New year means new state laws to take effect

By Cy Ryan

Monday, Dec. 28, 2009 | 3:47 p.m.

Guns, novelty lighters and identity theft are three of the areas affected by state laws that take effect at the end of the week.

Construction workers will be required to receive safety training and those applying for their first Nevada driver’s license will have to show proof of residency.

The 2009 Legislature approved hundreds of new laws but only 23 of them take effect fully or in part Friday.

As of the first of the year, courts will be required to transmit information to the state regarding criminal cases in which a defendant was deemed mentally ill. The data will be shipped to the Central Repository for Nevada Records to determine whether a weapons permit should be issued to the individual in question. Nevada law prohibits a person from owning or possessing a firearm if he or she has been judged mentally ill or has been committed to a mental health hospital. The person has a right to later ask the court to delete this finding that he or she has had a mental illness.

Toy lighters that look like footballs, animals, cartoon characters and cell phones are now on the market. Nevada is following the lead of 10 other states in banning the sale of these items.

“They are linked to deaths and injuries and property loss,” Assembly Majority Leader John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, the sponsor of the bill, said. The problem is children are attracted to these lighters, Oceguera, a firefighter, said.

State Fire Marshal James Wright said some vendors of these lighters in Clark County are upset by the ban. He said his staff has been telling the stores these lighters are banned now.

Another new law that is affecting businesses is one aimed at combating identity theft. Businesses that accept a payment card in the sale of goods or services must start scrambling the information in the transmission. Sen. Valerie Wiener, D-Las Vegas, said it will make Nevada the first state in the nation to meet the national standards in protecting information that is sent electronically. The new law also says, however, that the data collector is not liable if somebody breaks into the system through no fault of the business.

The number of construction workers in Nevada has dropped dramatically in the past year. But the more than 82,500 remaining will have to undergo safety training in order to stay on the job.

A year ago there were more than 109,000 construction workers. After a rash of construction deaths in the Las Vegas Valley, the 2009 Legislature called for training for workers and supervisors.

The state Division of Industrial Safety drew up regulations but they were rejected by a legislative subcommittee. The division is now preparing new regulations and Gov. Jim Gibbons is expected to approve emergency rules to be effective Jan. 1.

They will require construction supervisors to have 30 hours of safety training and workers 10 hours.

The emergency regulation will be in effect for 120 days while the division examines the testimony from a four hour public hearing to determine if changes should be made.

In recent years, some managers of home owner associations in Las Vegas have stolen thousands of dollars from the fees paid by the residents. Come Friday there will be new requirements to qualify for managers.

Sen. Mike Schneider, D-Las Vegas, says managers must know a lot of Nevada law and they handle millions of dollars. In some cases, the manager oversees seven or eight homeowner associations and floats the money between them and then disappears with the cash.

Schneider says this law is to upgrade the qualifications to require five years experience in management in a common-interest community, a professional designation from a nationally recognized organization and a record free of any disciplinary action in another state.

These newcomers will be granted a one-year license to manage the common-interest communities but Schneider says, “They will have to be clean.”

Individuals seeking a driver’s license for the first time or those moving to the state will be required to provide proof of primary residence to get the permit after Friday. Tom Jacobs, public information officer for the state Department of Motor Vehicles, says those who are renewing will follow the same routine. This change will help ensure that people using Nevada driver's licenses will be able to get on airplanes and be allowed to enter federal building where identification is required, Tom Jacobs, public information officer for the state Department of Motor Vehicles, said.

Another law would permit business to register or re-register their vehicles through the Internet effective Jan. 1. But Jacobs said the department is not ready to start that program and it may be a year before it is put into effect.

Other changes effective Friday:

— The state Health Division will require bonds be posted by agencies that supply workers to work in a home for individual residential care, described as a home for one or two persons. And criminal background investigations will be required of the workers who care for these residents to check for such things as crimes of violence and domestic abuse.

Private agencies supply workers to more than 200 of these individual homes and the law will require they meet the same standards as those applied to group homes.

— To qualify for a resident hunting or fishing license a person must actually live in Nevada and not just own a home.

And there will now be a “three strikes and you're out law” policy. A person who is convicted of three felony wildlife violations will be barred from ever getting a Nevada hunting or fishing license again.

— Car dealers must assure that each new vehicle offered for sale in 2012 and thereafter is accompanied by a disclosure of the car’s estimated carbon dioxide emissions.