2020 Legislative Program: Legislative Priorities

PLEASE NOTE:‌

Yellow highlighted items are unique solely to Chesapeake;
Items in a blue font address very specific City concerns, but have broader statewide application
Non-highlighted items are more general policy statements that impact the City and are shared by localities across the Commonwealth.

SECTION 1: PRIORITY LEGISLATIVE REQUESTS/CITY INITIATIVES

Pro Rata reimbursement to developers for water and sewer facilities. Seek amendments to Va. Code § 15.2-2243 to allow developers to recover a pro rata portion of costs from subsequent developers or subdivisions, for water and sewer infrastructure investments made by the initial developer

Virginia Code Section 15.2-2243 allows a locality to adopt an ordinance requiring a developer to pay a pro rata share of the cost of providing reasonable and necessary sewerage, water and drainage facilities located outside the property limits of the land controlled by the developer and which are necessitated or required, at least in part, by construction of the new development. The City of Chesapeake has codified this provision in its Chesapeake City Code and has operated a successful pro rata program for water and sanitary sewer extension since the mid-1980s. This program ensures the orderly extension of utility systems, which benefits the residents, the City, and developers. Chesapeake has studied its program over the last two years in an effort to identify areas of possible improvement.

To this end, Chesapeake requests a legislative amendment to the Virginia Code. Currently, the statute addresses water, sewer and stormwater (drainage); but its provisions are stormwater- focused and therefore do not function as well for water and sewer extensions. For example, the statute does not reference water or sewer connection fees, which are not associated with stormwater projects. The proposed amendment updates the current statutory language to more accurately address water and sewer improvements by allowing a reimbursement method tied to connection fees that are generated by the development and required by municipal ordinance. In addition, the statute currently provides for traditional pro rata payments, but does not provide an option for developers to receive reimbursement for their improvements in the form of connection fees generated by the subdivision or development. Thus, developers must wait until subsequent development occurs to be reimbursed. Chesapeake suggests that the statute be amended to permit installing developers to have the option to receive connection fees in lieu of waiting for traditional pro rata reimbursement. This change will benefit developers as they will receive reimbursement sooner and will benefit the City as it will result in the efficient extension of water and sewer utilities. It will also enable the City to reimburse developers in a timelier manner, which will reduce administrative tasks. In addition, the proposed

amendments enable localities to adopt ordinances and policies regarding the implementation of the proposed authority.

Chesapeake's proposed amendments to the statute are included as Appendix A.
Amend Land Bank Entities Act to be consistent with State and Local Government Conflicts of Interests Act

The Virginia Land Bank Entities Act, Va. Code § 15.2-7500 et seq., empowers the City to establish a land bank entity to address vacant, abandoned, and tax delinquent properties. The City adopted an ordinance establishing a land bank authority in 2018. As the City has worked through forming the land bank authority, Section 15.2-7505(B) has been problematic. This section states that "no member of the board or employees of a land bank entity shall have any interest, direct or indirect, in any contract or proposed contract for materials or services to be furnished to or used by" the land bank. This standard has been interpreted as more stringent than the one imposed by the State and Local Government Conflict of Interests Act. To this end, Chesapeake requests that Section 15.2-7505(B) be amended to remove the unduly burdensome conflict standard and instead state that members of the board or employees of the land bank are subject to the provisions of the State and Local Government Conflict of Interests Act.‌
Motorized scooters operator age requirement. Seek an amendment to Va. Code § 46.2-908.1 to increase the age requirement from 14 to 16 for operating motorized scooters

Optional authority to increase minimum age for scooter operators is desired based on increased prevalence and speed capabilities of motorized scooters, enforcement concerns regarding minimum age requirements (web based applications used to deploy for-hire devices is likely reliant on self-certification of operator as to age and as to whether there is direct adult supervision), and accidents and injuries arising from scooters. Although franchise agreements or licensure for for-hire devices could specify enhanced requirements as to operators to the extent allowed by law, enforceability as well as general health, safety, and welfare of minors is a concern in light of fatalities in the similar context of minors operating off-road vehicles.
Summit Pointe Development Incentives
1. Seek amendments to Va. Code § 58.1-608.3 to add Chesapeake to the current list of localities authorized to apply sales and use tax revenues collected in certain types of public facilities towards debt incurred to construct the facility; and
2. Seek amendments to this Code section to add "outdoor amphitheaters" to the list of defined public facilities; and
3. Seek an amendment to extend the deadline to issue debt under this statute from July 1, 2020 to July 1, 2024.
  
  Chesapeake requests these amendments to support and bolster the realization of a development goal for the Summit Pointe Development. Summit Pointe is a large-scale, mixed-use community housing Dollar Tree's corporate headquarters, offices, retail and residential uses. The development represents a projected investment of over $300 million. Chesapeake is interested in partnering with Dollar Tree to construct an outdoor amphitheater in the community. The outdoor amphitheater is visualized as a space capable of accommodating speakers, theater and professional development opportunities. For these new projects to become a reality, the City requests that the bond issuance deadline in the statute be extended to July 1, 2024.‌‌
Amend Authority for Insurance Benefits to Expressly Extend Option of Benefits for Retired Employees of Boards, Commissions, Agencies, and Authorities.

