This package of recommendations to our legislators will be considered at the Federation's November Meeting: 7:30 pm, Tuesday, November 9 at the John T. Hazel Conference Center, Arlington Hospital, 1701 N. George Mason Drive

2000 Legislative Package

As Adopted November . . . . .

Civic Federation Principles

Because Arlington's population is changing rapidly, the Civic Federation adopts the following principles in order to maintain our quality of life, enhance the desirability of our community as a place to live and work, and meet future human and infrastructure needs:

• We oppose any efforts to change formulas for state funding that would result in decreases in funding for Arlington County government and public schools

• We urge the General Assembly to revise the state transportation funding formula to increase funding for growth areas such as Northern Virginia

• We strongly support increased funding for schools, mass transit, and, highways

• We support provision of retirement packages to Arlington County Employees that are competitive with bordering and/or neighboring jurisdictions.

• We support adoption of a statewide recycling goal of 40 percent by the year 2005

1. Administration of Government, Generally

A. Public Employee Ethics. Supports legislation requiring that state ethics brochures be provided to public officials and employees, who must certify in writing that they have read it before they assume their state or local government positions. (2) Urges a legislative study on replacing the existing Virginia Senate and House Ethics Advisory Panels with a comprehensive state/local ethics commission.

B. Requirement of State|Owned Industrial Facilities to Develop Environmental Management Plans. Supports legislation to develop and implement pollution|prevention plans and to establish a state office to coordinate and provide technical assistance.

C. Initiative and Referendum. Requests the Governor of Virginia to appoint a bipartisan study commission to examine how the adoption of initiative and referendum would mesh with Virginia's traditions and weigh the assets and liabilities of I & R.

D. Marking of Handicapped Parking. Supports legislation to develop a uniform requirement for the marking of handicapped parking spaces.

2. Authorities

Baseball Stadium Authority. Supports repeal of the Virginia Stadium Authority, Virginia Code section 15.1.227|71.

3. Aviation

National Airport. Strongly opposes any liberalization of standards at Ronald Reagan National Airport.

4. Conservation (environment)

Importation of Trash. Strongly urges Governor Gilmore, our congressional delegation, and the General Assembly to continue to pursue all available avenues to prevent additional importation of trash into Virginia.

5. Counties, Cities, and Towns

A. Office of Inspector General. Supports legislation authorizing the establishment of an independent Office of Inspector General for the County to audit and review County performance in contracting, construction of facilities, purchasing, and sale of land or other resources to assure appropriateness of expenditures.

6. Crimes and Offenses Generally

A. Sodomy Laws. Supports prohibition of prosecution under the sodomy law except in conjunction with another charge.

B. Sexual Orientation. Supports the addition of sexual orientation to the coverage of antidiscrimination and Hate Crimes laws.

C. Aggressive Panhandling. Requests the legislature to authorize the Arlington County Board to adopt an ordinance to make it unlawful for any person to panhandle in an aggressive manner, to panhandle within fifteen feet of an automatic teller machine, or to panhandle from any operator of a motor vehicle while standing in a roadway median or on a travel lane.

D. Handicapped Parking. Supports legislation to raise the reduced mail|in fine for parking in a handicapped space from approximately $100.00 to $300.00 (the current fine is $500 should you go to court).

E. Volunteer Enforcement of Handicapped Parking. Supports the enactment of legislation to allow Arlington (like selected other jurisdictions) to train and deploy volunteers to enforce handicapped parking violations.

7. Criminal Procedure

21|Day Rule. Supports modification of the 21|Day Rule (Rule 1.1 of the Virginia Supreme Court) to permit courts to consider potentially exculpatory evidence which is submitted beyond the 21|day period currently allowed in capital cases.

8. Dangerous Weapons

B. Gun Control. Strongly supports legislation requiring mandatory instant background checks on purchasers of all firearms at all gun shows and allowing up to seventy|two hours to complete the check if the instant check is inconclusive.

9. Energy Conservation and Resources

Recycling. Urges the General Assembly to increase recyclycables to include such items as batteries, tires, styrofoam, metal, solvents, and building and paving materials.

10. Education

Public School Opening. Supports enabling legislation to allow the Arlington School Board to determine its public school calendar. Currently in Virginia, by state law, the school year cannot begin before Labor Day. This denies school boards the flexibility that may be needed when establishing the school calendar.

11. Housing

Supports restoration of General Assembly funding for the Virginia Housing Partnership Fund to the level of $8 million per annum.

