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_____ 764 2. From such unexpended balances identified by the Director of the Department of Planning and Budget, the Governor may reappropriate up to $750,000 from amounts which would otherwise revert to the balance of the general fund and transfer such amounts as necessary to establish a component of fund balance which may be used for the purpose of providing technical assistance and intervention actions for local governments deemed to be fiscally distressed and in need of intervention to address such distress. Any such reappropriation approved by the Governor, shall be separately identified in the commitments specified on the balance sheet and financial statements of the State Comptroller for the close of each fiscal year, to the extent that such reserve is not used or added to by future appropriation actions. 3. Prior to any expenditure of the reappropriated reserve, the Governor and the Chairmen of the House Appropriations Committee and the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee must receive a notification from the Auditor of Public Accounts that a specific locality is in need of intervention because of a worsening financial situation. The Auditor of Public Accounts may issue such a notification upon receipt of audited financial statement or other information that indicates the existence of fiscal distress. But, no such notification shall be made until appropriate follow up and correspondence ascertains that, in the opinion of the Auditor of Public Accounts, such fiscal distress indeed exists. Such notification may also be issued by the Auditor of Public Accounts if written concerns raised about fiscal distress are not adequately addressed by the locality in question. 4. Once the Governor has received a notification from the Auditor of Public Accounts indicating fiscal distress in a specific local government, the Governor shall consult with the Chairmen of the House Appropriations Committee and the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee about a plan for state intervention prior to any expenditure of funds from the cash reserve. Any plan approved by the Governor for intervention should, at a minimum, specify the purpose of such intervention, the estimated duration of the intervention, and the anticipated resources (dollars and personnel) directed toward such effort. The staffing necessary to carry out the intervention plan may be assembled from either public agencies or private entities or both and, notwithstanding any other provisions of law, the Governor may use an expedited method of procurement to secure such staffing when, in his judgment, the need for intervention is of an emergency nature such that action must be taken in a timely manner to avoid or address unacceptable financial risks to the Commonwealth. 5. The governing body and the elected constitutional officers of a locality subject to an intervention plan approved by the Governor shall assist all state appointed staff conducting the intervention regardless of whether such staff are from public agencies or private entities. Intervention staff shall provide periodic reports in writing to the Governor and the Chairmen of the House Appropriations Committee and the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee outlining the scope of issues discovered and any recommendations made to remediate such issues, and the progress that is made on such recommendations or other remediation efforts. These periodic reports shall specifically address the degree of cooperation the intervention team is receiving from locally elected officials, including constitutional officers, city, county, or town managers and other local personnel in regards to their intervention work. 6. The Department of General Services is hereby encouraged to develop a master contract of qualified private sector turnaround specialists with expertise in local government intervention that the Governor can use to procure intervention services in an expeditious manner when he determines that state intervention is warranted in situations of local fiscal distress. § 4-9.00 HIGHER EDUCATION RESTRUCTURING § 4-9.01 ASSESSMENT OF INSTITUTIONAL PERFORMANCE Consistent with § 23.1-206, Code of Virginia, the following education-related and financial and administrative management measures shall be the basis on which the State Council of Higher Education shall bienially assess and certify institutional performance. Such certification shall be completed and forwarded in writing to the Governor and the General Assembly no later than October 1 of each even-numbered year. Institutional performance on measures set forth in paragraph D of this section shall be evaluated year-to-date by the Secretaries of Finance and Administration as appropriate, and communicated to the State Council of Higher Education before October 1 of each even-numbered year. Financial benefits provided to each institution in accordance with § 23.1-1002 will be evaluated in light of that institution's performance. In general, institutions are expected to achieve all performance measures in order to be certified by SCHEV, but it is understood that there can be circumstances beyond an institution's control that may prevent achieving one or more performance measures. The Council shall consider, in consultation with each institution, such factors in its review: (1) institutions meeting all performance measures will be certified by the Council and recommended to receive the financial benefits, (2) institutions that do not meet all performance measures will be evaluated by the Council and the Council may take one or more of the following actions: (a) request the institution provide a remediation plan and recommend that the Governor withhold release of financial benefits until Council review of the remediation plan or (b) recommend that the Governor withhold all or part of financial benefits. Further, the State Council shall have broad authority to certify institutions as having met the standards on education-related measures. The State Council shall likewise have the authority to exempt institutions from certification on education-related measures that the State Council deems unrelated to an institution's mission or unnecessary given the institution's level of performance. The State Council may develop, adopt, and publish standards for granting exemptions and ongoing modifications to the certification process.