No. 3                                                                   January 25, 2002

FEBRUARY 9 & 10, 2002 WILL BE THE LAST INITIAL 6 HR MAYORS COURT COURSE GIVEN THIS YEAR FOR MAYORS AND MAGISTRATES. PLEASE CALL THE OML OFFICES AT 1-800-561-3597 OR PULL OFF THE REGISTRATION FROM OUR WEB SITE.

Transportation Funding Group Gets Underway.

The first meeting of a special task force of the General Assembly to study the adequacy and distribution of the motor fuel taxes in Ohio met on Thursday of this week. John Mahoney of the League staff serves on the committee, along with representatives of the townships, county commissioners and engineers, the Ohio Contractors, the Ohio Petroleum Council, the Department of Taxation, the Department of Transportation and other groups. The panel is co-chaired by Representative Steve Buehrer and Senator Scott Oelslager.

Though this was an organizational meeting, the chairs announced that the panel intended to hold meetings in Columbus once a month until June and then host a series of public hearings around the state during the summer and fall. The group is to wrap up its work and make recommendations by December. The next meeting of the group will be held February 21 at 10:00 a.m. at the Statehouse.

Sub-Bill on Lending Still Attempts to Preclude Home Rule.

The Senate Finance Committee was given a substitute version of HB 386, the Predatory Lending Bill, this week. Under provisions of the bill, the state would codify certain provisions of the federal Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act (HOEPA) and provide $475,000 for the Department of Commerce to enforce the provisions adopted through the bill. The bill would also call for a legislative study of predatory lending, which would be completed by June 30, 2003, six months earlier than a similar study called for in the House version of the bill.

The bill continues to declare that, Constitutional Home Rule powers of regulation to the contrary, the state is to be the sole regulatory of lending in Ohio. The chairman of the Finance Committee said he plans to hold a hearing on the bill next Tuesday and vote the bill out of committee.

You Can Still Sign Up for the E - Bulletin.

Thanks to everyone who signed up this week for the Legislative Bulletin by e-mail. Because of you, we estimate that 14,000 acres of forest will be saved (of course, that 's over the course of a few years). But there are still a lot of trees to be saved. To get the Bulletin by e-mail, just e-mail your address to omunileague2@copper.net. Please, include the name of your city or village in your message.

Open Meeting/Open Record Amendment Adopted.

A new exception to the Open Records and Open Meetings law was adopted through amendment to SB 184 this week. The bill was approved by the full Senate and is awaiting committee referral in the House. Under these new exceptions, certain records and meetings related to security measures can be kept closed. The full text of these two amendments is available on the League's website at omunileague.org. You can also, of course, call us and we will provide you with copies of these provisions of SB 184 by fax or mail.

HB 403 received a proponent hearing Tuesday and was supported by the Associated General Contractors of Ohio, the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies and the Ohio Manufactures Association. The bill would establish a statewide uniform code for four family and above residential structures and commercial and industrial structures. The bill goes further and states that rules adopted by the Board of Building Standards supersede any laws enacted by cities and villages that conflict with or even "address the same subject matter" as state rules. Under current law, municipalities may enact more stringent standards. This legislation seems to clearly say that cities and villages cannot provide for safer, better constructed buildings where people live or work

CALL FOR WITNESSES TO OPPOSE HB403 IN THE HOUSE COMMERCE AND LABOR COMMITTEE TUESDAY, JANUARY 29, 1:30 P.M., ROOM 121.

SB 106 has been scheduled for heating in the House Local Government and Township Committee on Wednesday, January 30. The bill restores revisions which relate to tort immunity that were previously enacted by SB 350, but January invalidated by the Ohio Supreme Court on the basis that the bill violated the single subject rule. SB 350 related in its entirety to tort reform, but the high court held that it included multiple subject matters.

You are asked to contact members of the House Local Government Committee urging support for SB106.

The bill would make the following changes that are of interest to municipalities: