BILL SUMMARY DETAILS

CS/SB 162 (Perry) and HB 195 (Rodrigues) are two bills relating to public record requests. The bills

prohibit a city, after receiving a public record request, from filing an action for declaratory judgement against the individual or entity making the request. These bills would prevent cities from seeking clarification from the courts as to whether a record is exempt or exempt and confidential. (Cook)

CS/CS/SB 506 (Perry) and CS/CS/HB 441 (DiCeglie) amend current law to increase the maximum dollar amount for continuing contracts for public construction projects from $2 million to $4 million. The bills also increase the cap for study activity associated with public construction projects from $200,000 to $500,000. CS/CS/HB 441 passed the House (117-0) and is on the way to the Senate. (Cook)

HB 257 (Antone) and SB 1518 (Gruters) amend the Consultants’ Competitive Negotiation Act to clarify that cooperative purchasing between governmental agencies is allowed if certain conditions are met. (Cook)

HB 99 (Andrade) and SB 1406 (Broxson)require entities that administer high-risk youth athletic activities or training related to such activities on land owned, leased, operated or maintained by the state or a political subdivision to require any unpaid or volunteer athletics personnel to complete a course approved by the Department of Health that provides information on how to prevent or decrease the chances of a participant from sustaining a serious physical injury. High-risk youth athletic activity is defined as any organized sport for children 14 years of age or younger in which there is a significant possibility for the child to sustain a serious physical injury. The term includes football, basketball, baseball, volleyball, soccer, ice or field hockey, cheerleading and lacrosse. (Cook)

HB 83 (Duran) creates a waiver of exemption from childcare facility licensing requirements for government-sponsored recreation programs that meet certain criteria, including having adopted their own standards of care. CS/CS/SB 668 (Book) revises the definition of the term “childcare facility” to exclude government-sponsored recreation programs. The bill allows counties, other municipalities and school districts to create and operate recreation programs for children at least five years old and requires such programs to offer four programming hours per day the bill specifies standards of care relating to staffing ratios, minimum staff qualifications, health and safety standards, and a level 2 background screening requirement for all staff and volunteers. CS/CS/SB 668 also requires such programs to notify parents of all children participating that the program is not state-licensed, clarifies that the program may not advertise itself as a child care facility and requires the program to provide all parents with the county or municipality’s standards of care. (Cook)

SB 630 (Mayfield), CS/SB 670 (Gruters) and HB 457 (LaMarca) are bills filed relating to smoking. SB 630 authorizes cities to restrict smoking within the bounds of municipally owned public parks. SB 670 and HB 457 authorize counties to restrict smoking within any public beaches or parks. CS/SB 670 was amended with language allowing cities to also restrict smoking within public beaches and parks they own. Additionally, the bills prohibit smoking within the boundaries of a state park. SB 630 passed the Senate (39-1) and is on the way to the House. (Cook)

HB 447 (DiCeglie) and SB 740 (Diaz) – Real Estate

HB 497 (Buchanan) and SB 530 (Gruters) – Entertainment Industry

HB 623 (Shoaf), SB 1154 (Baxley) and HB 1257 (Tomkow) – Community Association 

HB 855 (Payne) – Special Districts

SB 910 (Torres) and HB 6013 (Eskamani) – Rent Control Methods

SB 1410 (Cruz) – Public School Transportation

SB 912 (Diaz) and HB 689 (Rodriguez, Anthony) – Department of Business and Professional Regulation

SB 694 (Mayfield) and SB 810 (Simmons) – Nicotine and Tobacco Products 

HB 729 (Rodrigues) and SB 1238 (Diaz) – Regulatory Reform

HB 907 (Bell) and SB 1202 (Powell) – Care for Retired Law Enforcement Dogs

SB 470 (Brandes) – Searches of Cellular Phones and Other Electronic Devices

SB 980 (Brandes) and HB 685 (Silvers) – Lost, Stray, Unwanted or Homeless Dogs and Cats

HB 1195 (Plakon) – Gaming

HB 1315 (Fernandez) and SB 1752 (Pizzo) – Condominium Associations

HB 1059 (Grall) and SB 1634 (Stargel) – Parental Rights

SB 1280 (Diaz) – Automated License Plate Recognition Systems

HB 6015 (Andrade) repeals provisions relating to the testing and approval of sparklers, sale of fireworks, seizure of illegal fireworks, restrictions upon storage of sparklers and penalties for violations. (Cook)

CS/SB 476 (Hooper) and CS/HB 307 (LaMarca) provide that community associations may not prohibit a law enforcement officer who is a unit owner from parking his or her law enforcement vehicle in an area where the unit owner or his or her guest otherwise has a right to park. CS/SB 476 was substituted for CS/HB 307. CS/HB 307 passed both chambers and was signed by the Governor on February 21, Chapter No. 2020-5. (Cook)

HB 669 (Newton) and SB 1106 (Baxley) require local governments and other entities that operate a place of public accommodation or public building or facility to install and maintain at least one universal changing place at locations in a family or assisted-use restroom facility for persons of either sex who have a physical disability. (Cook)

CS/CS/HB 625 (Newton) and CS/CS/SB 888 (Perry) address public nuisance properties. The bills:

•extend and increase the frequency of notice so a property owner has sufficient time to receive notice and correct the use of the property. 

