ADMINISTRATIVE RULES REVIEW COMMITTEE Rules Digest -- October 1997 November 10, 1997, Room #116 For further information, please contact Joe Royce, Legal Counsel, Administrative Rules Review Committee

HIGHLIGHTS IN THIS ISSUE:

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT, Various new programs implemented, IAB Vol. XX, No 8, ARC 7587A thru 7593A, adopted.

ETHICS AND CAMPAIGN FINANCE DISCLOSURE, Penalties , XX IAB No. 9, ARC 7605-6, adopted.

DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES, FIP: release of information, IAB Vol. XX, No. 8, ARC 7547A, adopted.

DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES, Diversion & self sufficiency grants program, IAB Vol. XX, No. 8, ARC 7546A, emergency.

NATURAL RESOURCES DEPARTMENT, Deer depredation permits, IAB Vol. XX, No. 8, ARC 7574A, adopted.

PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT, Deferred compensation, IAB Vol. XX, No. 5, ARC 7425A, emergency, held over from September and October.

PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT, Lead paint hazards, IAB Vol. XX, No.9 ARC 7602A & 7603A, notice.

SOIL CONSERVATION DIVISION, Financial assistance for ag. drainage wells, IAB Vol. XX, No. 9, ARC 7601A, notice.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND TECHNOLOGY COMMISSION, Access to facilities , XX IAB No. 08, ARC 7578A, notice.

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, Handicapped parking , XX IAB No. 09, ARC 7594A, adopted.

The department completes actions of a number of rule-making proceedings from the last several months. ARC 7587 was placed under notice in July, implementing House File 368. That legislation created a training component to accompany financial assistance programs for start-up companies; the training helps provide skills for the businesspeople while the financial assistance package provides funding for the company. This program is limited to newly-created companies [three years or less}; when the owners have completed the educational component of the program, they may apply for a $5000 maximum for technical assistance and a $20,000 financial assistance package. These funds can be used either for business expenses or to leverage conventional financing.
ARC 7588 contains a minor amendment to the export trade assistance program. The change eliminates a current restriction that limited assistance to no more than two trade shows a year; under the amendment such decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis.
ARC 7589 is emergency implemented after notice--initially it was filed emergency in July. House File 724 authorized counties and cities of more than 24,000 to create "enterprise zones", lasting for up to ten years. The area may not exceed one percent of the jurisdiction, but a city may have more than one zone. Benefits for businesses located within a zone include such things as new jobs credit from withholding; sales, services, and use tax refund; investment tax credit and research activities credit. The jurisdiction may exempt from all property taxation for a period of up to ten years all or a portion of the value added to the property upon which an eligible business locates or expands in an enterprise.
Section four of the Act sets out the criteria for creating a zone; compliance must be certified by the Iowa Economic Development Board. The criteria for county eligibility is general in nature. A county must meet at least two of the following criteria:

• The county has an average weekly wage that ranks among the bottom twenty-five counties.
• The county has a family poverty rate that ranks among the top twenty-five counties.
• The county has experienced a percentage population loss that ranks among the top twenty-five counties.
• The county has a percentage of persons sixty-five years of age or older that ranks among the top twenty-five counties.

• The area has a per capita income of nine thousand six hundred dollars or less.
• The area has a family poverty rate of twelve percent or higher.
• Ten percent or more of the housing units are vacant in the area.
• The valuations of each class of property in the designated area is seventy-five percent or less of the citywide average for that classification.
• The area is a blighted area, as defined in section 403.17.

House File 191 was enacted in response to federal legislation; it creates a special revolving fund to help local communities finance drinking water systems. This assistance comes as a loan. Public water systems, community water supplies and non-profit water supplies are eligible applicants. The program will be administered by the EPC and the Iowa Finance Authority. Each year the federal government will provide a varying amount of money each year as a set-aside for smaller communities. Two percent of the entire available funds can be used to provide technical assistance to communities with a population of less that 10000. 15 percent of the total can be used for water source and wellhead protection. 10 percent can be set-aside for supervision and management programs.
A point system will be used to rank eligible projects. The system will consider such factors as water quality and risk to public health, nature of the intended improvements, affordability, wellhead or source improvements and the size of the community.

