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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OML E- BULLETIN
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PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS BULLETIN TO YOUR COUNCIL, DEPARTMENT HEADS & STAFF

ANNEXATION

The Senate and Local Government and Veterans Affairs Committee held a hearing on SB 289 for proponents, late Wednesday afternoon May 3^rd. Appearing in support of the bill were Michael Cochran, Director, Ohio Township Association; Elizabeth Stanton, Ohio Township Association attorney; Al Schrader, Springfield Township, Summit County; David Anderson, Administrator of Miami Township in Montgomery County; Walter Siegel, Administrator of Perry Township in Lake County; and Bill Miller of Perrysburg Township in Wood County.

The County Commissioners Association of Ohio, also, appeared in support especially of the provisions granting broader description in the process to commissioners.

The Ohio School Boards Association testified that the bill must include as a standard for granting or denying annexation the impact on a school district, that school districts need to be necessary parties to annexation proceedings and the ½ mile impact area should be enlarged. A Granville school board member stressed the need to overturn the "Smith v. Granville" Supreme Court decision. On the issue of schools, there seemed to be some interest in their requests and there may be a supportive amendment offered.

During the course of the hearing Senator Gene Watts asked several helpful questions relative to the potential for years of legal challenges, whether or not environmental concerns could be addressed by counties and would not the bill be detrimental to economic development.

The opponent hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, May 10 at 4:30 p.m. in the Senate South Hearing Room.

It is extremely important that municipal officials attend and meet with Senators.

1) Municipal Officials from committee members districts will have added impact.

2) If you have a friendly school board member who will come and talk about the benefits of annexation to the district, that would be extremely helpful in refuting the School Board Association testimony.

3) The same would apply to county officials.

4) When testifying, talk about the benefits of annexation to your city or village and the surrounding areas and why it couldn’t occur under the bill as introduced.

5) Bring with you local chamber members, business representatives or developers who can talk one on one to Senators about annexation as a competitive economic development tool.

6) If testifying try not to cover issues that previous witnesses have covered.

7) Witnesses will be asked to limit their comments to 5 minutes.

It is possible that opponents other than municipal officials will want to appear - those representing private sector interests and private property rights.

Committee members are:

Chairman: Senator Richard Schafrath (R-19), Mansfield

Senator Robert Spada (R-24), Parma Heights

Senator Louis Blessing (R-8), Hamilton County

Senator Robert Gardner (R-18), Madison

Senator Charles Horn (R-6), Kettering

Senator Eugene Watts (R-16), Dublin

Senator Linda Furney (D-11), Toledo

Senator Anthony Latell (D-32), Girard

Senator Michael Shoemaker (D-17), Bournville

Because of the large number of people who have expressed an interest in testifying, please call the OML offices, 1-800-561-3597, and let us know if you wish to testify so that we can have a manageable number of witnesses.

Please check the OML wesite, for:

1) A listing of hearings on bills of interest for the week of May 8^th.

2) Key Issues and Common Themes - Annexation.

3) Upcoming meetings and conferences.

KEY ISSUES AND COMMON THEMES - ANNEXATION

General Good Definition: General good should continue to be directed towards only the area being annexed or limited to a notice requirement to adjacent property owners (similar to the notice in zoning statutes). If any such notification is required, the County should be required to provide such notice since it can open cross jurisdictional boundaries.

Revenue Sharing: SB 289 proposes revenue sharing to the township in excess on what OTA required during negotiations. Any revenue sharing requirement should be based on making the township "whole" calculated on pre-development values for a limited number of years so their budgets are not adversely affected (especially if the township has not investment in the development nor provides any services). Any revenue sharing would apply only when the City/Village withdraws the annexed property from the township.

100% Owner Annexation: No hearing should be required for any 100% owner petition for annexation. If any hearing is specified, it should be held on very limited technical compliance issues only.

Hearing/Procedural Aspects: Regardless of whether a formal or informal hearing may be required, subpoena powers should not be included (negative for developers and public officials alike).

Intent Language: Should clearly favor property owners and receiving municipalities (cities and villages) as established in current case law. Absent such language, the statute should remain silent.

