Local Government – Week of Feb. 15, 2010

STAFF CONTACT:  Kerry Wright

SF 2199 – Requiring manufactured home retailers to carry out title application

SF 2210 – Landlord eviction and domestic abuse victims

SF 2232 – City council minutes published

SF 2264 – Condominium and subdivision definition

SF 2254 – County treasurer assessments

SF 2224 – Condominium notices/minutes

SF 2329– ICN expansion study & advisory committee

SF 2350 – Civil service conflict of interest

FLOOR ACTION:

SF 2199 requires manufactured home retailers to carry out the title application process. It enables the retailer to make sure the use tax is being collected and remitted to the county treasurer of the county where the home is located. Current law does not require the retailer to perform these duties, even though it is the practice in most cases. This bill helps the consumer refinance with a lower interest rate without a problem. The floor amendment added will set up a system to help those Iowa consumers who have the problem of owning a manufactured home on real property and who desire to refinance their home but can’t do so because there was never a title issued for the home. The Iowa Department of Transportation will create a title record so that the secondary financial market can be assured that the proper search was done and that there is no title that might cloud the issue and prevent the new mortgage from being sold on the secondary market. [2/15: 45-0 (Absent: Dandekar, McCoy, Wieck, Ward, Warnstadt)]

SF 2224 provides a new requirement for bylaws that govern condominiums. Bylaws must allow board meetings to be open to all apartments if there is a board of directors. Notices of meetings must be mailed 48 hours in advance. Minutes must be maintained and printed within a reasonable time. The board records must be open to inspection. [2/16: 48-0 (Absent: Johnson, Ward)]

SF 2254 amends the Iowa Code to require county treasurers to collect fines assessed from fence disputes and not the county auditor. The bill also requires water district liens to be collected by the county treasurer and bonds to be collected by the county auditor. [2/16: 48-0 (Absent: Johnson, Ward)]

SF 2264 closes a loophole in Iowa law. Currently, an individual subdivision in Iowa is classified as a condominium. This bill would undo the condominium classification and correctly label it a subdivision. [2/16:42-6 (Absent: Johnson, Ward)]

FLOOR & COMMITTEE ACTION:

SF 2350 strikes language and modifies current law to allow individuals with an interest in contracts with a city to service on the Civil Service Commission so long as the contract was awarded under a competitive bidding process. [2/11: short form; 2/17: 47-0 (Absent: Horn, McCoy, Ward)]

COMMITTEE ACTION:

SF 2210 prohibits cities and counties from enacting/enforcing ordinances requiring landlords to impose restrictions on a tenant’s ability to request help from police or evict a tenant as a result of being a victim of domestic abuse. [2/11: short form]

SF 2232 requires city councils and county boards of supervisors minutes republished within one week if they are amended. The new legislation also requires additional information to be published with dates, location, start time, end time, names of members attending and absent, plus all action taken. [2/11: short form]

SF 2329 creates an expansion study and an advisory committee of the Iowa Communications Network (ICN). [2/11: short form]