual general fund revenue collections that are in excess of the official estimates in the general appropriation act and 10 percent of any unreserved general fund balance at the close of each fiscal year whose reappropriation is not required in the general appropriation act shall be placed into a nonreverting fund and used to prepay bonded indebtedness.

Patron - Davies

F HB2093

Department of Personnel and Training; personnel policies of the Commonwealth. Requires the Department to adopt personnel policies which permit a state employee to donate up to 100 percent of his accrued paid sick leave to any state employee who has depleted or will deplete his own accrued paid sick leave. The bill also provides that any personnel policy of the Department of Personnel and Training which is inconsistent with the bill's provisions shall be null and void on July 1, 1999.

Patron - Cranwell

F HB2101

General Assembly; disclosure of office allowances. Requires members of the General Assembly who receive an allowance for unvouchered office expenses and supplies provided by the general appropriation act to keep a detailed and separate account of these funds and to file an annual disclosure statement. The disclosure statement must be filed with the State Board of Elections no later than January 8, which coincides with the date members must file their statements of economic interests with the Clerks of the House and Senate. The statement must include an account of all receipts and expenditures recorded during the preceding calendar year. Unexpended balances must be carried forward and accounted for in the next reporting period. The bill prohibits legislators from making expenditures from these funds to family members.

Patron - Purkey

F HB2147

Department of Personnel and Training; leave to assist at-risk youth service organizations. Requires the Department of Personnel and Training to develop personnel policies allowing classified, nonprobationary employees to take up to eight hours per year of paid leave time to assist any at-risk youth service organization. This leave will be in addition to other paid leave. "At-risk youth service organization" means a nonprofit organization that is exempt from taxation under § 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code and that provides support services and assistance to at-risk youth.

Patron - Hull

F HB2207

Law-enforcement officers' procedural guarantees. Includes sheriffs' deputies within the law-enforcement officers' statutory procedural guarantees.

Patron - Stump

F HB2288

Freedom of Information Act; foundations. Provides that foundations which exist for the primary purpose of supporting a public institution of higher education shall be considered "public bodies" with respect to any funding provided to support a function or purpose of a public institution of higher education.

Patron - Marshall

F HB2327

Freedom of Information Act; penalties; advice of Attorney General; continuing education. Requires the Attorney General to provide advice and counsel to any public body, upon request, as to the interpretation, applicability, and procedures established under FOIA. In addition, the Attorney General is required to (i) publish an annual report which shall include guidelines for the interpretation, applicability, and procedures for public bodies established under FOIA and (ii) conduct, every two years, an education program for public bodies on the interpretation, applicability and procedures established under FOIA. The bill also (i) requires every executive official of a public body to attend at least two hours every two years of continuing education offered by the Office of the Attorney General, (ii) increases from $25 to $100 the minimum civil penalty for a first violation of FOIA and from $250 to $500 for a subsequent violation, and (iii) requires a court to award reasonable attorney's fees and costs to the prevailing petitioner in a proceeding commenced under FOIA.

Patron - McClure

F HB2330

Virginia Human Rights Act; retaliation prohibited. Provides that retaliation against a person who reports the misuse of funds by employees of a public body or agency chartered or authorized by the Commonwealth shall be prohibited where such retaliation includes unfounded charges of unlawful discrimination. The bill defines "unfounded charges" to include those made by the employee who was alleged to have misused the funds or by someone who cooperates with the employee in making the unfounded charges. The bill also provides that nothing shall be construed to deny the person subject to the unfounded charges of unlawful discrimination a private right of action under Virginia Human Rights Act.

Patron - McClure

F HB2344

Surplus computers and related peripheral equipment. Permits directors of state agencies to donate computers and related peripheral equipment which they determine to be surplus directly to any public elementary, middle, or secondary school in the Commonwealth. The bill also contains technical amendments.

Patron - Jones, S.C.

