CHARLESTON — The House of Delegates settled in for a long floor session Tuesday morning, aiming to crank out bills a day before Crossover Day: Wednesday, Day 50, when all bills have to leave their house of origin and cross to the opposite end of the Capitol.
The morning opened with a road maintenance bill.
— HB 2011 creates an Enhanced Road Maintenance Program. It authorizes the Division of Highways to direct each district to establish contracts with to perform, at least, core maintenance of pothole repair, mowing, ditching, snow removal and non-core maintenance such as paving.
It requires each district to develop a maintenance plan and review that plan each Dec. 1. If it hasn’t completed 90 percent of its maintenance, it must solicit bids to complete the work to the extent available money makes it possible.
Delegate Linda Longstreth, D-Marion, wondered why DOH shouldn’t use any spare money to hire people. Government Organization chair Gary Howell, R-Mineral, explained that the bill isn’t about staffing, but about enabling DOH to complete uncompleted work.
Delegate Daniel Linville, R-Cabell, pointed out that the bill requires DOH to prepare an annual report detailing how the districts have spent their maintenance money.
“Part of the effectiveness of this bill is we’re going to be able to measure and analyze how they’re using their money,” he said. And it addresses a prime problem in the state: “Our roads look kike Swiss cheese.”
It passed 83-15. All local delegates voted for it except Longstreth and Marion Democrats Michael Angelucci and Mike Caputo.
— HB 2396 is the Fresh Food Act. It’s intended to help stimulate the state’s agricultural economy.
It says that beginning July 1, all state-funded institutions, such as schools, colleges, correctional facilities, governmental agencies and state parks, shall purchase a minimum of 5 percent of its fresh produce, meat and poultry products from in-state producers, provided that the goods can be grown or is available from in-state producers and at a cost equal to or less than the cost from out-of-state producers or U.S. Department of Agriculture reported pricing data.
Passed 98-1.
— HB 2665 appropriates $105 million from General Revenue to a new PEIA Rainy Day Fee fund. Tied to a PEIA funding bill coming later in the morning, HB 3139. Passed 99-0.
— HB 2802 is the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act and affects a limited number of partition suits for oil and gas mineral estates. Partition suits are used when a mineral tract has multiple owners (called cotenants) and one owner wants to acquire all the interest via court action — either to reap all the value or to sell off the whole tract.
There are two kinds of partition actions: partition in kind, in which the tract is broken into separate parcels according to each owner’s share of the parcel; and partition by sale, in which the tract is sold and the proceeds are divided according to the former owner’s share.
The bill set up a multi-step due-process procedure for partition suits for estates where the minerals are not severed from the surface, or where cotenancy law passed last year does not apply to severed estates, or where there are seven or more cotenants and the plaintiff in the partition action has made reasonable, good faith efforts to locate and negotiate with all other cotenants but has been unable to obtain consent.
It would apply to estates co-owned by heirs who acquired the property from a relative and have no partition agreement in place. This would rule out purchases of small slivers by industry in order to force sale of tracts. The cotenant or cotenants filing the suit would have to serve adequate notice to the other cotenants. The parcel would be independently appraised and value established.
Once the value was established, any cotenant other than those who filed the suit would be eligible to buy out the interest of the plaintiffs. If that didn’t occur, the tract would go up first for private auction among all the relatives who are heirs; failing that, for commercial real estate sale (not a public auction on the courthouse steps as in current code).
Passed 86-13. All local Delegates except Monongalia County Democrats Barbara Evans Fleischauer and Danielle Walker voted for it.
— HB 2866 aims to allow mineral owners to terminate inactive leases so they can sign new ones. A lessee (the oil and gas producer) has 90 days from the termination, expiration or cancellation of a lease to deliver to the mineral owner (the lessor) a notice of release.
If the producer fails, the owner may serve notice to the producer of its duty to provide the release. If the producer still fails, after another 90 days the owner may file an affidavit of termination, expiration or cancellation.
Mineral owners have explained that sometimes producers stop producing wells but don’t release the leases, prohibiting the owner from signing a new lease to generate income. This bill will help them get their minerals back into production.
Judiciary chair John Shott, R-Mercer, said it’s a bill to encourage open dialog between the two sides. It passed 95-4. All local delegates voted for it.
— HB 2895 allows a court to issue a restraining order for a perpetrator who makes contact with the victim of the crime or establishes or intends to establish residence in proximity to the victim. Passed 98-0.
— HB 2943 allows wine specialty shops to deliver wine to customers under specified conditions. Passed 91-7. All local delegates voted for it.
— HB 3044 calls on the Division of Highways to develop and apply a formula to equitably distribute road funds among the districts and counties. DOH would develop the new formula before the 2020 legislative session. The formula must factor in population growth, road miles and their conditions, vehicle miles traveled, heavy truck miles traveled, the number of bridges and their conditions.
Passed 97-2. All local delegates voted for it.
— HB 3105 allows the Alcohol Beverage Control Administration to call on local law enforcement in writing to enforce liquor laws in clubs and bars. Current law allows ABCA only to call only on State Police. The bill is expected to be a help in university towns around the state, including Morgantown.
After extended debate on provisions of the bill, Majority leader Amy Summers, R-Taylor, moved to delay action for a day.
Delegate Rodney Miller, D-Boone, wondered if the bill would allow local police and deputies blanket permission to act on their own and enter a club without ABCA present, once the request has been tendered. Current law requires probable cause or a search warrant.
Majority Whip Paul Espinosa, R-Jefferson, who is lead sponsor, said it appears the bill requires ABCA presence each time, although the text of the bill wasn’t clear on that topic.
Miller also was concerned that the bill’s language, which says assistance “shall not be withheld” removes local law enforcement the option to refuse if it lacks the staff to help.
Delegate Isaac Sponaugle, D-Pendleton, opposed it. “It seems like every year we’re trying to put cops in every bar in the state. … They are private clubs and they have property rights.”
But Delegate Michael Angelucci, D-Marion, said, “This is a good bill.” It helps college towns and universities faced with a shortage of ABCA officers.
Amendments on third reading may be offered on Wednesday.
— HB 3131 directs the Department of Health and Human Resources to annually adjust employee salary schedules and streamline hiring practices. It’s meant to address staffing issues at the seven state hospitals and Child Protective Services.
Committee discussion reminded delegates that the hospitals, which pay staff nurses relatively low rates, are forced to hire contract nurses at higher rates to fill empty staff slots.
Delegate Terri Sypolt, R-Preston, said, “The employees at the Hopemont Hospital deserve a decent wage.”
Delegate Matt Rohrbach, R-Cabell, said it will save the state money. “This really allows us to run these state hospitals and healthcare facilities appropriately.”
It passed 87-12. Angelucci, Caputo, Fleischauer, Longstreth, Walker and Rodney Pyles, D-Monongalia, voted no.
— HB 3139 creates a PEIA Rainy Day Fund intended to help offset premium hikes and benefit cuts. It prefunds PEIA to address three years of future premium hikes.
Delegate Larry Rowe, D-Kanawha, commented on the $45 million annual agency assessments that will help fund it and noted that agencies funded from general revenue will see no ill effects from the assessments but higher education will see, in effect, an unfunded mandate costing $16 millon.
Linville said it’s a good bill designed to draw in more federal funds to support PEIA.
It passed 93-6. Pyles voted no.
