General Assembly Notebook
Green buildings, threat assessments, State Police-event prayers
Edited by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
Petersen’s Green Public Buildings Act passes Senate committee: Fairfax State Sen. Chap Petersen’s Green Public Buildings Act, Senate Bill 109, was unanimously passed in the Senate General Laws and Technology Committee on Wednesday.
“The bill’s goal is to significantly reduce utility usage, preserve the environment and save taxpayer dollars,” said Petersen to his Senate committee colleagues.
The Green Public Buildings Act requires all new construction of state buildings greater than 5,000 gross square feet in size to adhere to the LEED Silver or Green Globes two globes standard. This also applies to new renovations of state buildings where the cost of reconstruction exceeds 50 percent of the building’s value.
“This bill allows the Commonwealth to be good stewards of the environment and taxpayers’ dollars. It represents a commonsense solution to the issue of balancing revenue and spending,” said Joe Stanley, Director of Virginia Interfaith Power & Light, a nonprofit conservation advocacy group.
Bell bill to reform Threat Assessment Team law gets subcommittee endorsement: The Virginia House of Delegates Subcommittee for Higher Education and Arts unanimously endorsed a bill by Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle, to reform Virginia’s Threat Assessment Team law.
Threat Assessment Teams were created in 2008 after the Virginia Tech shooting. The teams, consisting of university administrators, law enforcement and mental health professionals, are intended to assess and, if necessary, intervene with students whose behavior poses a threat to themselves or to others.
“The problem with the existing law is that it doesn’t allow the members of the team to share confidential information with each other,” Bell said. “Law enforcement might know something important, but they can’t tell the mental health representative or the person from student affairs. This makes it impossible for the teams to accurately assess risk, which is what they are supposed to do.”
House Bill 903 allows the members of the team to discuss this information within their meetings once a preliminary determination has been made that the student is at risk. If any team member releases the information outside the meeting, civil or criminal penalties could result. The bill also includes FOIA exceptions for these meeting discussions.
The University of Virginia and the other institutions of higher learning support the bill. The subcommittee vote on the bill was 9-0.
“I am hopeful that this bill will give the Threat Assessment Teams the tools they need, while providing the necessary safeguards against the release of this very confidential information,” Bell said.
The bill will now be sent to the Education Committee for consideration. It will be heard on Monday, Feb, 1.
ACLU asks House committee to reject bill permitting sectarian prayers at State Police events: The ACLU of Virginia has asked members of a House of Delegates committee to reject a bill that permits sectarian prayers at events sponsored by the State Police.
In a memo delivered Thursday to members of the Militia, Police, and Public Safety Committee, the civil liberties organization says it is prepared to challenge the bill in court should it become law and lead to unconstitutional prayers.
HB 9, introduced by Del. Charles W. Carrico, prevents the Superintendent of State Police from regulating the content of prayers offered by its chaplains at police-sponsored events. The bill would reverse a State Police policy requiring police chaplains to offer only nonsectarian prayers at police-sponsored events.
Del. Carrico introduced a nearly identical bill in 2009. HB 2314 passed the House 66-30, but was voted down by the Senate Courts of Justice Committee on a close 8-7 vote. HB 9 has much of the same language as last year’s bill, but adds a requirement that disclaimers indicating that the prayers are not endorsed by the State Police be printed on event programs.
“Del. Carrico is trying to circumvent federal court rulings that protect religious freedom by preventing the government from favoring one religion over others,” said ACLU of Virginia Executive Director Kent Willis. “Individuals speaking as individuals are always free to express their religious beliefs, but when a formal prayer is offered by a state official at a state event, that person must present the government’s view of religion, which is that all religions are equal.”
Carrico’s bill is a reaction to Turner v. Fredericksburg, a case in which the Supreme Court allowed to stand a 2008 Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals decision holding that Fredericksburg City Council had the authority to prevent one of its members from opening council meetings with sectarian prayers. The Fourth Circuit based its decision on an earlier Supreme Court case upholding the right to open legislative meetings with prayer, but only if the prayers are nonsectarian. After the Fourth Circuit’s ruling, State Police Col. Stephen Flaherty ordered police chaplains to give only nonsectarian prayers at events sponsored by the State Police.
The ACLU’s memo to legislators may be found online at: http://acluva.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/20100128PoliceChaplainBillMemo.pdf.
