S2794.02T

To repeal sections 473.730, 473.733, 473.739, 473.747, 475.050 and 476.405, RSMo 1994, and section 50.333, RSMo Supp. 1995, relating to certain county officials, and to enact seven new sections relating to the same subject.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Missouri, as follows:

Section A. Sections 473.730, 473.733, 473.739, 473.747, 475.050 and 476.405, RSMo 1994, and section 50.333, RSMo Supp. 1995, are repealed and seven new sections enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as sections 50.333, 473.730, 473.733, 473.739, 473.747, 475.050 and 476.405, to read as follows:

50.333. 1. There shall be a salary commission in every nonchartered county.

2. The clerk of the circuit court of the judicial circuit in which such county is located shall set a date, time and place for the salary commission meeting and serve as temporary chairman of the salary commission until the members of the commission elect a chairman from their number. Upon written request of a majority of the salary commission members the clerk of the circuit court shall forthwith set the earliest date possible for a meeting of the salary commission. The circuit clerk shall give notice of the time and place of any meeting of the salary commission. Such notice shall be published in a newspaper of general circulation in such county at least five days prior to such meeting. Such notice shall contain a general description of the business to be discussed at such meeting.

3. The members of the salary commission shall be:

(1) The recorder of deeds if [his] the recorder's office [be] is separate from that of the circuit clerk;

(2) The county clerk;

(3) The prosecuting attorney;

(4) The sheriff;

(5) The county commissioners;

(6) The collector or treasurer ex officio collector;

(7) The treasurer or treasurer ex officio collector;

(8) The assessor;

(9) The auditor; and

(10) The public administrator [in counties of the first classification].

Members of the salary commission shall receive no additional compensation for their services as members of the salary commission. A majority of members shall constitute a quorum.

4. Notwithstanding the provisions of [section 610.025] sections 610.021 and 610.022, RSMo, all meetings of a county salary commission shall be open meetings and all votes taken at such meetings shall be open records. Any vote taken at any meeting of the salary commission shall be taken by recorded yeas and nays.

5. In every county, the salary commission shall meet at least once before November thirtieth of each odd-numbered year. The salary commission may meet as many times as it deems necessary and may meet after November thirtieth and prior to December fifteenth of any odd-numbered year if the commission has met at least once prior to November thirtieth of that year. At any meeting of the salary commission, the members shall elect a chairman from their number. The county clerk shall present a report on the financial condition of the county to the commission once the chairman is so elected, and shall keep the minutes of the meeting.

6. For purposes of this section, the 1988 base compensation is the compensation paid on September 1, 1987, plus the same percentage increase paid or allowed, whichever is greater, to the presiding commissioner or the sheriff, whichever is greater, of that county for the year beginning January 1, 1988. Such increase shall be expressed as a percentage of the difference between the maximum allowable compensation and the compensation paid on September 1, 1987. At its meeting in 1987 and at any meeting held in 1988, the salary commission shall determine the compensation to be paid to every county officer holding office on January 1, 1988. The salary commission shall establish the compensation for each office at an amount not greater than that set by law as the maximum compensation. If the salary commission votes to increase compensation above the 1988 base compensation, but not to pay the maximum amount authorized by law for any officer, then the increase in compensation shall be the same percentage increase for all officers and shall be expressed as a percentage of the difference between the maximum allowable compensation and the 1988 base compensation. If two-thirds of the salary commission vote to decrease the compensation below the 1988 base compensation, all officers shall receive the same percentage decrease from the difference between the 1988 base and the salary paid on September 1, 1987. The commission may vote not to increase or decrease the 1988 base compensation and the 1988 base compensation shall be the salary of such officers during the subsequent term of office.

7. For the year 1989 and every second year thereafter, the salary commission shall meet in every county as many times as it deems necessary on or prior to November thirtieth of any such year for the purpose of determining the amount of compensation to be paid to county officials. For each year in which the commission meets, the members shall elect a chairman from their number. The county clerk shall present a report on the financial condition of the county to the commission once the chairman is so elected, and shall keep minutes of the meeting. The salary commission shall then consider the compensation to be paid for the next term of office for each county officer to be elected at the next general election; however, until August 28, 1990, the compensation for all commissioners of the county commission shall be determined together at the meeting of the salary commission held in the year prior to the beginning of the next term for presiding commissioner and the compensation for the commissioners other than the presiding commissioner shall not be established or adjusted at any meeting of the salary commission at which the compensation of the presiding commissioner is not also established or adjusted. After August 28, 1990, salaries of associate commissioners shall be determined prior to their election; however, regardless of the percentage increase granted, associate commissioners shall not receive compensation in excess of the compensation received by the presiding commissioner. If the commission votes not to increase or decrease the compensation, the salary being paid during the term in which the vote was taken shall continue as the salary of such offices and officers during the subsequent term of office. If the salary commission votes to increase the compensation, all officers or offices whose compensation is being considered by the commission at that time, shall receive the same percentage of the maximum allowable compensation. However, for any county in which all officer's salaries have been set at one hundred percent of the maximum allowable compensation, the commission may vote to increase the compensation of county officers at that or any subsequent meeting of the salary commission without regard to any law or maximum limitation previously established by law. Such increase shall be expressed as a percentage of the compensation being paid during the term of office when the vote is taken, and each officer whose compensation is being established by the salary commission at that time shall receive the same percentage increase over the compensation being paid for that office during the term when the vote is taken. This increase shall be in addition to any increase mandated by an official's salary schedule because of changes in assessed valuation or population during the current term. If the salary commission votes to decrease the compensation, all officers and offices, except as otherwise provided in this subsection for county commissioners, shall receive the same percentage decrease; however, no salary or other compensation of county officers holding office on or after May 13, 1988, shall be decreased below the compensation being paid for the particular office on the date the salary commission votes, except upon a two-thirds vote of all of the members of the salary commission.

