SF 2208 (LSB 5874XS (2) 87)

SENATE FILE 2208

BY  D. JOHNSON

A BILL FOR

An Act providing for the administration of drainage or levee districts, including by providing for appointments, elections, and terms of office, and including transitional provisions.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

    Section 1.  Section 468.231, Code 2018, is amended to read as follows:
   468.231  Administrator areas.
   1.  When establishing a board of county drainage administrators, the board of supervisors shall divide the county, along township lines, into three five drainage administrator areas of approximately equal territory. The board of county drainage administrators shall consist of one resident freeholder appointed by the county board of supervisors from each administrator area, and at least two three of the administrators shall be agricultural landowners. The members first appointed shall hold office for terms of one, two, and three, four, and five years respectively, as indicated and fixed by the county board of supervisors. Thereafter, succeeding members shall be appointed for a term of three years, except that vacancies occurring otherwise than by expiration of a term shall be filled by appointment for the unexpired term.
   2.  Any member of the board of county drainage administrators who shall cease to have any of the qualifications prescribed by this section shall thereupon be disqualified as a member of the board and the office shall be deemed vacant. Members of the board of county drainage administrators may be removed by the county board of supervisors for cause, but every such removal shall be by written order which shall be filed with the county auditor.
    Sec. 2.  Section 468.502, Code 2018, is amended to read as follows:
   468.502  Election.
   The board, at the next regular, adjourned, or special session shall canvass the petition and if signed by the requisite number of landowners, it shall order an election to be held at some convenient place in the district not less than forty nor more than sixty days from the date of such order, for the election of three five trustees of such district. It shall appoint from the freeholders of the district who reside in the county or counties, three judges and two clerks of election. It shall not be mandatory for the county commissioner of elections to conduct elections held pursuant to this subchapter, but they shall be conducted in accordance with the provisions of chapter 49 where not in conflict with this subchapter.
    Sec. 3.  Section 468.504, Code 2018, is amended to read as follows:
   468.504  Election districts.
   When a petition has been filed for the election of trustees to manage a district containing twenty thousand acres or more, the board, or, if the district extends into more than one county, the boards of the counties by joint action, shall, before the election, divide the district into three five election districts for the purpose of securing a proper distribution of trustees in the district, and the division shall be so made that each election district will have substantially equal voting power and acreage, as nearly as may be. After the division is made there shall be elected one trustee for each of the election districts, but at the election all the qualified voters for the entire district shall be entitled to vote for each trustee. The division here provided for shall be for the purposes only of a proper distribution of trustees in the district and shall not otherwise affect the district or its management and control.
    Sec. 4.  Section 468.505, Code 2018, is amended to read as follows:
   468.505  Record and plat of election districts.
   At the time of making a division into five election districts, as provided in section 468.504, the board or boards shall designate by congressional divisions, subdivisions, metes and bounds, or other intelligible description, the lands embraced in each election district, and the auditor, or auditors if more than one county shall make a plat thereof in the drainage record of the district indicating thereon the boundary lines of each election district, numbering them, one, two, and three, four, and five respectively.
    Sec. 5.  Section 468.518, Code 2018, is amended to read as follows:
   468.518  Tenure of office.
   The trustees so elected shall hold office until the fourth Saturday in January next succeeding their election and until their successors are elected and qualify. On the third Saturday in the January next succeeding their original election, an election shall be held at which three five trustees shall be chosen, one for one year, one two for two years, and one two for three years, and each shall qualify and enter upon the duties of the office on the fourth Saturday of the same January. On the third Saturday in each succeeding January, an election shall be held to choose a each successor to the trustee whose term is about to expire, and the term of the trustee’s office shall be for three years and until a successor has qualified.
    Sec. 6.  Section 468.519, Code 2018, is amended to read as follows:
   468.519  Levee and pumping station districts —— tenure of office of trustees.
   In levee and drainage districts having pumping stations trustees shall hold office until the fourth Saturday in January three years after election. On the third Saturday in January of each year a trustee shall be elected for a term of three years to succeed the member of the board whose term will expire on the following Saturday in the same manner as provided in section 468.518. At the election there shall also be elected, if necessary, a trustee to fill any vacancy which occurred before the election.
