Monument and memorials; relocation. (HB778)
Introduced By
Del. Wren Williams (R-Stuart) with support from co-patron Del. Lee Ware (R-Powhatan)
Progress
✓ |
Introduced |
☐ |
Passed Committee |
☐ |
Passed House |
☐ |
Passed Senate |
☐ |
Signed by Governor |
☐ |
Became Law |
Description
Relocation of monument and memorials. Requires a locality that votes to remove, relocate, contextualize, or cover certain war monuments or memorials to initiate a process to gift the monument or memorial to a nonprofit organization that is most related to the mission and spirit of the monument or memorial, at the locality's expense. The bill provides that the placement of the monument or memorial shall be decided by an independent committee and that a majority vote by the committee as to the relocation of the memorial is binding on the locality and shall be carried out within six months from the date of the committee's decision. Read the Bill »
Status
01/28/2022: Awaiting a Vote in the Counties, Cities and Towns Committee
History
| Date | Action |
|---|---|
| 01/11/2022 | Committee |
| 01/11/2022 | Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/12/22 22102285D |
| 01/11/2022 | Referred to Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns |
| 01/24/2022 | Impact statement from DHCD/CLG (HB778CHP) |
| 01/28/2022 | Impact statement from DHCD/CLG (HB778) |
| 01/28/2022 | Assigned CC & T sub: Subcommittee #1 |
| 02/04/2022 | Subcommittee recommends continuing to 2023 |
| 02/11/2022 | Continued to 2023 in Counties, Cities and Towns |
Comments
The current version of the Bill is confusing and is being interpreted different ways. Localities should make the decision on if monuments should be kept or not, but the current provision that allows an advisory non binding referendum should be changed to make it a required binding voter referendum. Those that want the people to decide should support this, but do not. This is because in every advisory referendum ( I believe 8 in two elections) the vote has been to keep the monument. That includes heavily African American majority Charles City County. The press did not cover this because it does not fit their agenda.