8. The salary commission shall issue, not later than December fifteenth of any year in which it meets, a report of compensation to be paid to each officer and the compensation so set shall be paid beginning with the start of the subsequent term of office of each officer. The report of compensation shall be certified to the clerk of the county commission for the county and shall be in substantially the following form:

The salary commission for ............................ County hereby certifies that it has met pursuant to law to establish compensation for county officers to be paid to such officers during the next term of office for the officers affected. The salary commission reports that there shall be (no increase in compensation) (an increase of ....................... percent) (a decrease of ......................... percent) (county officer's salaries set at ............... percent of the maximum allowable compensation).

Salaries shall be adjusted each year on the official's year of incumbency for any change in the last applicable decennial census or any change in the last completed assessment that would affect the maximum allowable compensation for that office.

9. For the meeting in 1989 and every meeting thereafter, in the event a salary commission in any county fails, neglects or refuses to meet as provided in this section, or in the event a majority of the salary commission is unable to reach an agreement and so reports or fails to certify a salary report to the clerk of the county commission by December fifteenth of any year in which a report is required to be certified by this section, then the compensation being paid to each affected officer on such date shall continue to be the compensation paid to the affected officer during the succeeding term of office.

10. The salary commission in each county which did not adopt a salary level of one hundred percent in 1987 and, upon petition of two-thirds of the members of the salary commission, the salary commission of any other county shall meet within thirty days after May 13, 1988, to reconsider any action or failure to act prior to May 13, 1988. Any salary schedule adopted or adjustments made in a previous salary schedule at the meeting required by this subsection shall be certified to the clerk of the county commission within forty-five days after May 13, 1988, and shall become the salary schedule for that county for the current term of office and the term of office for those officers to be elected in 1988 in lieu of any salary schedule adopted prior to May 13, 1988.

11. Other provisions of law notwithstanding, in every instance where an officer or employee of any county is paid a mileage allowance or reimbursement, the county commission shall allow or reimburse such officers or employees out of the county treasury at the highest rate paid to any county officer for each mile actually and necessarily traveled in the performance of their official duties. The county commission of any county may elect to pay a mileage allowance for any county commissioner for travel going to and returning from the place of holding commission meetings and for all other necessary travel on official county business in the personal motor vehicle of the commissioner presenting the claim.

12. The term "maximum allowable compensation" as used in this section means the highest compensation which may be paid to the specified officer in the particular county based on the salary schedule established by law for the specified officer, and in counties where compensation is computed on both a population and an assessed valuation factor, total compensation allowable shall be the sum of both the population and the assessed valuation factors which are applicable to the population and assessed valuation of the particular county. If the salary commission at its meeting in 1987 voted for one hundred percent of the maximum allowable compensation and does not change such vote at its meeting held within thirty days after May 13, 1988, as provided in subsection 6 of this section, the one hundred percent shall be calculated on the basis of the total allowable compensation permitted after May 13, 1988.

473.730. 1. Every county in this state, and the city of St. Louis, shall elect a public administrator at the general election in the year 1880, and every four years thereafter, who shall be ex officio public guardian and conservator in and for [his] the public administrator's county. Before entering on the duties of [his] the public administrator's office, [he] the public administrator shall take the oath required by the constitution, and enter into bond to the state of Missouri in a sum not less than ten thousand dollars, with two or more securities, approved by the court and conditioned that [he] the public administrator will faithfully discharge all the duties of [his] the public administrator's office, which bond shall be given and oath of office taken on or before the first day of January following [his] the public administrator's election, and it shall be the duty of the judge of the court to require the public administrator to make a statement annually, under oath, of the amount of property in [his] the public administrator's hands or under [his] the public administrator's control as such administrator, for the purpose of ascertaining the amount of bond necessary to secure such property; and such court may from time to time, as occasion shall require, demand additional security of such administrator, and, in default of giving the same within twenty days after such demand, may remove the administrator and appoint another.

2. [In any county of the first classification with a charter form of government which contains all or part of a city with a population of three hundred fifty thousand or more inhabitants,] The public administrator in all counties, in the performance of the duties required by chapters 473, 474, RSMo, and 475, RSMo, is a public officer. The duties specified by section 475.120, RSMo, are discretionary. The county shall defend and indemnify the public administrator against any alleged breach of duty, provided that any such alleged breach of duty arose out of an act or omission occurring within the scope of duty or employment.

