Senate approves involuntary commitment expansion bill
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday approved a bill to allow probate judges to consider someone’s substance abuse disorder along with mental illness when deciding involuntary commitments.
Current law does not account for substance abuse when considering involuntary commitments. Senate Bill 240 does not allow for people to be committed solely because of addiction, but when it’s co-occurring with a mental health issue.
“You have to have a substance abuse issue concurrent with a mental health issue,” Sen. Will Barfoot, the bill sponsor, said in committee Wednesday.
The Association of County Commissions of Alabama and probate judges requested the bill.
The bill also allows probate judges to transfer commitment orders to their colleagues in other counties if someone moves during a commitment process. That will streamline the process and allow someone in a mental crisis to get treatment faster, advocates said.
The committee debate included concerns about a lack of commitment beds currently in the state.
“It’s our duty as legislators to solve this problem,” Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, said.
Rep. Russell Bedsole, R-Alabaster, is sponsoring the House version of the bill.
Committee approves AI image manipulation penalty bill
The Senate Judiciary Committee also approved House Bill 161, by Rep. Parker Moore, R-Hartselle, criminalizing manipulating an image or video using artificial intelligence without the consent of the subject of the image or video.
Someone commits the crime of creating a private image “if he or she knowingly creates, records, or alters a private image when the depicted individual has not consented to the creation, recording, or alteration and the depicted individual had a reasonable expectation of privacy against the creation, recording, or alteration of the private image,” according to the bill.
An example given in committee was a video of President Joe Biden altered to depict something he didn’t really say.
The committee amended the bill to say that the creators of the artificial intelligence tools are not liable for the content created.
A first violation of the law would be a Class A misdemeanor. Subsequent violations would be a Class C felony.
Committee approves bill to pay more to retired law enforcement returning to work
A bill sponsored by Rep. Allen Treadaway, R-Birmingham, that would increase the pay for retired law enforcement officers who return to work in a public safety role at a state, local college or university passed unanimously in a House committee on Wednesday.
Originally, House Bill 276 would have extended to $52,000 the maximum salary of law enforcement officers in the Employee’s Retirement System working in higher education and receiving retirement income. As the current law states, retired university officers may only make up to $38,000 a year or they must forgo their state retirement income.
A substitute bill approved in the House Ways and Means General Fund Committee removes the earnings cap for retired officers and expands where they could work.
Treadaway has said there is a need for more law enforcement at universities and elsewhere.
“We have got to do something,” Treadaway told committee members.
The Retirement Systems of Alabama is opposed to the bill because it carves out a specific group to allow a permanent exception to the state’s return-to-work laws and could increase RSA’s liabilities.
Treadaway said he’d work with RSA on the bill.
“I will not sign to put it (the bill) on the house floor without an opportunity to sit down with RSA,” said Treadaway.
House passes fentanyl education bill
The Alabama House this week passed House Bill 280, sponsored by Rep. Joe Lovvorn, R-Auburn, to require Alabama’s public schools to provide research-based instruction on fentanyl prevention and drug poisoning awareness to public school students in grades six through 12.
Named for an Auburn teen who died in 2021, the Price Hornsby Act aims to inform teens about the dangers of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids.
Hornsby, 17, died March 26, 2021, after taking a pill laced with fentanyl.
“His life was taken short and too quick,” Lovvorn said.
Lovvorn addressed Hornsby’s family, who were in the House chambers Tuesday afternoon.
“We want you to know we are with you, we are listening and we are working to try to prevent this for other families,” he said.
The bill requires the instruction be age-appropriate to address the legal, social and health consequences of drug and alcohol use.
The bill passed the House on a 103-0 vote. It now moves to the Senate.
Occupational board oversight bill advances
Twenty-three state occupational boards would be overseen by a new government office under a bill approved in a Senate committee on Tuesday.
That number is scaled back from the originally proposed Senate Bill 224 to focus on several boards that have had fiscal and management issues highlighted in state audits and are currently overseen by private contractors, supporters said.
“We have seen significant problems, we have seen non-compliance with the law,” sponsor Sen. Chris Elliott, R-Josephine, said.
The bill creates the Office of Occupational and Professional Licensing within the Department of Labor to serve as a centralized source of leadership, support, and oversight to the boards that license thousands of Alabamians, from massage therapists to private investigators to podiatrists.
The County and Municipal Government Committee approved an amendment from Sen. Jay Hovey, R-Auburn, to remove about 15 other boards from the bill under a second phase.
During a public hearing, several representatives from boards spoke against the legislation. Democrats on the committee voted against it and questioned the need for creating a new state office rather than just addressing “a few bad apples.” They called it “big government.”
Sen. Merika Coleman, D-Pleasant Grove, said she would bring an amendment outlining the required qualifications for the newly created executive director position.
If the bill becomes law, starting Oct. 1, 2025, the affected boards would be: Board of Examiners of Assisted Living Administrators; Alabama Athletic Commission; Alabama Board of Athletic Trainers; State Board of Auctioneers; Alabama Professional Bail Bonding Board; Alabama Behavior Analyst Licensing Board; Board of Examiners in Counseling; Alabama Board of Electrical Contractors; Alabama Electronic Security Board of Licensure; State Board of Genetic Counseling; Alabama Board of Licensure for Professional Geologists; Board of Home Medical Equipment; Alabama Board for Registered Interior Designers; Alabama Licensure Board for Interpreters and Transliterators; Alabama Board of Examiners of Landscape Architects; Alabama Board of Examiners in Marriage and Family Therapy; Alabama Massage Therapy Licensing Board; State Board of Midwifery; Alabama Board of Optometry; State Board of Podiatry; Alabama Private Investigation Board; Alabama State Board of Prosthetists and Orthotists; and the Alabama Security Regulatory Board.