•allow for shorter notice where the public nuisance presents a danger of immediate and irreparable injury. 

•provide more detail on what must be provided in the notice and serving the notice.

•delete the requirement that a criminal gang or member or associate of such gang must use a location “on two or more occasions” for the purpose of engaging in a criminal gang-related activity for such use to qualify as a public nuisance that can be abated or enjoined.

•provide that any place or premises that has been used on more than two occasions within a six-month period as the site of dealing in stolen property, assault, aggravated assault, battery, aggravated battery, burglary, theft or robbery by sudden snatching may be declared a public nuisance and may be abated or enjoined. 

•provide that a rental property that is declared a public nuisance based upon the previously described circumstances may not be abated or subject to forfeiture under the Florida Contraband Forfeiture Act if the nuisance was committed by someone other than the owner of the property and the property owner commences rehabilitation of the property within 30 days after the property is declared a public nuisance and completes the rehabilitation within a reasonable time thereafter. (Cook)

HB 83 (Duran) and SB 668 (Book) define specified afterschool recreation programs as “government-sponsored recreation programs,” such programs are exempt from specified child care facility requirements and are authorized such programs to waive such exemption by notifying the Department of Children and Families. (O’Hara)

CS/HB 707 (Renner) and CS/SB 1124 (Diaz) establish a schedule for systematic review of the costs and benefits of occupational regulatory programs. The bills require the Legislature to review each program before the scheduled date on which each occupational regulatory program is set to expire to determine whether to allow the program to expire, renew the program without modifications, renew the program with modifications or provide for other appropriate actions. Of note to local governments, any state program that expires through scheduled repeal may not then be regulated by a local government unless regulation of such occupations is expressly authorized by law. (Cruz)

SB 142 (Brandes), SB 176 (Rodriguez), HB 303 (Drake) and HB 301 (Drake) all involve the Constitution Revision Commission (CRC). Due to criticism of how the 2018 CRC handled the bundling of constitutional amendments on the 2018 ballot, SB 142, HB 301 and HB 303 seek to abolish the CRC. SB 176 does not seek to abolish the CRC but would require that any future CRC proposals be limited to a single subject. (Cruz)

HB 4533 (Antone) appropriates $5 million to the Department of Management Services to fund a grant program through Cyber Florida – Local Government Training and Technical Assistance. (Cook)

CS/CS/CS/SB 1120 (Harrell) and CS/CS/CS/HB 649 (Caruso) address individuals who have been disqualified for employment with substance abuse service providers following a failed background screening. The bills require the Department of Children and Families to provide exemptions from employment disqualification for certain offenses and condense several background screening sections of current law into a single set of requirements. The bills modify patient-brokering laws to exempt discount, waivers of payment, or payments not prohibited by federal anti-kickback statutes. The bills also apply such exemptions to all payment methods by a federal health care program and provide that patient-brokering constitutes a first-degree misdemeanor. Finally, the bills provide that any person who willfully and knowingly facilitates patient brokering is guilty of a first-degree misdemeanor. (Cook)

HB 581 (Aloupis) and SB 918 (Brandes) establish minimum requirements for a student to complete a civic literacy practicum beginning with the 2021-2022 school year to help students evaluate the roles, rights and responsibilities of United States citizens and determine methods of active participation in society, government and the political system. The civic literacy practicum must be nonpartisan, focus on addressing at least one community issue and promote civil discourse. (Cook)

HM 525 (Hill) is a memorial bill urging Congress to support the State Cyber Resiliency Act and to direct the United States Department of Homeland Security to administer state and local cybersecurity grants to assist state, local and tribal governments in preventing, preparing for, protecting against and responding to cyberthreats. (Cook)

CS/HB 7 (Fine) and SB 1340 (Gruters) allow a governmental agency the option to publish legally required advertisements and notices on a publicly accessible website if certain conditions are met. The bills require a governmental agency to publish a notice at least once a year in a newspaper of general circulation that the resident or property owner may receive legally required notices or advertisements via first class mail or email by registration of his or her name, address and email address with the local governmental agency. CS/HB 7 passed the House (71-47) and is on the way to the Senate. (Cook)

HB 31 (Hill) preempts the ability of local governments to remove, alter, rename or otherwise disturb a memorial or monument on public property placed in memory of a veteran or war. This preemption includes the removal of Civil War memorials made to honor or commemorate the war, soldiers or government officials that aided the war effort. The legislation specifies that a remembrance erected, named or dedicated on or after March 22, 1822, on public property may be relocated, removed, altered, renamed, rededicated or otherwise disturbed only if necessary to accommodate construction, repair or improvements to the remembrance or to the surrounding property on which the remembrance is located. Additionally, the bill requires that a remembrance on public property that is sold or repurposed must be relocated to a location of equal prominence as the original location. (Cruz)