Sen. Mack Bernard

Nonprofit Corporations; Renaming the “Florida Not For Profit Corporation Act” as the “Florida Nonprofit Corporation Act”; revising the circumstances in which a domestic or foreign corporation may correct a document filed with the department; requiring all courts, public offices, and official bodies to receive all certificates issued by the department as prima facie evidence of certain facts; authorizing a corporation to register under a name that is not otherwise distinguishable on the records of the department under certain circumstances; prohibiting a corporation from paying any dividend and making distributions of any part of its net income or net earnings to its members, directors, or officers, etc.

Mental Health; Citing this act as the “Tristin Murphy Act”; expanding the programs and diversion initiatives supported by implementation or expansion grants to include training for 911 public safety telecommunicators and emergency medical technicians for certain purposes and to include veterans treatment court programs; encouraging communities to apply for specified grants to establish misdemeanor or ordinance violation mental health diversion programs; encouraging communities to apply for specified grants to establish pretrial felony mental health diversion programs; expanding eligibility for the Forensic Hospital Diversion Pilot Program to include Hillsborough County, etc. APPROPRIATION: $794,880

Public Records/Florida Commission on Human Relations; Providing an exemption from public records requirements for the personal identifying and location information of certain current and former personnel and commissioners of the Florida Commission on Human Relations and the names and personal identifying and location information of the spouses and children of such personnel and commissioners; providing for future legislative review and repeal of the exemption; providing retroactive application; providing a statement of public necessity, etc.

Rent of Affordable Housing Dwelling Units; Defining the terms “affordable” and “base rent”; prohibiting certain landlords of specified dwelling units from increasing the base rent during the term of a rental agreement, etc.

Injunctions for Protection in Cases of Repeat or Serious Violence; Replacing the term “repeat violence” with the term “repeat or serious violence”; defining the term “repeat or serious violence”; expanding the grounds for an existing cause of action for an injunction of protection to include serious violence in addition to repeat violence; revising the name of an existing cause of action to an injunction for protection in cases of repeat or serious violence, rather than in cases of repeat violence, etc.

Hunger-Free Campus Pilot Program; Citing this act as the "Hunger-Free Campus Act"; establishing the pilot program within the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services for a specified period; requiring the Commissioner of Agriculture to identify the three state universities or Florida College System institutions with the highest percentage of Pell Grant-eligible students for participation in the pilot program; requiring the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability to conduct a study to evaluate food insecurity on the campuses of state universities and Florida College System institutions, etc.

Candidate Qualifying; Authorizing a candidate to pay the filing fee by a debit card linked to the candidate’s campaign account; revising the timeframe during which a candidate may pay a filing fee if the initial payment is rejected by a bank, etc.

Access to Testing of Tabulating Equipment; Requiring that designated experts be allowed to observe certain tests being conducted and votes being counted, etc.

Specific Medical Diagnoses in Child Protective Investigations; Providing an exception to the requirement that the Department of Children and Families immediately forward certain allegations to a law enforcement agency; requiring Child Protection Teams to consult with a licensed physician or advanced practice registered nurse when evaluating certain reports; authorizing, under a certain circumstance, a parent or legal custodian from whom a child was removed to request specified examinations of the child, etc.

Temporary Cash Assistance Eligibility; Removing the prohibition against awarding benefits to a person who has a felony drug conviction for trafficking; removing specified requirements for a person convicted of a drug felony to receive benefits, etc.