Seek amendment of Va. Code § 15.2-1517 to extend option of a locality to extend group life, accident, and health insurance programs to retired employees of boards, commissions, agencies, or authorities that are separate political subdivisions, but work closely with the locality. Currently, the statute provides express authority to extend benefits only to retirees that were directly employed by the locality and constitutional officers and their employees.‌

SECTION 2: OTHER LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES

(Note on color coding)

Retired Law Enforcement Officers Serving as School Security Officers – VRS Benefits The City Supports legislation similar to SB 1023 (2019) that would allow a retired law- enforcement officer to continue to receive his Virginia Retirement System service retirement allowance during a subsequent period of employment by a local school division as a school security officer.‌
Education Funding
1. The City supports the State to gradually restore the cost methodology, over two biennia, for support position funding used before 2009. This would remove the "cap" on support positions.
  
  Prior to the 2009 recession, the Commonwealth provided funding for support staff positions according to a formula that used actual staffing and costs (calculated with the actual number of support positions and the salary for each position in all school divisions). As a moneysaving measure during the recession, a cap was placed on the number of positions that the state would fund. This action allowed the state to cut its funding for public education by approximately $750 million annually. Most school divisions could not practically and safely reduce positions included in support staff funding to the arbitrary ratios used to balance the state budget. These positions include school psychologists, nurses and social workers as well as instructional support, attendance, security, transportation, technology, and facility operations and maintenance staff. These positions are essential to the effective operation of schools and provide vital support needed to meet a myriad of educational needs. The recession ended almost a decade ago.
  
  As a result, the City asks for the General Assembly to return to funding school support staff based upon actual school division practices.
2. The City supports an increase in State general fund revenues in support of K-12 funding in order to restore the use of lottery funds for the state construction grant program and per-pupil lottery funds with the capital requirements in place prior to 2009.
  
  When the Virginia Lottery began in the late 1980s, the popular belief was that its proceeds would be used for public education. However, this was not required either by statute or the State constitution and the proceeds were spent by the General Assembly for a variety of purposes. This changed in 2001 with passage of a State constitutional amendment earmarking lottery funds solely for educational purposes. But even this did not result in a sudden infusion of new money for public education; as the General Assembly chose to use a substantial portion of the lottery proceeds to replace general funds that were being spent on K-12.
  
  With the 2001 legislative changes related to lottery funds, the state provided direct per pupil payments to divisions and required a minimum of 50% of those funds be used for non-recurring costs - this was the first support of state funds for capital needs in divisions. Up until this point, all capital costs, including modernizations or facility expansion was solely the responsibility of the local government. With this change, these capital costs became a "shared" cost based on the Local Composite Index (LCI). The City's LCI for the Budget Fiscal Year 2020-2022 is 0.3486. When the recession hit in 2008, the lottery per pupil amounts were eliminated, as was the state construction grant program. These funds were redirected to support K-12 expenses previously funded by general tax revenues in the state budget.
  
  Using a small portion of the lottery proceeds, the General Assembly began to restore the direct payment to divisions in 2016. This was accomplished by providing additional general funds for categorical aid programs that had previously been funded substantially with lottery proceeds. This action freed up those lottery proceeds to be returned directly to school divisions on an unrestricted basis. In addition, much of the annual growth in lottery proceeds has also been dispensed into direct payments. The General Assembly has incrementally increased these amounts each year since and in 2019, the General Assembly set the Lottery Per Pupil Allocation (PPA) at 45% of the total available lottery revenue while removing the requirement that half of each division's amount be spent on non- recurring expenses.
  
  For the 2020 session, the Council supports a further increase in the percentage of lottery funds returned directly to school divisions. This will require the General Assembly to provide additional general funds for those direct and categorical aid programs that continue to be funded with lottery proceeds. Ultimately sufficient general funds should be provided so that no direct or categorical aid program must rely on lottery funds and all lottery proceeds can be returned directly to local school divisions on an unrestricted basis. The City proposes that the General Assembly should increase the allocation to 60% in FY 2021 and 75% in FY 2022 with the goal of returning 100% of lottery funds in this manner by 2024.
Amend the Virginia Code's definition of "gambling device" to clarify that a device falls under the definition regardless of whether or not it is "predominantly" skill or chance based, as long as there is any element of chance involved in any operation of the device. The City Supports legislation similar to SB 1721 (2019, Cosgrove) and SB 1738 (2019, Reeves) to either prohibit or regulate and tax "gray" electronic gambling machines.
Naval Auxiliary Landing Field Fentress – Encroachment Protection Funding

The City requests continuation of the state funding level of $2.5 million per year to be matched dollar for dollar by the City. The City of Chesapeake remains very appreciative of the Commonwealth's funding partnership for the purchase of real property to remove or prevent incompatible use in proximity to Naval Auxiliary Landing Field (NALF) Fentress.

