eNews June 24 2016
Friday, June 24, 2016 - 01:30pm
Reminder: VDH conference call on Zika is June 29
Virginia is within the region of the U.S. most likely to host the mosquitoes that carry the Zika virus. Summer is mosquito time, and the Virginia Department of Health, working with local health departments and a host of state and local partners, wants to share information about ways to control mosquitos and establishing mosquito control districts.
On Wednesday, June 29, at 1 p.m., VDH will host a statewide teleconference for VML local governments and their health departments to discuss local and regional mosquito control and mosquito control districts, and answer questions about local efforts in this regard. The call will last approximately 45 minutes.
Given the large number of individuals expected to participate, VDH asks that localities:
- Get their participants to call from one or just a few phone lines since the number of phone lines into the call are limited; and
- Submit any questions to be answered on the call to Melanie.Norris@vdh.virginia.gov ASAP so that the presenters and other subject matter experts can review the questions and prepare responses.
The call in number for the conference call is: 866-842-5779; conference code 804-864-7004.
VDH asks all participants, and anyone interested in learning more about Zika and the state’s response, to visit www.ZikaVA.org, and review the state plan, particularly the mosquito surveillance and control recommendations on pages 43-46.
The following individuals will serve as panelists for the teleconference:
- Dr. Laurie Forlano – Director, VDH Office of Epidemiology
- Dr. Nancy Welch – Director, Chesapeake Health District and Chair, Chesapeake Mosquito Control Commission
- Dreda Symonds – Director, Chesapeake Mosquito Control Commission
- Grant Kronenberg/Duncan Pitchford – Assistant Attorney General, Environmental Section, Office of the Attorney General.
The following localities have established mosquito control districts:
Cities of Alexandria, Poquoson, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Suffolk, Virginia Beach; Counties of Fairfax, Prince William, Henrico, Gloucester, York.
Applications being accepted for the Board of Housing and Community Development
Interested in serving on the Virginia Board of Housing and Community Development (BHCD)? The application deadline for five gubernatorial appointments is June 30. The spots are by congressional district and the five openings will be for the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, and 9th districts.
Applications should be submitted through the Secretary of the Commonwealth website. Under Secretariat click on Commerce and Trade; under Public Entity, choose Housing and Community Development, Board of.
The BHCD has 14 citizen members, including 11 members appointed by the Governor from each of Virginia’s Congressional Districts. The other members are a representative from the Virginia Fire Services Board appointed by the chairman of that board, the Executive Director of the Virginia Housing Development Authority, and the Director of Regulatory Compliance of the Virginia Building Officials Association.
As a state policy board, the Board of Housing and Community Development promulgates regulations related to housing, community development, building safety, and fire prevention. These regulations include the Uniform Statewide Building Code, Statewide Fire Prevention Code, Virginia Certification Standards, and Virginia Enterprise Zone Regulations.
The board also advises DHCD in the development of the Consolidated Plan to guide and coordinate housing and community development programs, the Virginia Housing Development Authority and other state agencies and instrumentalities.
The board’s Codes and Standards Committee considers building code and fire prevention code issues throughout the year. The Housing Committee meets to consider issues related to safe and affordable housing, and the Community Development Committee meets to consider issues related to economic growth, stability and safety in Virginia’s communities. Committees make recommendations to the full board.
VML contact: Michelle Gowdy, mgowdy@vml.org
Sign up now for the 2016 Go Green Virginia Challenge
The website for the 2016 Go Green Virginia challenge in now open. Just go to https://www.gogreenva.org and follow the link to Green Government Challenge. Participants will need to click on the name of their locality from a drop down menu, and submit an email address using the form at the bottom of the webpage. A Green Key (a unique password) will then be emailed to you, and you can complete the registration.
Once registered, look over the 2016 challenge to become familiar with the action items that can earn your locality certification as a Green Government.
The Green Government Challenge is a friendly competition designed to encourage implementation of specific environmental policies and practical actions that reduce the carbon emissions generated by both the local government and the broader community. Many of these actions can save local governments money.
The deadline for VML members to complete the challenge is Sept. 23. Certificate recipients will be recognized during the VML annual conference on Oct. 9-11 in Virginia Beach.
VML contact: Mary Jo Fields, mfields@vml.org
VRS posts other post-employment benefits and teacher contribution rates
The June issue of the Virginia Retirement System’s employer newsletter announced these rates for Other Post Employment Benefits (OPEB) of interest to local governments:
|
OPEB Program |
2017 |
2018 |
|
|
Group Life Insurance |
Employee |
0.79% |
0.79% |
|
Employer |
0.52% |
0.52% |
|
|
Total |
1.31% |
1.31% |
|
|
Health Insurance Credit: Teachers |
1.11% |
1.23% |
|
|
Health Insurance Credit: Non-Professional School Board Members and Political Subdivision Employees |
Varies by Employer |
Varies by Employer |
|
|
Virginia Local Disability Program (VLDP) |
Teachers |
0.31% |
0.31% |
|
Political Subdivision Employees |
0.60% |
0.60% |
|
In addition, the newsletter reminded employers that political subdivisions and school boards should have received a contribution rate letter from VRS in January. The newsletter is posted at here.