SB 266 WORKERS’ COMPENSATION (Horn) Permits public employers, other than the state, to become self-insuring employers for purposes of the Workers’ Compensation Law. (4^th Hearing)

SB 298 INCOME/ESTATE TAXES (Spada) Reduces estate taxes and increases the income tax personal exemption and joint filing credit. (1^st Hearing - Pending referral)

SB 193 UTILITY EXCAVATIONS (Blessing) Provides for the establishment and operation of a single, statewide, one-call notification system as a means of preventing or minimizing damage to subsurface facilities as a result of excavations occurring in this state. (9^th Hearing - Possible vote)

SB 67 CABLE COMPETITION (Hottinger) Provides for fair competition in the provision of cable television services by establishing conditions under which governmental cable operators may be formed. (7^th Hearing - Substitute bill to be offered - Possible vote)

SB 287 GAS COMPANY PROPERTY (Blessing) Reduces the assessment rate on tangible personal property owned by natural gas companies and makes other changes. (2^nd Hearing)

SB 277 PERS BENEFITS (Drake) Increases certain benefits paid by the Public Employees Retirement System. (2^nd Hearing)

HB 623 RETIREMENT PLANS (Cates) Establishes a new defined contribution retirement plan for certain public employees who are elective officials or are in the state’s unclassified civil service in positions exempt from collective bargaining. (4^th Hearing)

HB 655 POLICE & FIRE PENSIONS (Schuring) Provides that the annual cost of living increase paid to retired members and beneficiaries of the Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund will be three per cent. (1^st Hearing)

SB 144 PERS PAYMENTS (Johnson) Requires the Public Employees Retirement System to credit interest on a member’s contributions and, under certain circumstances, pay an amount of the employer contributions on the death of a member or withdrawal of a member’s contributions. (5^th Hearing - Amendments - Possible vote)

HB 397 MUNICIPAL DEVELOPMENT (Schuler) Permits municipal corporations to create a municipal development commission to act as an urban renewal and redevelopment agency for the municipal corporation. (1^st Hearing)

HB 672 MANUFACTURED HOUSING (Peterson) Specifies the application date of certain provisions of Am.Sub.SB142 of the 122^nd General Assembly and makes other clarifications regarding the taxation of manufactured and mobile homes. (1^st Hearing)

HB 188 CABLE TELEVISION (Olman) Provides for fair competition in the provision of cable television services. (6^th Hearing)

HB 98 ANNEXATION LAW (Terwilleger) Revises the laws governing municipal annexation. (2^nd Hearing - Proponents)

HB 249 RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT (Tiberi) Prohibits a political subdivision from requiring its employees to reside in any specific area of the state. (3^rd Hearing - Proponents)

HB 633 PARK EMINENT DOMAIN (Taylor) Eliminates the right of the appointed boards of park commissioners of metropolitan park districts, municipal corporations, and township park districts to acquire, through an exercise of eminent domain authority, land for park use. (1^st Hearing)

SB 289 ANNEXATIONS (Cupp) Revises the law governing municipal annexations. (3^rd Hearing- Opponents)

SB141 ANIMAL FEEDING OPERATIONS (Mumper) Transfers authority to issue permits for the construction of new or modification of existing concentrated animal feeding operations from the Ohio EPA to the Department of Agriculture. (9^th Hearing - Proponents/opponents)

Kaleidoscope 2000

Explore professional and personal growth opportunities and employment and training at the Kaleidoscope 2000 Conference for Women. Invest in your future will be the theme of this semi-annual conference which will be held on May 25, 2000 at the Ohio Expo Center (home of the Ohio State Fair). The conference is sponsored by the Women’s Division at the Ohio Bureau of Employment Services. Registration opens at 6:30 a.m. with all sessions and the exhibits ending at 5:00 p.m. Registration fee is $50 and includes all conference activities or $25 for luncheon only. For more information, please contact the Ohio Bureau of Employment Services (OBES), Women’s Division, 145 South Front Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215, (614) 466-4496, Fax (614) 466-7912 or OBES website at

Appalachian Conference 2000