HSB 159 (LSB 2308YC (1) 86)

HOUSE FILE _____

BY  (PROPOSED COMMITTEE ON STATE GOVERNMENT BILL BY CHAIRPERSON VANDER LINDEN)

A BILL FOR

An Act relating to state mandates on counties, including provisions related to county medical examiner fees and the publication of county resolutions.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

    Section 1.  Section 331.802, subsection 2, paragraph b, Code 2015, is amended to read as follows:
   b.  Except as provided in section 218.64 or as otherwise provided by law, for each preliminary investigation and the preparation and submission of the required reports, the county medical examiner shall receive from the county of appointment the decedent’s residence a fee determined by the board plus the examiner’s actual expenses. The fee and expenses paid by shall be submitted by the county medical examiner as an invoice to the county of appointment which shall be reimbursed to the county of appointment by the county of the person’s residence forward the county medical examiner’s invoice to the decedent’s county of residence for payment. However, if If the person’s death is caused by a defendant for whom a judgment of conviction and sentence is rendered under section 707.2, 707.3, 707.4, 707.5, or 707.6A, the county of the person’s residence may recover from the defendant the fee and expenses.
    Sec. 2.  Section 349.16, subsection 1, Code 2015, is amended to read as follows:
   1.  The proceedings of the board of supervisors, as furnished by the county auditor, excluding from the publication of said proceedings, its canvass of the various elections, as provided by law; witness fees of witnesses before the grand jury and in the district court in criminal cases.
    Sec. 3.  Section 349.18, subsection 3, Code 2015, is amended to read as follows:
   3.  The county auditor shall furnish a copy of the proceedings to be published, within one week following the adjournment of the board.  The county auditor shall include either a summary of all resolutions or the complete text of resolutions adopted by the board in the furnished copy of the proceedings. As used in this subsection, “summary” means a narrative description of the resolution setting forth the main points of the resolution in a manner calculated to inform the public in a clear and understandable manner the meaning of the resolution and to provide the public with sufficient notice of the policy stated or action to be taken, as resolved by the board in the resolution. The narrative description shall include the title of the resolution, an accurate and intelligible synopsis of the essential elements of the resolution, a statement that the description is a summary, the location and the normal business hours of the office where the full text of the resolution may be inspected, and the effective date of the resolution. Legal descriptions of property set forth in a resolution shall be described in full. The narrative description shall be written in a clear and coherent manner and shall, to the extent possible, avoid the use of technical or legal terms not generally familiar to the public. When necessary to use technical or legal terms not generally familiar to the public, the narrative description shall include definitions of those terms.
EXPLANATION
The inclusion of this explanation does not constitute agreement with

the explanation’s substance by the members of the general assembly.
   This bill relates to state mandates on counties, including provisions related to county medical examiner fees and the publication of county resolutions.
   Relating to county medical examiner fees, the bill requires that a county medical examiner’s office receive a fee and certain expenses for conducting a preliminary investigation of a death affecting the public interest, as specified in current law, from a decedent’s county of residence. The bill requires that the fee and expenses be submitted by the county medical examiner to the county of appointment in an invoice, and that the county of appointment shall forward that invoice to the decedent’s county of residence for payment.
   Relating to the publication of county resolutions, current law requires that all proceedings of each regular, adjourned, or special meeting of a board of supervisors be published immediately after the adjournment of the meeting and that the county auditor, serving as clerk to the board, furnish a copy of the proceedings to the board for publication within one week following the adjournment of the board. The bill requires that the county auditor include either a summary of all resolutions or the complete text of resolutions adopted by the board, for the purposes of furnishing such proceedings for publication.