F HB2419

Department of Personnel and Training (DPT); personnel policies of the Commonwealth; Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Requires DPT's personnel policies to permit a state employee to substitute up to 50 percent of his accrued paid sick leave for leave taken pursuant to the FMLA. Current law, enacted in 1997, permits substitution of 33 percent of such leave. The FMLA permits eligible employees to take up to 12 work weeks of unpaid leave in a 12-month period for the birth of a child or the placement of a child for adoption or foster care, to care for an immediate family member (spouse, child, or parent) with a serious health condition, or when the employee is unable to work because of a serious health condition. Subject to conditions established by the employer, the FMLA also permits employees to substitute paid leave for unpaid FMLA leave. Under the Commonwealth's new sickness and disability program, which is optional for workers employed before January 1, 1999, and mandatory for new employees hired after that date, a participating employee will receive eight to ten days of sick leave annually (depending on his length of service) in lieu of earning five hours of sick leave per pay period under the current state benefits system. Under this bill, the maximum amount of unpaid FMLA sick leave that an employee receiving 10 days of sick leave could substitute is five days. Without the bill, that same employee could substitute only 3.3 days. Employees who do not participate in the new program would be able to substitute 50 percent of their accrued paid sick leave balances earned under the current state benefits system.

Patron - Grayson

F HB2447

Government Performance and Results Act. Requires all state agencies, under the direction of the Director of the Department of Planning and Budget to develop strategic and annual performance plans relating to their respective missions and goals. The bill exempts any agency with an annual budget of less than $2 million.

Patron - McClure

F HB2498

Council on Aging; membership. Increases the number of members appointed by the House of Delegates and Senate from four to six each.

Patron - Brink

F HB2580

Department of Business Assistance; State Contract Target Program. Grants any HUBZone small business a 5 percent price preference in competitive sealed bidding on contracts for products or services to be purchased for use by state agencies. HUBZone small businesses are also given a preference in the case of a tie with another bidder. A HUBZone small business is a business included on the list of qualified HUBZone small business concerns maintained by the Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration. To be a HUBZone small business concern, it must be owned by one or more American citizens and have its principal office in a HUBZone. A HUBZone is any area (i) in a census tract in which 50 percent or more of the households have an income which is less than 60 percent of an SMSA's median gross income or (ii) in a nonmetropolitan county or city with a median household income less than 80 percent of nonmetropolitan state median household income or with an unemployment rate that it at least 140 percent of the statewide average unemployment rate. A business with less than 500 employees or less than $5 million in revenues may qualify as a qualified HUBZone small business concern if at least 35 percent of its employees reside in a HUBZone. The federal HUBZone program, on which this measure is based, provides several set-asides and preferences, including a five percent price evaluation preference, for qualified HUBZone small business concerns.

Patron - Phillips

F HB2644

Virginia Veterans Care Center. Transfers responsibility for the Center's Board of Trustees and accompanying maintenance and endowment funds from the Secretary of Administration to the Director of the Department of Veterans' Affairs. The Department remains an agency for which the Secretary is responsible.

Patron - Griffith

F HB2718

Discrimination prohibited. Prohibits discrimination in employment and housing on the basis of sexual orientation.

Patron - Baskerville

F SB260

Department of General Services; Land Management and Stewardship Commission created. Provides that the Director of the Department of General Services (DGS) may execute all conveyances of state-owned property which is not in the possession or control of a state department, agency or institution. The bill also creates the Land Management and Stewardship Commission, which is responsible for determining which state-owned property in the possession or control of a state department, agency or institution should be declared surplus, and upon a majority vote of the Commission, may declare such property surplus. The bill also specifies the membership of the Commission and sets out its other powers and duties. DGS is designated to provide staff support to the Commission. The bill also contains technical amendments.

