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SCS/HCS/HB 1854 - This act modifies provisions regarding political subdivisions. AUDITS OF COUNTY OFFICES (Section 29.230) Under current law, the State Auditor is permitted to conduct performance audits when performing an audit of a county office. This act prohibits the State Auditor from conducting a performance audit when conducting an audit in a third class county not initiated pursuant to a petition if: 1. The county commission has adopted a resolution electing not to be subject to such an audit; and 2. The county has undergone an audit by a certified public accountant within the preceding two years. The county commission is required to send the resolution and audit report to the State Auditor. These provisions are identical to SB 615 (2020). MISSOURI LOCAL GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURE DATABASE (Section 37.1090 through Section 37.1098) This act establishes the "Missouri Local Government Expenditure Database". The database shall be available free of charge on the Office of Administration's website and shall include information about expenditures made during each fiscal year that begins after December 31, 2022. The database shall include the following information: the amount of the expenditure; the date the expenditure was paid; the vendor to whom the expenditure was paid, unless such information is confidential; the purpose of the expenditure; and the municipality or county that made or requested the expenditure. A municipality or county may choose to voluntarily participate in the database. Each municipality or county participating in the database shall provide electronically transmitted information to the Office of Administration biannually as provided in the act. Additionally, if 5% of the registered voters in a municipality or county request to participate, the municipality or county shall participate in the database. Residents may request participation by submitting a written letter by certified mail to the governing body of the municipality or county and the Office of Administration. After receiving the requisite number of requests, a municipality or county shall begin participating in the database, but is not required to report expenditures incurred before one complete 6 month reporting period. The Office of Administration shall provide financial reimbursement to any participating municipality or county for actual expenditures incurred from participation in the database. These provisions are identical to HB 1933 (2020). COUNTY REGULATION OF COUNTY PROPERTY (Section 49.266) Currently, the county commissions in all non-charter counties are authorized to promulgate regulations concerning the use of county property. This act authorizes the county commission in all first, second, third, and fourth classification counties to promulgate such regulations. Additionally, please note that Section 49.266 appears twice in this act because it is doubly-enacted due to the Cole County Circuit Court decision in Calzone v. Koster, et al. (2016). This act repeals the version enacted by SB 672 (2014) and amends the version in effect prior to SB 672 (2014). These provisions are identical to SB 747 (2020), SB 464 (2019), HB 1269 (2018), and HB 1210 (2017). WARRANTS FILED BY COUNTY CLERKS (Section 50.166) Under current law, a county clerk may transmit in the form of a warrant the amount due for a grant, salary, pay, and expenses to the county treasurer. This act provides that, upon request, the county treasurer shall have access to any financially relevant document in the possession of any county official for the purposes of processing a warrant. If the warrant is received in the absence of a check, then the county treasurer shall have access to the information necessary to process the warrant. Additionally, no official of any county shall refuse a request from the county treasurer for access to or a copy of any document in the possession of a county office that is financially relevant to the salaries of county officers and assistants. No county treasurer shall refuse to release funds for the payment of any properly approved expenditure. These provisions are substantially similar to SCS/SB 576 (2020). 2nd CLASS COUNTY CORONER SALARIES (Section 50.327) Under current law, the compensation for non-charter county coroners is based on salary schedules established by law. This act provides that, upon majority approval of the salary commission, the annual compensation of a non-charter county coroner of any county of the second classification may be increased up to $14,000 great than the compensation provided by the salary schedule established by law. These provisions are substantially similar to SB 837 (2020). COUNTY REVENUE VIOLATIONS (Section 54.140) Under current law, any county treasurer or other county officer who fails or refuses to perform duties required of him or her under the law is guilty of a misdemeanor, shall be punished by a fine and, in addition to such punishment, his or her office shall become vacant. This act repeals the provision that a county treasurer's or other county officer's office shall become vacant upon violation. These provisions are substantially similar to SCS/SB 576 (2020) and similar to provisions of SB 53 (2019). CANDIDATES FOR COUNTY RECORDER (Sections 59.021 & 59.100) This act provides that each candidate for county recorder shall provide an affidavit to the election authority that indicates the candidate is able to satisfy the bond requirements under the law. A recorder elected before January 1, 2021, shall have bond of no less than $1,000. A recorder elected after December 31, 2020, shall have a bond no less than $5,000. These provisions are identical to HB 2368 (2020). BOONE COUNTY PROPERTY MAINTENANCE AND NUISANCE CODES (Section 64.207) This act authorizes Boone County to adopt property maintenance regulations and ordinances as provided in the act. The unavailability of a utility service due to nonpayment is not a violation of the property maintenance code. Under this act, the property maintenance code must require the county commission to create a process for selecting a designated officer to respond to written complaints of the condition of a rented residence that threaten the health or safety of the tenants. When a written complaint is filed, the owner of any rental residence must be served with a notice specifying the condition alleged in the complaint and state a reasonable date by which abatement of the condition must commence. If work to abate the condition does not commence as determined by the designated officer, the complaint shall be given a hearing before the county commission. If the county commission finds that the rented residence has a dangerous condition that is harmful to the health, safety, or welfare of the tenant, the county commission shall issue an order that the condition be abated. If the owner violates an order issued by the county commission the owner may be punished by a penalty, which shall not exceed a Class C misdemeanor. These provisions are identical to HCS/HB 2336 (2020). COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING EXPENSES(Section 64.805) Currently, members of the county planning commission may be reimbursed for meeting expenses up to $25 per meeting. This act increases