VML contact: Mary Jo Fields, mfields@vml.org
Virginia Administrative Code copyright rejected
Local officials need to ensure that Commonwealth and/or its approved vendor code books are used
Because the U. S. Patent Office has rejected the most recent request for a copyright of the Virginia Administrative Code, the Virginia Administrative Code may show up on sites or in books with annotations that have not been vetted properly by the Commonwealth or its approved vendors. Localities should stay tuned and use the official code books when conducting research.
The Virginia Code Commission (“Code Commission”) announced the denial of the copyright at its Monday, June 20 meeting. The denial letter said, in part, that the copyright submission lacks a sufficient amount of new copyrightable authorship. The scuttlebutt is that the contention was as a result of the historical notes, annotations and Attorney General’s provisions that are compiled with the Administrative Code.
The Code Commission also approved a work plan for the study of gender-specific references in the state Code as well as the bills referred by the General Assembly. This work group has already compiled over 27 pages of references in the Code of Virginia that need to be reviewed and/or amended as a result of legislation adopted in the 2016 session. Their work is expected to be completed for the 2018 session of the General Assembly. If your locality has gender specific-terms in its code, a discussion with your attorney to identify the applicable sections is worthwhile.
Other issues that were discussed include attempting to make the process to promulgate regulations more efficient and the recodification of Title 55 “Property and Conveyances.”
VML contact: Michelle Gowdy, mgowdy@vml.org
Wireless infrastructure work group – VML rejects industry-proposed bill
VML rejected a bill proposed by the wireless industry that would override local zoning authority at a June 14th meeting of the wireless infrastructure work group.
The bill included a list of 12 items a locality may not do when reviewing wireless communications infrastructure, including considering other locations, co-location, imposing unreasonable requirements or obligations regarding presentation or appearance of facilities, setbacks, etc. Most of the requirements include language that limits the restriction to something “different from a requirement imposed on other types of commercial structures,” but the bill contains no explanation of what that means.
In addition, the proposed bill includes language that requires small cell facilities and Distributed Antenna Systems to be permitted in all zoning districts. Further, the bill states that these facilities and systems would not be subjected to local zoning review or approval. The bill goes on to say that the laws of the state SHALL allow construction of structures in the public rights of way or highways.
During the meeting, VML spoke out against this bill calling it “troubling” and, while acknowledging that robust service is important, also indicated that preservation of local zoning authority is vital.
This group was created in response to HB 1347 which was introduced in the 2016 session of the General Assembly, but carried over to the 2017 session. As introduced, HB 1347 prohibited local regulation of wireless infrastructure. As part of the carry-over process, a work group was established to hammer out compromise legislation to be considered next session. Prior to the next meeting on July 12th, VML will submit its proposed changes to the bill for full discussion.
The members of this work group include:
The Honorable R. Lee Ware, Jr., chair The Honorable Terry G. Kilgore, ex officio
The Honorable Danny Marshall, III The Honorable Kaye Kory
Invited Participants:
The Honorable Steve Heretick Dean A. Lynch, Virginia Association of Counties
The Honorable Karen R. Jackson, Sec. of Technology Mary Ann Curtin, Chesterfield County
Josh Levi, Northern Virginia Technology Council Michelle Painter, Sprint
Christy Tomlinson Morton, Center for Rural Virginia Vince Apruzzese, AT&T Virginia
Michelle Gowdy, Virginia Municipal League Chris Kyle, Shentel Service Company
William D. Fritz, Albemarle Community Development Richard T. Cornwell, Verizon Comm. Corp.
State announces next round of road revenue sharing projects
The Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) released last week the list of approved projects for FY 2017. The Board approved $300.0 million for the program.
VDOT also announced that it will soon begin its annual de-allocation review of revenue-sharing funds for projects not initiated after two subsequent fiscal years of allocations. An additional requirement is also placed on revenue sharing funds allocated after FY 2014. It says that any project having funds allocated shall be initiated in such a fashion where at least a portion of the funds have been expended within one year of allocation.
Questions about the Revenue Sharing Program can be answered by local VDOT representatives or VDOT’s Revenue Sharing Program Manager.
In a related action, the CTB also approved for FY17 almost $172.0 million for the State of Good Repair Program. The program’s purposes include: reconstruction and replacement of structurally deficient state and locally owned bridges; reconstruction and rehabilitation of pavement on the Interstate System; and primary state highway system determined to be deteriorated by the Board, including municipally maintained primary extensions.
The CTB also approved $371.2 million, an increase of $8.3 million over the fiscal 2016 allocation, for financial assistance for city road maintenance. This program supports improvements and/or maintenance of roads and/or transportation facilities for 84 cities and towns to maintain, operate and improve their arterial and collector roads and local streets. Individual awards are based on the number of qualifying lane-miles in each locality and available funding.
Future of education study committee sets July 21 meeting
A legislative committee charged with studying the future of public elementary and secondary education, will meet at Thursday, July 21, 9:30 a.m. in the General Assembly Building in Richmond. The committee will also study emerging education issues and the need for revising the state Standards of Quality with a particular emphasis on the effective use of educational technology. The committee was created by identical House and Senate resolutions (HJR 112 and SJR 85) adopted in the 2016 session.
The agenda for the July 21 meeting has not yet been announced.
The committee will submit an interim report this November and a final report in November 2017.
Information on the committee, including the list of members and presumably agendas and meeting materials, is posted here .
VML contact: Mary Jo Fields, mfields@vml.org