In 2014, the City established the Fentress Encroachment Protection Acquisition Program (FEPAP). Leveraging over $4.5 million of state funds with a dollar for dollar local match, the City has acquired 429 acres of developable land for a cost of approximately $7.7 million. The program continues to be successful, especially considering the strong development pressure in this area of the City that is attributable to the desirable school district and overall high-quality of life afforded to area residents. A nimble and well-funded FEPAP program is critical to acquiring property interests in a timely manner and providing property owners a viable alternative to developing their land. This would not be possible with assistance from the Commonwealth. Over the last few years, the City has developed an excellent working relationship with the Military Relations Liaison for the Secretary of Veterans and Defense Affairs who administers this program. The City continues to pursue other properties in the vicinity of NALF Fentress to prevent incompatible development and ensure mission readiness of NALF Fentress and is currently soliciting additional interested landowners. The continued support of the Commonwealth is critical to ensure program success.‌
Increase State Support for Hampton Roads Regional Jail

The City requests increased state support for medical and mental health care at Regional Jails throughout the Commonwealth. In addition, the City requests additional jail officers be added

to the Hampton Roads Regional Jail (HRRJ) complement through the Compensation Board each year, for the next four years. Both of these requests would address concerns raised by an investigation of the HRRJ by the US Department of Justice.
State Reimbursement for City Jail Expansion‌

The City Jail expansion, which began in 2016, is fully complete and inmates were transferred to the new facility. Due to a construction dispute arising from liquidated damages which were applied as a result of the contractor's delayed completion of the project, the City's submittal of a payment release by the contractor is delaying its reimbursement request to the Board of Corrections and State Treasurer in order to receive the 25% reimbursement of eligible project costs from the Commonwealth. The total project cost was approximately $25 million while the approved Commonwealth share currently included Treasury Item 279 of the biennial state budget is $6,860,886. The project included a 192 bed minimum security dormitory building housing minimum custody, work release and external work force detainee inmates who must be segregated from the main jail population, as they are working out in the community. It increased the jail's rated capacity from 555 to 747.

The City appreciates the support of the legislature and the past two governors, and would like to ensure that the state reimbursement funding remains in the state budget and doesn't get removed for any reason this legislative session.
Restore Funding to Community Service Boards

The City is appreciative of the partial restoration money allocated to the CSBs for FY 2020. However, In FY 2019, Chesapeake Behavioral Integrated Healthcare, the City's CSB, suffered $446,264 in state reductions and only $108,547 in partial restoration, resulting in a state funding shortfall of $337,717. The City still urges the state to fully restore ongoing CSB funding:
1. In FY 2020 CSBs face roughly double the reduction in general fund dollars that they incurred in FY 2019.
2. While CSBs are able to bill for services provided to some of the individuals they had been serving without reimbursement, there are still individuals that CSBs serve that do not qualify for Medicaid expansion and there will always be individuals who do qualify, but for various reasons refuse to sign up. The CSBs continue to serve these individuals with no payer source from a now-reduced state general fund allocation.
3. The Medicaid rate for most services does not cover the cost to actually deliver the service. State general fund dollars help to reduce the negative impact of this and allow CSBs to continue to serve priority populations.
4. Lastly it is difficult to provide services in a managed care environment. CSBs are experiencing reductions in authorizations for some services as well as an increase in the amount of time between when a service is delivered and when it is paid for by a Managed Care Organization (MCO). The City requests that the state restore the funding to CSBs for FY2020, and re-evaluate assumptions leading to additional cuts in FY 2020-FY 2021 and beyond to the extent that Medicaid expansion does not fully offset the reductions.
Tidewater Community College – CHESAPEAKE CAMPUS

Tidewater Community College, with 45,000 students, serves South Hampton Roads, where the shortage of skilled workers to fill STEM jobs is above average compared to other MSAs in the

U.S. According to the Brookings Institution, the region was ranked No. 1 in the share of jobs requiring education on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, and Health Care (STEM/H) skills and sub-bachelor's level of education.
- TCC's top legislative priority is full funding for construction of a Science and Engineering Building on the Chesapeake Campus. These funds will be used for the construction of a 76,000 square foot Science and Engineering Building with classrooms and labs for Chemistry, Biology, Natural Sciences, Geology, and Physics. In addition, the new facility will provide much-needed space for the campus' Engineering and Engineering Technologies programs. This facility directly addresses the need for STEM credentials. These programs are currently housed in antiquated labs in the 35-year old Pass Building and in temporary modular buildings.
Solar Energy Facilities

The City supports legislation that increases the authority of localities to regulate the siting or development of solar energy facilities. In addition, the City supports the enhancement of local tax authority over solar energy facilities. The City supports uniform taxation standards that reduce the tax exemptions afforded to solar photovoltaic projects in Virginia Code Section 58.1-3660.‌‌‌