5.5. SR 03-24-2003 - Laserfiche WebLink

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tlar 14 Z003 16:01:51 Via Fax -> ?63441?425 fldministrator Page fl03 0£ 004 - Frid ay Fax - A weekly legislative update from the League of Minnesota Citi~ Data Practices: SF 317 (Marry), which would have required cities [o participate and pay the costs of extensive administrative law hearings to resolve data practices complaints, has been successfully altered to provide only that in determining the award of reasonable attorney fees, the court shall consider whether the responsible authority (for a city or other government entity) that is a defendant in an action under Chapter 13 is the subject of a written opinion and did not act in conformity with that opinion. SF 316 is now before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Representative Borrell is the author of the House companion (HF 565), which has not yet been heard in committee. Transportation: SF 825 (Rest, Belanger, Langseth, Marko, McGinn), introduced this past week, would give cities authority to impose fees for street maintenance and reconstruction and allow use of trip generation data to establish the program, which could also help meet the costs for upgrades to traffic facilities such as signals and turn lanes. Representative Beard (Dist. 35A-Shakopee) will author the companion bill in the House. Wine in grocery stores: S.F. 914 (Scheid, Kelley, Larson, Dibble, Kierlin) would require cities to issue an off-sale wine license to a supermarket located within the city. Word is a hearing will occur in the Senate before the first deadline of 4/4/03. The issue will go before the members of the Senate Commerce & Utilities committee. The House bill will be introduced soon and through Regulated Industries. Sales of tobacco to minors: HF 561 (Gerlach) sets up an administrative penalty structure at the state level to deal with businesses who sell tobacco products to minors. Once this bill went into effect, it For March 14~ 2003 Page 3 would take away a city's authority to impose harsher penalties to violators. The bill also requires sellers of tobacco to use electronic age verification equipment to check a buyer's identification. Local Impact Notes: HF 624 (Seifert) requires the commissioner of finance to prepare a local government fiscal impact note on an agency rule, if a governing body of a city, township, county, school district or sanitary district makes a request by a resolution. The House Governmental Operations & Veterans Affairs Policy committee amended the bill to prohibit rules from taking effect until approved by law if the cost of complying with proposed rules for a person or entity is more than $10,000 per year. Current law allows the chair or ranking minority member of a tax committee to request a local fiscal impact note on a bill or agency rules. Various organizations representing local units of government are supporting this bill as a way to identify the costs of implementation before administrative rules are adopted. On Wednesday, the House Governmental Operations & Veterans Affairs Policy committee passed an amended version of HF 624 and re-referred the bill to the State Government Finance committee. The Senate has not yet introduced a companion bill. ° Municipal bid protest attorney fees: SF 414 (Bakk) authorizes the courts to award attorney fees, in addition to the costs of preparing an unsuccessful bid, to unsuccessful bidders in actions challenging the validity of municipal contracts under the uniform municipal contracting law. The Associated General Contractors of Minnesota is advancing this change in law to help defray the cost of protesting a municipal contract when an unsuccessful bidder believes that a municipality has more informalion on ,-ily legi$1alive issues, conlacl any member of Ihe League of Minne$ola Cilie$ laler~ovcrnmenlal Relalion$ learn. 651,281,1200 or 800,925,1122