473.733. [His] The public administrator's certificate of election, official oath and bond shall be filed and recorded [in the office of the clerk of said court] with the probate clerk, and copies thereof, certified under the seal of such court, shall be evidence. Any person injured by the breach of such bond may sue upon the same in the name of the state for his own use.

473.739. 1. Each public administrator, except in counties of the first class with a charter form of government, who does not receive at least twenty-five thousand dollars in fees as otherwise allowed by law shall receive annual compensation of four thousand dollars and each such public administrator who does not receive at least [twenty-five] forty-five thousand dollars in fees may request the county salary commission for an increase in annual compensation and the county salary commission may authorize an additional increase in annual compensation not to exceed ten thousand dollars.

2. Two thousand dollars of the compensation authorized in this section shall be payable to the public administrator only if he has completed at least twenty hours of classroom instruction each calendar year relating to the operations of the public administrator's office when approved by a professional association of the county public administrators of Missouri unless exempted from the training by the professional association. The professional association approving the program shall provide a certificate of completion to each public administrator who completes the training program and shall send a list of certified public administrators to the treasurer of each county. Expenses incurred for attending the training session may be reimbursed to the county public administrator in the same manner as other expenses as may be appropriated for that purpose.

473.747. The public administrator shall be ex officio public conservator and shall have charge of all estates of minors that may, by the order of the court, be placed in [his] the public administrator's charge, and in such cases [he] the public administrator shall be known and designated as public conservator.

475.050. 1. Before appointing any other eligible person as guardian of an incapacitated person, or conservator of a disabled person, the court shall consider the suitability of appointing any of the following persons who appear to be willing to serve:

(1) If the incapacitated or disabled person is, at the time of the hearing, able to make and communicate a reasonable choice, any eligible person nominated by [him] the person;

(2) Any eligible person nominated in a durable power of attorney executed by the incapacitated or disabled person, or in an instrument in writing signed by the incapacitated or disabled person and by two witnesses who signed at [his] the incapacitated or disabled person's request, before the inception of [his] the person's incapacity or disability, at a time within five years before the hearing when [he] the person was able to make and communicate a reasonable choice;

(3) The spouse, parents, adult children, adult brothers and sisters and other close adult relatives of the incapacitated or disabled person;

(4) Any other eligible person or, with respect to the estate only, any eligible organization or corporation, nominated in a duly probated will of such a spouse or relative executed within five years before the hearing.

2. Except for good cause shown, the court shall make its appointment in accordance with the incapacitated or disabled person's most recent valid nomination of an eligible person qualified to serve as guardian of the person or conservator of the estate. In the event there is not brought to the attention of the court any such valid nomination executed within five years before the hearing, then the court shall give consideration to the most recent valid nomination brought to its attention, but the court shall not be required to follow such nomination.

476.405. 1. Within the limits of any appropriation made for this purpose, the salary fixed by sections 211.381, 211.393, 477.130, 478.013, 478.018, 483.083, 483.163, and 485.060, RSMo, may be adjusted in any one year by a salary adjustment. The salary adjustment shall not exceed the salary adjustment for the executive department contained in the pay plan applicable to other state employees at a similar salary level for that fiscal year. If no salary adjustment or a lower salary adjustment is granted pursuant to this section than is granted the executive department in any year, then the salary adjustment granted pursuant to this section in the next fiscal year may exceed the salary adjustment of the executive department by the amount of the difference in the prior year.

2. The amount of a salary adjustment to be approved pursuant to this section shall be stated in a separate line item of the appropriation bill. A salary adjustment approved pursuant to this section shall be added to the statutory salary and the sum of these amounts shall be the statutory salary of the office for all purposes. This statutory salary shall be included in the appropriation bill in the same manner as any other personal service appropriation involving a statutory salary.

3. The office of administration shall maintain a compensation schedule for each fiscal year indicating the highest statutory salary paid for each office specified in sections 211.381, 211.393, 477.130, 478.013, 478.018, 483.083, 483.163, and 485.060, RSMo, and the salary adjustment contained in the pay plan applicable to other state employees generally. The schedule shall be open for public inspection and shall be annually included in the Missouri Register and an appendix to the Revised Statutes of Missouri. For each office for which a salary adjustment is approved pursuant to this section, the revisor of statutes shall place a revisor's note following each section providing compensation for the office referencing the reader to the compensation index.

483.163. 1. Each circuit clerk, except the circuit clerk in any city not within a county, shall cooperate with the prosecuting attorney and division of child support enforcement in the investigation and documentation of possible criminal nonsupport under section 568.040, RSMo, which involves any case or cases for which the clerk is trustee.

2. Other provisions of law to the contrary notwithstanding, for the performance of the duties prescribed in subsection 1 of this section, each circuit clerk, except the circuit clerk in any city not within a county, in addition to any other compensation provided by law, shall receive five thousand dollars per year beginning January 1, 1997. Such compensation shall be payable in equal installments in the same manner and at the same time as other compensation is paid to the circuit clerk.

3. For every year beginning July 1, 1998, the amount of increased compensation established in subsection 2 of this section shall be adjusted by any salary adjustment authorized under section 476.405, RSMo.