Sen. Tizzy Lockman

This bill creates a pilot program for the Red Clay School District to utilize external camera systems on their school buses to catch motorists that illegally pass school buses and to punish these motorists by issuing them a civil penalty. The purpose of this bill is to protect children as they are in the process of boarding and exiting the school bus and to spread awareness of school bus traffic safety. At least 16 states have implemented similar legislation, including Pennsylvania in 2018. As Red Clay School District already has these cameras in operation, this program grants the authority to begin issuing violations to motorist that illegally pass school buses in their district.

In January of 2015, the Office of Civil Rights & Public Trust was created by the Attorney General to establish a centralized office within the Department of Justice for the investigation of matters concerning civil rights enforcement and the prosecution of matters concerning violations of the public trust. This office must remain an independent entity within the Department of Justice to avoid conflicts with other Department of Justice duties and thus effectively enforce laws protecting the public trust and civil rights. Thus, this Act creates the Division of Civil Rights and Public Trust within the Department of Justice which will be separate from the other Divisions within the Department of Justice and have a Director who reports directly to the Chief Deputy Attorney General, to avoid conflicts of interest with the work of the other Divisions. This Act also clarifies the current scope of the Department of Justice’s ability to investigate and bring civil rights actions to protect the civil rights of all Delawareans.

This Concurrent Resolutions authorizes the Secretary of Transportation to expand regional rail connections.

This Act allows any qualified voter evidencing a desire to vote by mail in writing to the State Elections Commission to vote by mail in primary, general, and special federal elections. The State Elections Commission shall administer the program, creating rules and regulations that allow processing and scanning of mail ballots ahead of Election Day without tabulation until Election Day, dropping off mail ballots at any polling place on Election Day and dropping off mail ballots in a secure drop box of each county Department of Elections office before and leading up to Election Day.

This Act permits a school district to conduct on the last day of January an optional unit count of pupils who enrolled after the actual unit count was conducted and certified by the Department of Education. A school district will qualify for one-half of the value of the Division I and Division II state financial support for each additional unit under the optional unit count.

This Act is the first leg of an amendment to the Delaware Constitution to prohibit the imposition of the death penalty. This Act requires a greater than majority vote for passage because § 1 of Article XVI of the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly when the General Assembly amends the Delaware Constitution.

This Act revises the requirements for the shape of a Complete Community Enterprise Districts (“District”) to maximize the use of transit, walking, and bicycling by residents and employees. Specifically, this Act does all of the following: 1. Eliminates the minimum size. 2. Requires the District to contain more than 1 parcel and that part of at least 1 parcel be within a ½ mile from a bus or rail stop or station. 3. Requires the District to include adjacent neighborhoods within a ½ mile from a bus or rail stop or station. 4. Prohibits a district from being in the shape of a linear corridor and requires that each parcel of land in the District is zoned to maximize the use of transit, walking, and bicycling. 5. Requires that a District be part of a master development plan that maximizes the use of transit, walking, and bicycling by residents and employees. This Act also repeals the definition of "isoperimetric quotient" because the term is being removed and replaced with paragraphs (3), (7), and (9) of § 2104 of Title 2, in the revised requirements for a Complete Community Enterprise District.

This Act revises the appointment process for members of the Common Interest Community Advisory Council who are from the Real Property Section of the Delaware State Bar Association. Under this Act, these members are appointed by a government official to comply with the requirements of the Delaware Constitution. This Act applies only to members who are appointed after the effective date of this Act, and does not invalidate any appointments made before the effective date of this Act. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This bill clarifies that the definition of employees who receive gratuities also includes employees that receive tips, that these employees earn more than 50% of their income from tips or gratuities. This bill clarifies that employers may continue to pay a tipped minimum wage to primary direct service employees under this bill. Employers cannot direct employees to engage in tip pooling in Delaware—tip pooling arrangements must be controlled by the employees themselves. It also clarifies that tips automatically added to a bill or added to credit card charges are to be treated like tips or gratuity and must be paid by the employer directly to the employee at the next pay period as opposed to being held by the employer waiting to receive payment from the credit card company and that the employer may not deduct service fees from the employees tips or gratuities.

This Act establishes a Behavioral Health Professional of the year award program throughout the State. Through this legislation, the state will formally honor and recognize the work behavioral health professionals, such as, school counselors, social workers, licensed clinical social workers, school psychologists, and school nurses.