Ohio Municipal League
175 South Third Street
Suite 510
Columbus, Ohio 43215

614-221-4349 Office
614-221-4390 Fax

email:
Legislative Inquiries
John Mahoney
General Inquiries
info@omunileague.org

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Legislative Luncheon Great Success.

On behalf of the League's Board of Trustees and staff, we would like to thank all who participated in the League's Annual Legislative Luncheon, which was held on Wednesday of this week. The turnout of legislators and municipal officials was great with over 300 attending.

The visits members had with their legislators at lunch and before and after the event are invaluable to the League's overall legislative effort. It is one thing for the members to hear from League staff about the importance of certain issues. It is an entirely different and more essential thing to have those issues portrayed in local terms by local officials to their legislators.

Once again, thanks to all who could make it to this very important and very successful event.

Annexation Up Date

League staff, along with representatives of the Ohio Township Association and the County Commissioners Association of Ohio, met this week with Senator Bob Cupp and Senator Bruce Johnson, two key legislators in the effort to draw up new annexation laws for the state of Ohio, to discuss the future course of such legislation.

In that very positive meeting, it was agreed that OTA and the League should continue to meet and try to reach some compromise that was acceptable to both groups on the issue of annexation. The League and OTA did meet during most of 1998 to try to hammer out such a compromise and agreed that such future discussions should begin where the 1998 discussions left off. It was also agreed that CCAO would be kept informed and be asked for their suggestions during the discussion between OTA and the League.

Following the discussions between OTA and the League and our own internal discussions with the League's annexation committee, we expect we will get back together with Senators Cupp and Johnson sometime during the second or third week of April to report our progress.

Residency Bill Opposed

SB 46, which would ban all employee residency requirements at the local level, was opposed in the Senate State & Local Government & Veterans' Affairs Committee this week. Dayton Mayor Mike Turner, Dayton Commissioner Lloyd Lewis, Akron Deputy Mayor Joel Bailey, Upper Sandusky Mayor Ken Richardson, Carol Bader from the City of Toledo, Canton City Councilmember Charles Edy, Chillicothe Mayor Margaret Planton, St. Bernard Service Director Ray Schrand and John Gilchrist of the Ohio Association of the Chiefs of Police all gave strong testimony on the need to allow local governments and local electorates to continue to make decisions on the need for local residency requirements.

We really appreciate the fine job done by all who took the time to testify on this very important bill. The bill is not scheduled for a hearing this coming week.

Notice

In a decision of the 8^th Appellate District, Cuyahoga County, reported on March 4, 1999, Judge Leo M. Spellacy granted a "writ of mandamus that the per page copying cost of public records is five cents..." S/O ex rel. Strothers v. Murphy, No. 75399, 1999 Ohio App. LEXIS 831. All city and village officials should review this decision with legal counsel to determine the impact on local policies regarding copying costs.

COMMITTEE SCHEDULE FOR WEEK OF MARCH 22, 1999

SENATE WAYS & MEANS, After Session, South Hearing Rm.

SB 82 PUBLIC FUNDS INVESTMENT (Johnson) Permits subdivision or county treasurers to invest in certain no-load money market mutual funds in the absence of a written investment policy on behalf of the subdivision or county or in the cases of exemptions from or noncompliance with specified initial or continuing education requirements by the subdivision or county treasurer. (3rd Hearing)

HOUSE HEALTH, RETIREMENT & AGING, 9:30 a.m., Rm. 017

HB 138 TRAUMA CARE (Schuck) Provides quality assurance for trauma care and makes other changes in the laws regarding emergency medical services and fire services. (4th Hearing)

HB 199 ALTERNATIVE PUBLIC PENSION (Cates) Creates an alternative retirement program for public employees covered by Ohio's state retirement systems. (2nd Hearing)

HOUSE CIVIL & COMMERCIAL LAW, 10:30 a.m., Rm. 121

HB 95 PUBLIC RECORDS (Terwilleger) Awards reasonable expenses to the relator if a writ of mandamus is issued in a taxpayer's suit and authorizes a similar award plus court costs to a prevailing aggrieved person in a mandamus action under the Public Records Law. (3rd Hearing)

HOUSE ETHICS & STANDARDS, 11 a.m., Rm. 113

HB 201 PUBLIC RECORDS (Jacobson) Generally prohibits the release of specified peace officer residential and familial information kept by a peace officer's employer. (3rd Hearing)

HOUSE LOCAL GOVERNMENT & TOWNSHIPS, 4 p.m., Rm. 121

HB 172 EMINENT DOMAIN (Sulzer) Generally prohibits a political subdivision from using eminent domain to acquire real or personal property outside the political subdivision's boundaries. (1st Hearing)

HB 187 TOWNSHIP GOVERNMENT (Olman) Refers to townships that have adopted the limited self-government form of township government as "limited home rule government" townships and makes other changes. (4th Hearing - Possible vote)

HB 189 MUNICIPAL POPULATION COUNT (Taylor) Excludes persons under detention in a detention facility from persons counted to determine the population of a municipal corporation for purposes of classifying the municipal corporation as a village or a city. (3rd Hearing - Possible vote)

HB 204 JOINT FIRE DISTRICTS (Schuler) Permits the political subdivisions that comprise a joint fire district to pay the district's charges for ambulance or emergency medical services provided to their respective residents under certain circumstances. (2nd Hearing)

HOUSE WAYS & MEANS, 10 a.m., Rm. 121

HB 72 ESTATE TAX (Coughlin) Repeals the estate tax for the estates of decedents dying on or after July 1, 2000 and makes other changes. (2nd Hearing - Substitute bill)