Bill Text: VA HB344 | 2024 | Regular Session | Prefiled
Bill Title: Private waste companies; displacement.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2024-02-13 - Left in Counties, Cities and Towns [HB344 Detail]
Download: Virginia-2024-HB344-Prefiled.html
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That §15.2-934 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:
§15.2-934. Displacement of private waste companies.
No locality or combination of localities shall displace a
private company providing garbage, trash,
or refuse collection service without first: (i) holding at least one public
hearing seeking comment on the advisability of the locality or combination of
localities providing such service; (ii) providing at least 45 days' written
notice of the hearing, delivered by first class mail to all private companies
that provide the service in the locality or localities and that the locality or
localities are able to identify through local government records; (iii)
providing public notice of the hearing; and (iv) making a written finding of at
least one of the following: (a) adequate or sufficient
privately-owned privately owned
refuse collection and disposal services are not available; (b) the use of privately-owned privately owned and operated
services has substantially endangered the public health or created a public
nuisance; (c) privately-owned privately owned services,
although available, are not able to provide needed services in a reasonable and
cost-efficient manner; or (d) displacement is necessary to provide for the
development or operation of a regional system of refuse collection or disposal
for two or more localities. After making the findings required by this section,
and not longer than one year after the final public hearing, the locality or
combination of localities may proceed to take measures necessary to provide
such service. A locality or combination of localities shall provide five years' one year's
notice to a private company before the locality or combination of localities
engages in the actual provision of the service that displaces the company. As
an alternative to delaying displacement five years one year, a locality or
combination of localities may pay a displaced company an amount equal to the
company's preceding 12 months' gross receipts for the displaced service in the
displacement area. Such five-year one-year period shall lapse as
to any private company being displaced when such company ceases to provide
service within the displacement area.
For purposes of this section, "displace" or
"displacement" means a locality's or a combination of localities'
provision of a service which that prohibits a private
company from providing the same service and which the company is providing at
the time the decision to displace is made. "Displace" or "displacement" does not mean: (i) competition between the
public sector and private companies for individual contracts; (ii) situations
where a locality or combination of localities, at the end of a contract with a
private company, does not renew the contract and either awards the contract to
another private company or, following a competitive process conducted in
accordance with the Virginia Public Procurement Act (§
2.2-4300 et seq.), decides for any reason to contract with
a public service authority established pursuant to the Virginia Water and Waste
Authorities Act (§15.2-5100 et
seq.), or, following such competitive process, decides for
any reason to provide such collection service itself; (iii) situations where
action is taken against a private company because the company has acted in a
manner threatening to the health and safety of a locality's citizens or
resulting in a substantial public nuisance; (iv) situations where action is
taken against a private company because the company has materially breached its
contract with the locality or combination of localities; (v) situations where a
private company refuses to continue operations under the terms and conditions
of its existing agreement during the five-year one-year notice period; (vi)
entering into a contract with a private company to provide garbage, trash, or refuse collection so long
as such contract is not entered into pursuant to an ordinance which that
displaces or authorizes the displacement of another private company providing
garbage, trash, or
refuse collection; or (vii) situations where at least 55% 55 percent of the property
owners in the displacement area petition the governing body to take over such
collection service.
