By Mark Ryan, City Manager, City of Indian Harbour Beach
Happy holidays to you, your family, and your team of dedicated professionals in your respective communities!
The Florida Legislature has completed seven weeks of Interim Committee Meetings, that began in September, in advance of the 2020 Florida Legislative Session. As of December 16th more than 2,700 bills have been filed for consideration during the up-coming session that begins on January 14, 2020. Many bills are Local Funding Requests and relief bills for claims subject to the liability limits in Florida Statutes for governmental entities. However, there are significant bills that either assist local governments or impact communities in a negative manner.
Your FCCMA Legislative Committee attempts to provide periodic updates of proposed legislation, as well as forward this information to our colleagues of our profession in our areas for their information. We also are local practitioners who provide real life examples to the legislative lobbyists for associations, who present this information to the state legislators. Additionally, are asked to respond to urgent requests or alerts to contact House or Senate Committee Members, our own Legislative Delegation, or the Governor’s office on proposed legislation.
Would you like to be part of this process? We are always looking for members of our association interested in serving in this important role. If you are interested, please contact Carol Russell, Executive Assistant, FCCMA.
As indicated earlier, more than 2,700 bills have been filed. Here is a snapshot of some of the bills we urge to track and monitor.
- HB 3 – Preemption of Local Occupational Licensing
Preemption of Local Occupational Licensing: Preempts licensing of occupations to state; provides exceptions; prohibits local governments from imposing or modifying certain licensing requirements; specifies that certain local licensing may not be enforced; specifies that certain specialty contractors are not required to register with Construction Industry Licensing Board; prohibits local governments from requiring certain specialty contractors to obtain license; specifies job scopes for which local government may not require license; authorizes counties & municipalities to issue certain journeyman licenses.
- HB 7 – Legal Notices
Legal Notices: Provides for website publication of legal notices; provides criteria for such publication; authorizes fiscally constrained county to use publicly accessible website to publish legally required advertisements & public notices; requires governmental agency to provide specified notice to residents concerning alternative methods of receiving legal notices.
- HB 47/SB 114 – Risk Protection Orders
Allows an individual who has biological or legal parent-child relationship with, who is legal guardian of, or who is spouse or sibling of a person to seek a risk protection order.
- HB 73/SB 326 – Environmental Regulation
Specifies requirements for contracts between residential recycling collectors or recovered materials processing facilities & counties or municipalities for collection or processing of residential recycling material; prohibits counties & municipalities from requiring collection, transport, or processing of contaminated recyclable material by residential recycling collectors or recovered materials processing facilities; prohibits local governments from requiring further verification from DEP for certain projects; revises types of dock & pier replacements & repairs that are exempt from such verification & certain permitting requirements.
- SB 126/HB 159 – Sales and Use Tax
Revising the definition of the term “retail sale”; renaming the term “mail order sale” to “remote sale” and revising the definition; revising conditions under which certain dealers are subject to sales tax levies and collection; providing that certain marketplace providers are subject to registration, collection, and remittance requirements for sales taxes, etc.
- HB 83 – Government-sponsored Recreation Programs
Government-sponsored Recreation Programs: Provides exemption for government-sponsored recreation programs from specified child care facility requirements; authorizes such programs to waive exemption by notifying DCF; prohibits withdrawal of waiver.
- HB 147/SB 690 – Water Resources
Water Resources: Requires DEP to conduct specified comprehensive & quantitative needs-based overview of state’s water resources & submit report to Governor & Legislature.
- SB 182/HB6043 – Preemption of Recyclable and Polystyrene Materials
Preemption of Recyclable and Polystyrene Materials: Deleting preemptions of local law relating to the regulation of auxiliary containers, wrappings, or disposable plastic bags; repealing the preemption of local laws regarding the use or sale of polystyrene products to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, etc.
- HB 203/SB 410 – Growth Management
Growth Management: Requires comprehensive plan to include property rights element by a specified date; provides statement of rights that local government may use; provides local government’s property rights element may not conflict with statutorily provided statement rights; requires local land development regulations to incorporate certain existing development orders.
- HB 215 – Firefighters’ Bill of Rights
Firefighters’ Bill of Rights: Requires witnesses be interviewed & information be provided to firefighter before interrogation is conducted; authorizes firefighter to provide voluntary statement at any time after being informed of certain right; prohibits firefighter from being threatened during interrogation; requires copy of interrogation be provided to firefighter within specified timeframe, upon request; requires that firefighter be notified & provided certain information before certain disciplinary actions are taken & given opportunity to address certain findings.
- SB 306 – State Funds
State Funds: Exempting the State Housing Trust Fund and the Local Government Housing Trust Fund from a provision authorizing the Legislature, in the General Appropriations Act, to transfer unappropriated cash balances from specified trust funds to the Budget Stabilization Fund and the General Revenue Fund, etc.
- HJR 477 – Supermajority Vote Required to Impose, Authorize, or Raise Local Taxes or Fees
Supermajority Vote Required to Impose, Authorize, or Raise Local Taxes or Fees: Proposes amendment to constitution to prohibit municipality, county, school board, or special district from imposing, authorizing, or raising local tax or fee except by vote approved by two-thirds of membership of relevant jurisdiction, & requires any such proposed local tax or fee imposition or increase to be contained in separate resolution or ordinance.
- SB 506 – Public Procurement of Services
Public Procurement of Services: Revising the maximum dollar amount for continuing contracts for construction projects; redefining the term “continuing contract” to increase certain maximum dollar amounts for professional architectural, engineering, landscape architectural, and surveying and mapping services; requiring the Department of Management Services to annually adjust by rule the statutory caps for continuing contracts, etc.