Patron - Stosch

F SB742

Department of Employee Relations Counselors; rotation of hearing officers. Requires the Director of the Department of Employee Relations Counselors to assign any hearing officer whose name arises in rotation. The bill also clarifies that the Director may not remove a hearing officer from rotation without a hearing pursuant to § 9-6.14:14.1 for cause specified in Supreme Court Rules.

Patron - Gartlan

F SB891

Health insurance plan for state retirees. Allows otherwise-eligible retired state employees to participate in the state retiree health plan if they were enrolled in a managed health care program for Medicare beneficiaries offered by QualChoice of Virginia that was discontinued effective December 31, 1998. QualChoice is a managed health care organization owned by Blue Ridge Health Alliance, which was formed by the University of Virginia and the University of Virginia Health Services Foundation. The state retirees are currently barred from participating in the state retirees health plan because they either (i) did not elect to participate in the state plan within 31 days of retirement or (ii) withdrew from the state program to enroll in the MediChoice plan. QualChoice announced in October 1998 that it was terminating its MediChoice plan, which had been offered to Medicare beneficiaries living in Charlottesville and eight surrounding counties. The election to participate in the state health plan must be made between July 1 and July 31, 1999. The election will not be available to state retirees who retired from service at the University of Virginia if they are eligible to enroll, or have enrolled, in a comparable health insurance program administered by the University for its retired employees. The University of Virginia is required to provide, at its own cost, staff assistance to ensure that the state retirees who were enrolled in the MediChoice program are provided the opportunity to enroll in a University-administered program, the DPT-administered program, or another health insurance program.

Patron - Houck

F SB955

State retirees health benefits program. Allows any former state employee, who is eligible to receive VRS annuity payments, to participate in the state retiree health benefits program upon leaving state service without starting to receive the retirement payments if the employee was involuntarily separated from state service. Currently, state retirees who do not elect to participate in the state health plan within 31 days of the effective date of retirement are thereafter barred from participating in the retiree health benefits program. Any state retiree who is receiving retirement benefit payments and participating in the retirees health benefits program on July 1, 1999, may make an election, by September 1, 1999, to continue participating in the health benefits program but defer further retirement benefit payments, or to defer continued participation in the health benefits program and receipt of retirement benefit payments, until a later date. Technical and clarifying changes are made to the provisions relating to the health insurance credit for state retirees. Incorporated into other legislation

Patron - Stosch

F SB1044

Department for the Aging; elder rights programs. Provides for the Department for the Aging to contract with the Virginia Association of Area Agencies on Aging for various elder care programs as mandated by Public Law 89-73 and provides an exemption from the Public Procurement Act for the agency when contracting these services.

Patron - Forbes

F SB1121

Discrimination prohibited. Prohibits discrimination in employment and housing on the basis of sexual orientation.

Patron - Whipple

F SB1192

Virginia Investment Act of 1999. Limits the rate of growth of state expenditures to the total of annual percentage changes in population and cost of living, but in no event greater than the three-year average of change in per capita personal income. Revenues in excess of the capped expenditure amount shall be deposited into the Virginia Investment Account, which is established. Money in the Account shall be appropriated only for capital transportation projects, public school construction, higher education capital projects, research and development projects relating to economic development, and reducing bonded indebtedness, and to address emergencies. The amount of annual deposits to the Account is capped at five percent of the excess of revenues over expenditures, including deposits to the Revenue Stabilization Fund and Water Quality Improvement Fund, in a fiscal year. The excess revenue over the amount required to be deposited in the Account is to be refunded pro rata on annual income tax returns. The limit on the rate of general fund growth may be exceeded if the Governor declares an emergency.

Patron - Barry

F SB1206

Special license plates; clean special fuel vehicles. Expands eligibility for clean special fuel vehicle license plates to all motor vehicles except motorcycles and provides for issuance, for the display on clean special fuel vehicles required to display official government-use license plates, of devices identifying those vehicles as clean special fuel vehicles and qualifying them for the HOV lane exemptions in § 33.1-46.2.

Patron - Barry

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