the reimbursement amount to $35. These provisions are identical to SB 731 (2020) and SB 326 (2019). APPOINTMENT OF MEMBERS OF BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS IN FOURTH CLASS CITIES (Section 79.235) If a statute or ordinance authorizes the mayor of a city of the fourth classification with no more than 2,000 inhabitants to appoint a member of a board or commission, any requirement that the appointed person be a resident of the city shall be deemed satisfied if the person owns real property or a business in the city. If the board to which a person is appointed is for the purpose of managing a city's municipal utilities, then any requirement that the appointed person be a resident of the city shall be satisfied if the following conditions are met: 1) The board has no authority to set utility rates or to issue bonds; 2) The person resides within a 5-mile radius of the city limits; 3) The person owns real property or a business in the city; 4) The person or the person's business is a customer of the public utility that is owned and operated by the city; and 5) The person has no pecuniary interest in, or is not a member of, any other utility of the type managed by the board. These provisions are identical to SCS/SB 725 (2020) and similar to HB 1602 (2020). FINANCIAL REPORTS OF POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS (Section 105.145) Under current law, any transportation development district having gross revenues of less than $5,000 in a fiscal year for which an annual financial statement was not timely filed to the State Auditor is not subject to a fine. This act provides that any political subdivision that has gross revenues of less than $5,000 or that has not levied or collected sales or use taxes in the fiscal year for which the annual financial statement was not timely filed shall not be subject to a fine. Additionally, if failure to timely submit the annual financial statement is the result of fraud or other illegal conduct by an employee or officer of the political subdivision, the failure shall not be subject to a fine if the statement is filed within 30 days of discovery of the fraud or illegal conduct. If the political subdivision has an outstanding balance or fines at the time it files its first annual financial statement after January 1, 2021, the Director of Revenue shall make a one-time downward adjustment to such outstanding balance in an amount that reduces the outstanding balance by 90%. If the Director of Revenue determines a fine is uncollectible, the Director shall have the authority to make a one-time downward adjustment to any outstanding penalty. The Director of Revenue shall initiate the process to disincorporate a political subdivision if such political subdivision has an outstanding balance for fines or penalties and fails to file an annual financial statement as provided in the act. A resident of a political subdivision may file an affidavit with the Director of Revenue with information regarding the political subdivision's failure to report. The question of whether a political subdivision may be subject to disincorporation shall be submitted to the voters of the political subdivision as provided in the act. Upon the affirmative vote of a majority of voters in the political subdivision, the Director of Revenue shall file an action to disincorporate the political subdivision in the circuit court with jurisdiction over the political subdivision. The circuit court shall enforce such orders and carry out remedies as provided in the act. Additionally, the Attorney General shall have the authority to file an action in a court of competent jurisdiction against any political subdivision that fails to comply with this act. BALLOT LANGUAGE RELATING TO LOCAL USE TAX (Section 144.757) This act modifies ballot language required for the submission of a local use tax to voters by including language stating that the approval of the local use tax will eliminate the disparity in tax rates collected by local and out-of-state sellers by imposing the same rate on all sellers. This act is identical to SB 652 (2020) and identical to a provision contained in SCS/SB 189 (2019), SS/SCS/SBs 46 & 50 (2019), SS/HCS/HB 255 (2019), SCS/HCS/HB 674 (2019), and HB 701 (2019). FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT DIRECTOR (Section 321.015) Currently, a person cannot hold any lucrative office or employment under this state or a political subdivision and hold the office of fire protection district director. This act creates an exception to this prohibition for employees of law enforcement agencies. These provisions are identical to SCS/SB 775 (2020) and substantially similar to HB 2266 (2020). ATTENDANCE FEES FOR BOARD MEMBERS (Section 321.190 & 321.603) This act further modifies the attendance fee for a board member attending a board meeting from $100 to $150 for board members of districts in both non-charter and charter counties. This act also repeals provisions that prohibit a member from being paid more than one attendance fee if such member attended multiple meetings in certain time periods and, in its place, authorizes board members to be paid for attending not more than one meeting per calendar week. These provisions are identical to SCS/SB 775 (2020) and substantially similar to HB 2266 (2020). BOUNDARIES OF FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICTS (Section 321.300) Under this act, if one or more fire protection districts serve any portion of a city with a charter form of government located in a county with a charter form of government with a population of 900,000 or more inhabitants which has a municipal fire department, the boundaries of either district may be expanded so as to include areas within the city into the boundaries of the fire protection district, but shall not expand beyond the city limits of such city as it existed on July 1, 2020. Such a change in the district boundaries shall be accomplished if the governing body of the city files with the board of any such fire protection district a written consent for the board to seek approval of the circuit court for an extension of the district's boundaries to the registered voters of the area. If a majority of the voters voting on the proposition vote in favor of the extension of the boundaries of the district, then the court shall enter an order declaring the extension of the boundaries of the fire district to be final and conclusive. These provisions contain an emergency clause. Additionally, these provisions are identical to SCS/SB 775 (2020) and substantially similar to HB 2726 (2020). RECORDS OF MUNICIPALLY OWNED UTILITIES (Section 610.021) This act adds individually identifiable customer usage and billing records for customers of a municipally owned utility, unless the records are requested by the customer or authorized for release by the customer, to the list of records that may be closed under the Sunshine Law. A municipally owned utility shall make available to the public the customer's name, billing address, location of service, and dates of service provided for any commercial service account. This act is substantially similar to HB 1953 (2020) and SB 828 (2020), HCS/HB 1098 (2019), and SCS/SB 453 (2019). MARY GRACE BRUNTRAGER
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