- HB 519 – Private Property Rights Protection
Private Property Rights Protection: Revises notice of claim requirements for property owners; revises procedures for determination of compensation; creates presumption that certain settlements of claims apply to all similarly situated residential properties within political subdivision under certain circumstances; authorizes property owners to bring claims against governmental entities in certain circumstances; provides that property owners are not required to submit formal development applications or proceed through formal application processes to bring claims in specified circumstances; authorizes property owners to bring actions to declare prohibited exactions invalid; requires DOT to afford right of first refusal to previous property owner before disposing of property in certain circumstances.
- CS SB 670/HB 457 – Smoking on Public Beaches and in Public Parks
Smoking on Public Beaches and in Public Parks: Authorizing counties and municipalities to further restrict smoking within the boundaries of public beaches and public parks under certain circumstances; prohibiting smoking within the boundaries of a state park, etc.
- HB 701/SB 1174 – Communications Services Tax
Communications Services Tax: Revises legislative intent regarding local communications services tax rates; reduces tax on retail sale of communications services; removes provision that specifies where proceeds of communication services tax must be deposited & disbursed; revises local communications services tax rates levied by counties & municipalities; requires dealers to collect & remit local communications services taxes; requires Legislature to appropriate moneys to offset direct reductions of local communications services tax by certain counties & municipalities; requires DOR to submit report to Legislature.
- CSSB 712 – Water Quality Improvements
Water Quality Improvements: Citing this act as the “Clean Waterways Act”; requiring the Department of Environmental Protection, in coordination with the Department of Health, to develop a report to be submitted to the Legislature by a specified date on the impacts of a type two transfer of the onsite sewage program of the Department of Health to the Department of Environmental Protection; revising the requirements for a basin management action plan for an Outstanding Florida Spring; requiring the department, subject to legislative appropriation, to establish a real-time water quality monitoring program; establishing a wastewater grant program within the Department of Environmental Protection, etc.
- CS/SB 724 – Local Government Recycling Programs
Local Government Recycling Programs: Creating the Florida Recycling Working Group; requiring the working group to submit a report to the Legislature by a specified date; providing an expiration date for the working group; providing an exemption for fiscally constrained counties from recycling requirements, etc.
- SB 766/HB 611 – Local Government Accountability
Local Government Accountability: Requiring the Commission on Ethics to create the Local Government Lobbyist Registration System; prohibiting a person from lobbying a governmental entity absent registration with the commission; requiring the commission to publish a lobbyist directory; requiring boards of county commissioners and governing bodies of municipalities, respectively, to provide notice of certain meetings in a specified manner, etc.
- SB 778 – Home-based Businesses
Home-based Businesses: Specifying conditions under which a business is considered a home-based business; authorizing a home-based business to operate in a residential zone under certain circumstances; preempting to the state the ability to regulate or license home-based businesses; prohibiting a local government from certain actions relating to the licensure and regulation of home-based businesses, etc.
- SB 890 – Local Licensing
Local Licensing: Providing that individuals who hold valid, active local licenses may work within the scope of such licenses in any local government jurisdiction without needing to meet certain additional licensing requirements; requiring licensees to provide consumers with certain information; providing that local governments have disciplinary jurisdiction over such licensees, etc.
- HB 971/SB 1148 – Electric Bicycles
Electric Bicycles: Provides for rights & privileges of electric bicycles & operators; provides that electric bicycles are vehicles to same extent as bicycles; exempts electric bicycles & operators from specified provisions; requires certain labeling of electric bicycles; prohibits tampering with or modifying electric bicycles for certain purposes; requires electric bicycles to comply with specified provisions & operate in certain manner; authorizes operators to ride electric bicycles where bicycles are allowed; authorizes municipalities, counties, & agencies to regulate operation of electric bicycles under certain conditions.
- SB 1000 – Traffic and Pedestrian Safety
Traffic and Pedestrian Safety: Requiring a pedestrian crosswalk on a public highway, street, or road which is located at any point other than at an intersection with another public highway, street, or road to be controlled by traffic control signal devices and pedestrian control signals that conform to specified requirements; requiring, by a specified date, the entity with jurisdiction over a public highway, street, or road with a certain pedestrian crosswalk to ensure that the crosswalk is controlled by coordinated traffic control signal devices and pedestrian control signals, etc.
- SB 1066/HB 637 – Impact Fees
Impact Fees: Revising the conditions that counties, municipalities, and special districts must satisfy before enacting an impact fee by ordinance or passing an impact fee by resolution; providing timeframes for the collection of impact fees by local governments; requiring certain counties and municipalities to establish impact fee review committees, etc.
- SB 1128- Vacation Rentals
Vacation Rentals: Preempting the regulation of vacation rentals to the state; prohibiting a local law, ordinance, or regulation from allowing or requiring inspections or licensing of vacation rentals; requiring licenses issued by the Division of Hotels and Restaurants of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation to be displayed conspicuously to the public inside the licensed establishment, etc.
- HB 4533 – Cyber Florida – Local Government Training and Technical Assistance (An Appropriations Bill) Cyber Florida – Local Government Training and Technical Assistance: Provides an appropriation for the Cyber Florida – Local Government Training and Technical Assistance.
It is also noted the Florida House of Representatives has scheduled committee meetings to begin on Monday, January 13, 2020, prior to the first day of the General Session.