This item originally appeared as an "emergency" filing in July. Most of this filing relates to the mandatory school attendance requirements for children who have not passed the sixth grade. Section 1 of House File 597 states in part:

As a condition of eligibility for an applicant for or a recipient of assistance under this chapter, the department shall require a child's parent or other specified whose needs are included in the cash assistance grant to the child's family to cooperate with efforts to ensure children receiving assistance under this chapter complete educational requirements through the sixth grade. As a further condition of eligibility, an applicant or recipient shall provide written authorization for release of information to a school concerning the receipt of assistance and for release of information by a school concerning the child's compliance with attendance requirements.

Pursuant to 1997 legislation the department implements two pilot projects to 1) determine the effectiveness of alternatives to traditional assistance programs; 2) increase employment opportunities; and 3) avoid FIP dependence. A total of $500,000 is available, with $100,000 being earmarked for the pilot diversion program and $400,000 for the self-sufficiency grants program.
The Pilot Diversion Program provides a voluntary alternative to ongoing cash assistance to families from FIP. The purpose is to provide immediate, short-term assistance to meet a particular need or emergency as an alternative to full-blown FIP enrollment. Assistance hopefully will postpone or prevent the need to apply for FIP. The program consists of local pilot projects at county department offices; however, the county office may work in conjunction with other local entities. Initial pilot projects shall be implemented in the following counties: Cass at $20,000; Pottawattamie at $40,000 and Woodbury at $40,000.
The Pilot Family Self-Sufficiency Grants Program is statewide and provides payment to families as part of the Promise Jobs program. Grants are available for removing an identified barrier to self-sufficiency for a particular family when it can be reasonably anticipated that the assistance will enable participant families to retain employment or obtain employment in the two full calendar months following the date of authorization of payment.
Community self-sufficiency grants establish pilot projects to identify and remove systemic or community barriers to self-sufficiency, helping multiple Promise Jobs participant families to obtain or retain employment. County department offices and local Promise Jobs service delivery regions must apply jointly to receive a community self-sufficiency grant; both are encouraged to work in conjunction with other local resources. This pilot program gives local projects flexibility to better address community-wide barriers to self-sufficiency for FIP participants such as transportation needs, unusual child care needs, language barrier programs, etc.

The commission revises its regulations concerning the reduction of deer populations in areas where the animals cause excessive crop damage. The previous rules only provided depredation permits for horticultural losses; moreover those rules lacked sufficient detail to adequately outline the depredation program. The most significant part of this proposal is the expansion to include both agricultural and horticultural crop damage--meaning that depredation permits will be available to grain farmers as well as to nurseries or truck gardeners. A second change establishes a damage threshold of only $1500 for a permit; the current rules are silent on this point, but it was thought that extensive damage had to be demonstrated before a permit could be issued.
With limited exceptions, a depredation management plan must be developed before a permit will be issued. Commission representatives will inspect the area and develop the plan along with the landowner. Plans will normally be for a three year period, combining depredation permits along with other long-term preventative measures {e.g.: fencing} to reduce or eliminate the deer damage. Two types of depredation permits can be issued under the plan, both types are valid only on the property sustaining damage and the adjacent areas. The first is an actual license sold to hunters for use during the season. These licenses will be issued in blocks of five, up to the amount authorized in the depredation plan. Deer shooting permits allow shooting outside of the established season and are issued to the producers of high value horticultural crops and for row crop farmers in September and October; these are cases where proper damage control cannot occur during the regular hunting season. Shooting permits are issued without cost and are subject to specific limitations set out on the permit itself. The producer may keep up to two carcasses, but antlers must be turned over to the department. In all cases the carcasses must be field dressed and handled for consumption; excess carcasses must first be offered to charitable institutions, and then to the general public.

For the third time the Committee meets to consider a revised deferred compensation program for state employees. Additionally, a special gubernatorial task force has now been created to examine this program; its review will last some two months with its first meeting scheduled for November 6th, 1997.
The Rules Review Committee meeting will focus on a motion made at the October meeting for two objections, action on that motion was deferred until November. Committee action on an objection requires six affirmative votes. The first portion of the proposed objection is procedurally based, contending that the emergency filing and implementation of this program constituted an abuse of the "emergency" procedures set out in Iowa Code &0167;&0167;17A.4(2) and .5(2)"b". This objection would expire the emergency filing six months after the date on which the objection was filed. In the event the validity of the emergency filing was litigated, the objection would have the additional effect of awarding court costs and attorney fees to the attacking party, in the event a court did in fact strike down the emergency filing.
The second portion of the proposal is a substantive objection, questioning the underlying statutory authority of the filing. The effect of this objection would be to reverse the burden of proof in the event the legal authority for the program was challenged in court. If litigation occurred, the department would be required to prove it had statutory authority for the program changes. If it failed to meet this burden and the rule filing was invalidated, the attacking party would recover their court costs and attorney fees.

