This legislation requires DFCS to acknowledge in writing to the informant within 24 hours of receiving information about suspected child abuse and the completion of investigation. This legislation specifies that in the absence of a DFCS agency, the law enforcement agency or prosecuting attorney shall acknowledge receipt of report, and the results of any investigation.  This legislation should have no impact on the counties with DFCS offices, for those without a DFCS office the responsibility will fall to local law enforcement.

This legislation transfers certain responsibilities for juvenile issues from the Department of Human Services (DHS) to the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC). It also creates an advisory board to the CJCC for juvenile justice issues to consist of 33 members appointed by the Governor, that is responsible for creating a three year plan and provide annual reports of progress annually.  This legislation was amended to include the transfer of the licensing of domestic violence shelters from DHS to CJCC. This bill will have no fiscal impact on counties, but could create mandates in the future.

This legislation changes the juvenile code to include recommendations made by the Georgia Council on Criminal Justice. The juvenile code rewrite inadvertently assigned all juvenile traffic cases to juvenile court, which caused a major increase in caseload and the juvenile courts do not have the administrative capability to handle traffic cases.  This legislation corrects the statute to transfer jurisdiction for those traffic cases back to other local courts that handle traffic offenses.  Additionally this bill authorizes the district attorney to file petitions and prosecute CHINS cases in juvenile courts.

County Impact:  District Attorney's can now prosecute juvenile cases. 

 This legislation changes how law enforcement officers obtain search warrants and conduct searches.  

This legislation adds the district attorney to the board of trustees of the county law library for each county in his or her judicial circuit.

The current version of the bill would allow the county law library board of trustees (i.e., the chief judge of the superior court, the probate judge, the superior court clerk, two attorneys and, if applicable, the senior state court judge and solicitor) to change the disbursement of excess funds for the county law library. The county law library is funded by a $5 fee charged in all court actions. The board of trustees uses the money to purchase books, supplies, equipment, technology and staff for the county law library, law libraries for the judges and the codification of county ordinances. Currently, the trustees must give any excess county law library money to a charitable tax exempt organization that provides civil legal representation to low income individuals. Any additional excess funds must be given to the county board of commissioners to be used to purchase fixtures and furnishings for the courthouse.

HB 738 would give the trustees the option to continue to give excess money to the representation of low income individuals or to purchase software, equipment, fixtures or furnishings for the district attorney, solicitor, and county judicial offices.  Upon the determination by trustees of excess funds, such funds shall be turned over to the county board of commissioners to be used on the courthouse.

This bill also clarifies in statute that the law library fee is an "add-on" and not deducted from the base filing fee that is retained by the county general fund.

This legislation gives the Agriculture Commissioner the authority to regulate the manufacture and sale of e-liquids and vapor pens. Counties have the authority to adopt ordinances and resolutions to inspect e-liquids sold within the county so long as the ordinance or resolution does not conflict with any power or authority of the Agriculture Commissioner. Counties are not permitted to adopt sanitary standards or specifications that are any less than those adopted by the Agriculture Commissioner. 

This legislation authorizes the sheriff, tax commissioner, superior court clerk and probate judge ("constitutional officers") to develop their own credit card or purchasing card (p-card) policy and user agreement, rather than being issued one by the county.  The constitutional officers will be required to develop their own specific guidelines for the use of credit cards or p-cards by their department beginning on July 1, 2016.  The policy must designate the officials or employees in the constitutional officer's department who are authorized to use a credit card or p-card, specify a user agreement and transaction limits for the use of the card, include a description of authorized and unauthorized purchases, designate a credit card/p-card administrator, establish a process for auditing and reviewing the purchases made with the cards and outline procedures for addressing a violation of the credit card/p-card policies.  A copy of the specific policies promulgated by each constitutional officer must be filed with the board of commissioners. 

The ordinances, policies, procedures and user agreements with the constitutional officers adopted in 2015 to comply with the original law need to be examined and amended as necessary to remove the constitutional officers.    

A provision requiring counties to name all of its employees granted p-cards and credit cards in their local ordinance was removed from the bill before final passage.     

This legislation requires local governments to comply with the Georgia Personal Data Security Act. Because counties maintain electronic and physical copies of personal information, they must provide individuals with notice of any breach of security of the system that houses the personal information as soon as possible after the breach is discovered, but in no case later than 45 days. If the county uses a third party to store the personal information, the third party must notify the county within 72 hours of any data breach, so that the county can meet its notification requirements. If law enforcement determines that notification would impair an ongoing criminal investigation, notification can be delayed. If the county, after investigation and consultation with relevant federal, state or local law enforcement, determines that the breach was not likely to result in identify theft or financial harm to an individual, notification will not be necessary. The county will be required to provide a written certification within 30 days to the attorney general and to maintain a copy of the written certification for at least five years.