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OHIO MUNICIPAL LEAGUE LEGISLATIVE BULLETIN No. 8 March 1, 2002 PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS BULLETIN TO YOUR COUNCIL, DEPARTMENT HEADS & STAFF Governor Signs Three Bills of Municipal Interest. On Thursday of this week, Governor Taft signed three bills into law that are of interest to municipal government. HB 301 (Hoops) prohibits the charging of interest when a political subdivision is wrongly given estate tax proceeds and must forward those proceeds to the correct subdivision. The bill also corrects a minor problem with the conversion of five-year municipal levies to permanent ones. The second bill is HB 365 (Setzer), which allows a municipality, county or township to declare itself into a fiscal watch and seek technical and planning assistance from the state Auditor. Such a request may occur when the subdivision believes it is facing a year-end deficit equal to one-twelfth of general revenue of the preceding year. The third bill, HB 385 (Blasdel), make some minor but necessary changes to the Clean Ohio Fund program. That program is to provide $50 million per year for the next four years to local governments for green space and brownfield remediation programs. All three bills were supported by the League. HB 385 takes effect immediately. HB 301 and HB 365 take effect in 90 days. Need a Copy of a Bill? If you would like a copy of any of these bills, you can always call, fax, or e-mail in your request to us at the League offices in Columbus. However, one quicker way is to go online to http://legislature.state.oh.us. There you will find bills as introduced, as passed by a committee, the version passed by either House or a passed by Conference Committee. Thus you can usually get the latest version of a bill within one day to one week of its passage, depending on how many bills are flying through the General Assembly. What this service will not give you is substitute versions of a bill which is still in committee. And, if the legislature is going through heavy calendars, as they do toward the end of session, you may have to wait a few days to get the latest version. In those instances, we can take care of your request a little quicker and are happy to respond to your requests for legislation. Pension Bill, Field Sobriety Test Bills Pass. SB 134, which would establish a deferred retirement option program (DROP) in the police and fire retirement systems, was passed by the House by a vote of 92-2 this week. Though the League has expressed concerns about this program for over a year, the bill does address one of our concerns in that no employer contribution increase can be imposed to pay for this program should the actuaries be wrong about the neutrality of the programs costs to the system. The bill also gives the pension fund trustees the ability to limit or end this program should the numbers not be as promised. The Senate passed SB 208 this week, which overturns a court decision that said that field sobriety tests are valid only if in strict compliance with national standards of practice. Under SB 208 such tests are declared valid if they are in "substantial" compliance with such practices. The bill was supported by the Ohio Municipal Attorneys Association, a cooperating association of the League. Don' Forget Your E-mail. We now have about 650 E - Bulletin subscribers, which is just great. If you'd like to join this crowd, all you have to do is send your e-mail address, the name of your city or village and whether you currently receive the mailed version of the Bulletin to omunileague2@copper.net. As an incentive, we've decided to send our 1000th subscriber a free computer virus, so you might want to sign up sooner, rather than later. COMMITTEE SCHEDULE FOR WEEK OF MARCH 4, 2002 TUESDAY, MARCH 5 HOUSE CRIMINAL JUSTICE, 2 p.m., Rm. 114, Chr. Womer Benjamin, Phone: 466-2004. SB 184 TERRORISM (Spada) Creates the offenses of terrorism; soliciting or providing support for an act of terrorism, soliciting of providing support for an act of terrorism; making a terroristic threat and hindering prosecution of terrorism and declares an emergency. (4th Hearing - Proponent, opponent & interested party - Amendments - Possible vote) HB 490 MISDEMEANOR SENTENCING (Latta) Implements recommendations of the Criminal Sentencing Commission pertaining to misdemeanor sentencing generally and makes other changes in the criminal law. (3rd Hearing - Proponent, opponent & interested party) HOUSE STATE GOVERNMENT, 4 p.m., Rm. 122, Chr. Young, Phone: 644-6074. HB 501 MOBILITY DEVICES (Husted) Exempts electric personal assistive mobility devices from the definition of "vehicle" in the traffic laws and to permit their operation on sidewalks, bikeways, and public streets and highways, subject to certain restrictions. (2nd Hearing - Proponent, opponent & interested party) SB 156 SUNDAY LIQUOR SALES (Mumper) Authorizes certain Sunday liquor sales to begin at 11 a.m. even if these sales previously were approved by the voters to commence at 1 p.m. and changes from 1 p.m. to 11 a.m. the time at which Sunday liquor sales may start as specified in certain local option questions submitted to the voters. (3rd Hearing - Proponent, opponent & interested party) WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6 HOUSE CIVIL & COMMERCIAL LAW, 9:30 a.m., Rm. 114, Chr. Willamowski, Phone: 466-9624. HB 303FIREARM OWNERSHIP (Young) Generally authorizes any person to own, possess, purchase, otherwise acquire, transport, carry, sell or otherwise transfer a firearm, a component of a firearm, or ammunition for a firearm. (4th Hearing - Proponent, opponent & interested party) SB 120 CIVIL LIABILITY (Johnson) Modifies the law regarding the apportionment of liability in specified civil actions. (4th Hearing - Opponent) HOUSE LOCAL GOVERNMENT & TOWNSHIPS, 10 a.m., Rm. 121, Chr. Roman, Phone: 466-1790. HB 258 RESIDENCY REQUIREMENTS (Flowers) Prohibits certain political subdivisions from requiring their employees, and municipal corporations from requiring police or fire officers, to reside within any specific area of this state. (5th Hearing - Proponent, opponent & interested party) HB 454 LOCAL GOVERNMENT SPENDING (Coates) Raises the threshold amount below which the fiscal officer of a political subdivisions can approve expenditures made without a certificate of available funds. (4th Hearing - Proponent, opponent & interested party - Possible vote) Fax Bulletin ANTI-RESIDENCY BILL UP FOR HEARING CALL FOR WITNESSES ON HB 258 Anti-Charter, Anti-Residency Bill Up For Hearing A fifth hearing on HB 258 (Flowers) is scheduled for the House Local Government and Townships Committee on Wednesday, March 6 at 10:00 a.m. in House Hearing Room 121. The hearing is open to proponents, opponents and interested parties. Under provisions of the bill, no municipal employee who is either certified or licensed by the state could be required to live in any specific area of the state. If passed, this bill would attempt to overturn all charters, ordinances, civil service policies, employment contracts and collective bargaining agreements which contain contrary provisions. Beyond that, this would be the first time that we can find that the General Assembly will attempt to pass a bill to overturn local charter elections of any kind. On this point, HB 258 is saying that when it comes to municipal employees, the General Assembly shall set this or any other condition of employment, not local leaders, not local voters and not local collective bargaining agreements. What next? A bill that dictates how many firefighters each Ohio community will have? Another bill that dictates that all police officers and firefighters must get the same pay raises? Local personnel decisions should be left to local leaders, local voters and local collective bargaining. Please, let your state representative know that overturning local voter decisions and local personnel decisions is bad public policy. Additional testimony from municipal officials would also be very welcome. Please, let us know if you plan on testifying at this very important hearing. |