12. Insurance

A. Insurance Rates. Supports a law to prohibit insurance companies from raising rates when the insured motorists in accidents are found to be not "at fault."

B. Third|Party Notification. Supports mandatory third|party notification so that incapacitated persons would not lose insurance coverage automatically if they should inadvertently miss a payment.

13. Partnerships

Limited Partners | Access to Information. Supports legislation that would permit citizen access to names and addresses of limited partners and their financial investments or other contributions in limited partnerships, which conduct business with state or local governments of at least $10,000 annually.

14. Property and Conveyances

Retention of Local Zoning Authority. Supports legislation to prohibit

Commonwealth agencies from overriding local jurisdictional use plans and zoning

decisions and ordinances.

15. Public Health

AIDS Policy. Specifically requests that the legislature require the following:

1. Premarital testing for HIV and reporting of results to both prospective spouses

2. Testing of all pregnant women and reporting of results to both prospective spouses, followed by treatment of infected mothers to prevent transmission to the fetus

3. Testing of newborns and reporting of results to both parents, followed by treatment of infected infants.

16. State Corporation Commission

State Corporation Commission. Supports increasing the SCC's membership from three to five and encourages General Assembly members to ensure that confirmation of candidates includes full disclosure review of their qualifications and records with regard to consumer issues.

17. Taxation

A. Consumer Use Tax. Supports repeal of the Consumer Use Tax.

B. Economic (Fair|Market) Rent. Recommends establishment of statewide, economic (fair|market) rent, not contract rent, as the basis for assessments of commercial property.

C. Cigarette Tax. Supports authorizing Arlington County to increase the cigarette tax in a manner similar to that of cities.

D. Local Income Tax. Opposes legislation that would allow a local income tax.

18. Transportation and Highway Safety

A. Bicycle Safety. Supports requiring the Virginia Department of Transportation to establish sufficient right|of|way for bicycles during planning and construction of state roadways and greater accommodation for bicycles on state roadways.

B. Truck Safety. Supports measures to increase the number of officers and to strengthen penalties for violators in order to improve safety of truck operations on Virginia highways. Demands stronger enforcement of speed limits, and urges tougher requirements for commercial drivers' licenses.

19. United States Government

Professional Sports Facilities. Supports reintroduction and passage of Sen. Moynihan's proposed Senate Bill 224 ("The Stop tax Exempt Arena Debt Issuance Act") to end Federal tax subsidy for professional sports facilities.

20. Waste Disposal

Illegal Dumping and Littering of Waste. Supports legislation to allow raising of fines for illegal dumping and to enforce illegal dumping and littering laws and stricter enforcement of environmental laws.

21. Water and Sewer Systems

A. Water Quality Measurements. Supports the development and standardization of methods for the measurement of contaminants in storm waters and waters that feed the Chesapeake Bay.

B. Water quality Improvement. Supports stabilization of the Virginia Water Quality Improvement Fund Act to permit qualifying localities to receive up to 50 percent of the local costs to design, test, and install biological nutrient removal technologies at waste water treatment facilities.

C. Nutrient Reduction. Encourages the Commonwealth to consider methods in addition to point source control to achieve identified nutrient reduction goals.

Addenda

The resolutions that follow received majority, but not unanimous, support.

Arlington County

Sale and Use of Fireworks. Supports prohibition of the sale of fireworks in Arlington County and their use unless the user is in possession of a valid permit issued by the fire department.

Crimes and Offenses Generally

Persons convicted of Child Molestation (Second Conviction). Supports requiring a mandatory sentence of life without parole for any person convicted for the second time of a crime involving carnal knowledge of a minor.

Persons Convicted of Rape (Second Conviction). Supports requiring a mandatory sentence of life without parole for any person convicted of rape for the second time.

Red Light Cameras. Supports requiring the owner of a vehicle captured on film running a red light to be responsible for payment of the fine whether the owner or another person was driving. A defense for this crime could be providing a valid name and address of the offender.

Historic Preservation

Arlington House. Urges the County Board to adopt a position favoring funding for repair work and maintenance at Arlington House, which is rapidly deteriorating.

Transportation and Highway Safety

Route 66. Opposes widening Route 66 inside the capital beltway.

Water and Sewer Systems

Integrity of Public Water System. Supports a study of the integrity of the state's public water supply system to identify problems and ascertain whether penalties for lack of compliance are needed.

This page was last revised on: December 28, 2003.