Virginia Division
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VAPBA Legislative Update

Virginia PBA Members, 

The legislative session is underway and nearly two thousand bills have been submitted. Below is a list of bills of interest.

Delegate Hugo will be submitting a grievance bill for us that will attempt to make the final step of the grievance process uniform across the state. This bill will require the three person panel and will eliminate jurisdiction appointed panel members. We will add that bill to our list once it is assigned a number. Attempts are also being made to get Senator Wexton from Loudoun to put this bill in on the Senate side. 

The Board of Directors is discussing support for HB 802 which increases the penalty for eluding police.Updates will follow on this bill and our support.

Delegate LaRock has submitted HB 1287 which is another attempt at providing procedural guarantee rights to Deputy Sheriffs. The bill wording will include working deputies in procedural guarantee coverage while excluding the command staff. The wording change is:

" For the purposes of this chapter, "law-enforcement officer" shall not include an employee of the sheriff's department of any city or county who has the authority to hire, suspend, lay off, promote, discharge, award, or discipline other law-enforcement officers within the sheriff's department if such authority requires the use of independent judgment." 

If passed, this definition will cause procedural guarantee protection to apply to deputies in Virginia and would give the deputies a level of job security they now do not have. 

I am quite sure that every attempt to kill this bill will be made by the Sheriffs Association. During my discussions with the Sheriffs Association lobbyist in the past I was told that the Sheriffs Association will never support procedural guarantee for the deputies. It was made clear to me that no discussion on the topic would ever take place and that there is no compromise or middle ground on the issue. I am not aware of any change in position but I will contact the Sheriffs Association representative in the near future to confirm their stance.

We will support the bill and lobby for passage of HB 1287. I encourage you to personally contact your legislator and advise them how important it is to Virginia Law Enforcement to pass this bill. Once the bill is assigned to committee and the committees are established we will ask for member involvement in contacting key legislators, more to follow soon.

We are also looking into two bills, Hb 472 and hb 1245 which deal with certain cancer presumptions. I will be having a discussion with lobbyists for the fire fighters to see if these bills may, at some point, be applied to law enforcement. We do not want to harm the bills chances for passage and will report back on our discussions.

Feel free to contact me if you see other bills we should be following or if you have comments on any of the bills submitted at this point.

 

Sean McGowan 
Executive Director
Virginia Police Benevolent Association


Bills Committee Last action Date
HB 82 Habeeb - Workers' compensation; Uninsured Employer's Fund, financing tax. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 12/07/17
HB 90 Bell, John J. - Teacher grievance procedures; hearing, three-member fact-finding panel. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 12/11/17
HB 100 Simon - Method of execution; lethal injection drugs. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 12/13/17
HB 107 - Bell, John J. - Workers' compensation; disease presumptions, correctional officers. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 12/14/17
HB 108 Bell, John J. - Correctional officers; survey upon resignation, etc., report. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 12/14/17
HB 402 Levine - Law-enforcement agencies, local; body-worn camera systems. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/05/18
HB 430 - Marshall - Law-enforcement officers; qualifications psychological examination. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/06/18
HB 460 - Carter - Workers' compensation; retaliatory discharge of employee. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/07/18
HB 461 Carter - Workers' compensation; employer to notify employee of intent to accept or deny claim. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/07/18
HB 472 Reid - Workers' compensation; (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/07/18
HB 498 - Simon - Concealed handgun permits, out-of-state; reciprocity. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/08/18
HB 531 Habeeb - Workers' compensation; proof of coverage information. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/08/18
HB 558 Habeeb - Workers' Compensation; employer's liability for medical services provided outside of Commonwealth. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/08/18
HB 623 - Bell, Robert B. - False reports to law enforcement; penalty. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/08/18
HB 643 Hope - First responders; reduced rate tuition. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/09/18
HB 653 Murphy - Employers; sexual harassment training; penalty. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/09/18
HB 664 Kilgore - Virginia Freedom of Information Act; transfer of public records; definition of 'custodian.' (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/09/18
HB 727 Delaney - Virginia Freedom of Information Act; exclusion of records relating to public safety. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/09/18
HB 739 McGuire - Killing of police animals; penalty. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/09/18
HB 781 Keam - Virginia Open Data Initiative Act. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/09/18
HB 802 O'Quinn - Eluding police; penalty. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/09/18
HB 846 - Ingram - Virginia Retirement System; technical amendments. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/09/18
HB 863 Ingram - Virginia Retirement System; health insurance credits for retired state employees. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/09/18
HB 904 Robinson - Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA); general exclusion for trade secrets. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/09/18
HB 906 - Robinson - Virginia Freedom of Information Act; definition of electronic communication. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/09/18
HB 907 - Robinson - Virginia Freedom of Information Act; meetings held by electronic communication means. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/09/18
HB 908 Robinson - Virginia Freedom of Information Act; meetings held by electronic communication means. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/09/18
HB 909 - Robinson - Virginia Freedom of Information Act; disclosure of law-enforcement and criminal records. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/09/18
HB 940 Roem - Office of the Attorney General; Freedom of Information Act Ombudsman created. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/09/18
HB 969 Davis - Workers' compensation; statutory employers; exclusions. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/09/18
HB 1030 - Price - Officer-involved shootings; model policy for investigations; disclosure of report. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/09/18
HB 1053 Watts - Policies against workplace harassment; legislative branch. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/09/18
HB 1101 Robinson - Virginia Freedom of Information Act; right to speak at open meetings. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/10/18
HB 1109 Tran - Overtime compensation; penalties. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/10/18
HB 1161 - Simon - Teacher grievance procedures; hearing; three-member fact-finding panel. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/10/18
HB 1245 Hugo - Workers' compensation; presumption of compensability for certain diseases. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/10/18
HB 1275 - Aird - Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA); record exclusion for trade secrets supplied. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/10/18
HB 1287 - LaRock - Law-Enforcement Officers Procedural Guarantee Act; definitions. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/10/18
HB 1326 Reid - Virginia Retirement System; E-911 dispatchers. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/10/18
HJ 103 Torian - Study; Virginia Retirement System; state-run retirement savings plan. (H)  Referral Pending (H) Committee Referral Pending 01/09/18
SB 41 Favola - Sick leave; use for care of immediate family members. (S) Committee on Commerce and Labor (S) Referred to Committee on Commerce and Labor 11/21/17
SB 56 - DeSteph - Line of Duty Act; eligible dependents. (S) Committee for Courts of Justice (S) Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice 11/27/17
SB 59 - Lucas - Criminal Justice Services, Department of; training standards, community engaged policing. (S) Committee for Courts of Justice (S) Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice 11/30/17
SB 74 - Surovell - Handheld personal communications devices; use while driving. (S) Committee on Transportation (S) Referred to Committee on Transportation 12/01/17
SB 196 Locke - CJSB (S) Committee for Courts of Justice (S) Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice 01/01/18
SB 248 Dance - Virginia Retirement System; technical amendments. (S) Committee on Finance (S) Referred to Committee on Finance 01/05/18
SB 321 Ruff - Virginia Retirement System; health insurance credits for retired state employees. (S) Committee on Finance (S) Referred to Committee on Finance 01/08/18
SB 352 Peake - Workers' compensation; presumption of compensability for certain diseases. (S) Committee on Commerce and Labor (S) Referred to Committee on Commerce and Labor 01/08/18
SB 495 Carrico - Deputy Sheriff Supplemental Salary Fund; creation and revenue source. (S) Committee on Finance (S) Referred to Committee on Finance 01/09/18

 

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