    Sec. 7.  Section 468.539, Code 2018, is amended to read as follows:
   468.539  Qualified application.
   Part 2 of this subchapter shall also apply to this part, except as follows:
   1.  The trustees of the overlying district serving on the board at the time of acceptance as described in section 468.538 shall be considered initially elected as the trustees of the drainage or levee district as provided in sections 468.502, 468.503, and 468.521, until the next election.
   2.  a.  The Until the next election, the board of trustees described in subsection 1 shall do all of the following:
   (1)  Establish the overlying district as a new drainage or levee district, which must include all improvements and rights-of-way surrendered by a board of supervisors or board of trustees of the contained district.
   (2)  Divide the new drainage or levee district into three five election districts in the same manner as a board of supervisors acting pursuant to sections 468.504 and 468.505.
   b.  The petition described in section 468.501 is not required to be filed or considered under this subsection.
   3.  Each of the three five persons elected as trustee to serve on a new drainage or levee district established pursuant to an election held by the board of trustees described in subsection 1 shall hold office for a staggered term as provided in section 468.518. A person elected as a trustee of the new drainage or levee district shall be elected from a specified election district, unless the person is elected at large as provided in subsection 4.
   4.  The board of trustees described in subsection 1 or a subsequent board of trustees of the new drainage or levee district may provide for the election of two additional persons to serve as trustees. The two additional persons shall be elected at large by all qualified voters for the entire drainage or levee district. Of the five persons elected as trustees of the new drainage or levee district, not more than two persons shall be elected from the same specified election district. One person’s initial term shall be for one year and the second person’s initial term shall be for two years in the same manner as provided in section 468.518. 
   5.  4.  Votes shall be determined as provided pursuant to either section 468.510 or 468.511 in the same manner as was determined for the overlying district.
    Sec. 8.  IMPLEMENTATION.
   1.  Notwithstanding the provisions of this Act to the contrary, an administrator who is a member of a board of county drainage administrators or a trustee who is a member of a board of trustees under chapter 468 and who held office immediately prior to this Act’s effective date shall continue to hold office in the same manner as if this Act had not been enacted. 
   2.  Notwithstanding section 468.231, a board of county drainage administrators shall divide the county into five administrative areas as required in this Act.
   3.  Notwithstanding sections 468.504 and 468.539, a board of trustees of a district containing twenty thousand acres or more, shall divide the district into five election districts as required in this Act. The board of trustees shall provide for the election of successor trustees to serve staggered terms as provided in this Act.
   4.  This section is repealed on January 1, 2020.
EXPLANATION
The inclusion of this explanation does not constitute agreement with
the explanation’s substance by the members of the general assembly.
   GENERAL. This bill relates to drainage and levee districts (districts) under Code chapter 468, by increasing the number of members of a special governing body responsible for managing a district. A special governing body includes a board of drainage administrators appointed by the county board of supervisors or joint board of supervisors and a board of trustees elected by a district’s landowners. The bill increases the number of appointed administrators or elected trustees from three to five. The bill also requires districts be divided into subunits (administrative areas or election districts) from which an administrator or trustee resides. Finally, it provides for staggering the terms of office of successor administrators and trustees, and provides that existing boards must oversee the creation of the five new subunits and the board of trustees must supervise a subsequent election. These preparations must occur prior to January 1, 2020.
   BACKGROUND —— BOARD OF DRAINAGE ADMINISTRATORS AND BOARD OF TRUSTEES. After a drainage district has been established by a county’s board of supervisors or joint board of supervisors, the board may transfer its authority to an appointed board of county drainage administrators (Code chapter 468, subchapter I, part 4) or an elected board of trustees (Code chapter 468, subchapter II, part 3). In the case of a district to be managed by a board of county drainage administrators, the board of supervisors must divide the county into three administrative areas (Code section 468.231). In the case of a district that contains 20,000 acres or more, the county board of supervisors must divide the district into three election districts (Code section 468.504). One exception is when two or more districts share mutual territory and one district dissolves and cedes its jurisdiction to the other “overlying” district having 35,000 or more acres (Code chapter 468, subchapter III, part 3). In that case, the overlying district may divide the district into five election districts, with two trustees serving on an at-large basis (Code section 468.539).