The department proposes two filings relating to the handling of lead paint hazards. The first proposal is a notification requirement warning residents of nearby lead hazards during a renovation or remodeling. The process is mandated in House File 335. Under the Act anyone performing renovation, remodeling, or repainting services of "targeted" housing, for compensation, must provide an approved lead hazard information pamphlet to the owner and occupant of the housing prior to commencing operation. "Targeted" housing means housing constructed prior to 1978 in which at least one child, six years of age or less, resides or is expected to reside.
The second filing, ARC 7603 amends existing rules relating to the certification of persons who abate lead problems. Iowa law currently makes certification voluntary until the Iowa program attains federal EPC authorization. These proposed amendments are intended to bring Iowa's regulations into compliance with the federal mandate. Educational requirements are significantly increased. Lead inspectors and elevated blood lead (EBL) inspectors must have either:

• Bachelor's degree.
• Associate's degree and one year of related experience (e.g., lead, environmental health, public health, housing inspection, building trades).
• High school diploma and two years of related experience (e.g., lead, environmental health, public health, housing inspection, building trades).
• Certification as an industrial hygienist, professional engineer, registered architect, registered sanitarian, registered environmental health specialist, or registered nurse.

Newly enacted Senate File 473 provides in part that the owner of land which is within a designated agricultural drainage well area must close each agricultural drainage well located on the land by December 31, 1999. Additionally, by December 31st, 1988 landowners in these drainage well areas must prevent surface water from draining into the agricultural drainage well. This includes:

• removing an intake if the land has a surface water intake emptying into an agricultural drainage well, including a surface water intake located in a road ditch;
• the construction of sidewalls if the land has a cistern connecting to an agricultural drainage well;
• preventing surface water from entering a drainage well;
• installing a locked cover over a agricultural drainage well or its cistern in order to prevent unauthorized access to the agricultural drainage well or its cistern.

• Construction costs including such things as tile or channel mains, laterals and associated excavations.
• Cost of improvements including administrative, legal and publication costs, classification, engineering design, construction inspection and contract administration, financing costs and damages
• Costs of wetland mitigation required under federal law.
• Costs of connection lines from mains or laterals of the drainage district to the terminus of in-field drains at the existing wellheads of the agricultural drainage wells.
• Costs of closure and plugging of agricultural drainage wells.
• Costs for removal of agricultural drainage well cisterns in accordance with applicable requirements of the department of natural resources.

Earlier versions of the dial-up access rules were reviewed at the committee's May and August meeting. This issue has been particularly contentious; so far the only development has been a commission imposed moratorium on any additional internet access and a commitment by the commission to review ways to use private providers to expand local internet access. In essence, under these rules remote access is prohibited to library patrons and K-12 students while allowing access to the following users:

• Faculty, staff, administrators and students in most colleges and universities;
• Faculty, staff, administrators and students in community colleges;
• Faculty, staff and administrators of K-12 schools;
• Staff members of AEA's;
• Members of the General Assembly;
• State and federal employees;
• Library employees and volunteer staff;
• homebound students enrolled in a school district.

• obtain or use a service offered by an authorized user or to conduct the official business of an authorized user using TCP/IP protocols or the Internet or its successors;
• access information downloaded from the Internet, its successors or other sources, to an authorized user's server using available or future technology and software applications;
• access the State of Iowa Libraries Online (SILO) network for libraries.

House File 688 and 692, made several changes to the handicapped parking law, all designed to make the process more user friendly and make the permits more readily available:

• It changed the word "Handicapped" to the phrase "persons with disabilities".
• Persons with permanent disabilities will be issued permanent permits.
• A "handicapped" designation on a driver's license is eliminated.
• A physician's or chiropractor's signature on the face of a windshield placard is no longer required.
• A physician assistant or an advanced registered nurse practitioner may furnish the statement needed to obtain a persons with disabilities parking permit.

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