To amend sections 7.12, 148.04, 148.06, 504.11, 505.391, 505.94, 515.01, 515.07, and 5705.10 and to enact sections 504.23 and 517.16 of the Revised Code to eliminate the requirement for a second class mailing privilege for newspapers of general circulation used for legal publications, to make changes to the law authorizing a charge for certain multiple false fire alarms in townships, to increase the maximum registration fee for transient vendors in townships, to allow emergency resolutions to take immediate effect in limited home rule townships, to eliminate the ten-year duration limit and the competitive bidding requirements for township lighting contracts, to authorize boards of township trustees to sell cemetery-related items to raise revenue for the care and maintenance of township cemeteries, to authorize urban townships to adopt a general parking authorization plan for subdivision entrances and certain township cul de sac streets, to remove the limitation on the number of additional deferred compensation programs townships may offer to township officers or employees, and to authorize a township to pay the proceeds from the sale of a permanent improvement into the township's general fund under certain circumstances.

Section 1. That sections 7.12, 148.04, 148.06, 504.11, 505.391, 505.94, 515.01, 515.07, and 5705.10 be amended and sections 504.23 and 517.16 of the Revised Code be enacted to read as follows:

Sec. 7.12.  Whenever any legal publication is required by law to be made in a newspaper published in a municipal corporation, county, or other political subdivision, the newspaper shall also be a newspaper of general circulation in the municipal corporation, county, or other political subdivision, without further restriction or limitation upon a selection of the newspaper to be used. If no newspaper is published in such a municipal corporation, county, or other political subdivision, such the legal publication shall be made in any newspaper of general circulation therein in the municipal corporation, county, or other political subdivision. If there are less than two newspapers published in any municipal corporation, county, or other political subdivision in the manner defined by this section, then any legal publication required by law to be made in a newspaper published in a municipal corporation, county, or other political subdivision may be made in any newspaper regularly issued at stated intervals from a known office of publication located within the municipal corporation, county, or other political subdivision. As used in this section, a "known office of publication" is a public office where the business of the newspaper is transacted during the usual business hours, and such that office shall be shown by the publication itself.

In addition to all other requirements, a newspaper or newspaper of general circulation, except those publications performing the functions described in section 2701.09 of the Revised Code for a period of one year immediately preceding any such publication required to be made, shall be a publication bearing a title or name, regularly issued as frequently as once a week for a definite price or consideration paid for by not less than fifty per cent of those to whom distribution is made, having a second class mailing privilege, being not less than four pages, published continuously during the immediately preceding one-year period, and circulated generally in the political subdivision in which it is published. Such The publication must be of a type to which the general public resorts for passing events of a political, religious, commercial, and social nature, current happenings, announcements, miscellaneous reading matter, advertisements, and other notices.

Sec. 148.04.  (A) The Ohio public employees deferred compensation board shall initiate, plan, expedite, and, subject to an appropriate assurance of the approval of the internal revenue service, promulgate and offer to all eligible employees, and thereafter administer on behalf of all participating employees and continuing members, and alter as required, a program for deferral of compensation, including a reasonable number of options to the employee for the investment of deferred funds, including life insurance, annuities, variable annuities, pooled investment funds managed by the board, or other forms of investment approved by the board, always in such form as will assure the desired tax treatment of such funds. The members of the Ohio public employees deferred compensation board are the trustees of any deferred funds and shall discharge their duties with respect to the funds solely in the interest of and for the exclusive benefit of participating employees, continuing members, and their beneficiaries. With respect to such deferred funds, section 148.09 of the Revised Code shall apply to claims against participating employees or continuing members and their employers.

(B) Every employer of an eligible employee shall contract with such the employee upon the employee's application for participation in a deferred compensation program offered by the board. Every retirement system serving an eligible employee shall serve as collection agent for compensation deferred by any of its members and account for and deliver such sums to the board.

(C) The board shall, subject to any applicable contract provisions, undertake to obtain as favorable conditions of tax treatment as possible, both in the initial programs and any permitted alterations thereof of them or additions thereto to them, as to such matters as terms of distribution, designation of beneficiaries, withdrawal upon disability, financial hardship, or termination of public employment, and other optional provisions.

(D) In no event shall the total of the amount of deferred compensation to be set aside under a deferred compensation program and the employee's nondeferred income for any year exceed the total annual salary or compensation under the existing salary schedule or classification plan applicable to such the employee in such that year.

Such a deferred compensation program shall be in addition to any retirement or any other benefit program provided by law for employees of this state. The board shall adopt rules pursuant to Chapter 119. of the Revised Code to provide any necessary standards or conditions for the administration of its programs, including any limits on the portion of a participating employee's compensation that may be deferred in order to avoid adverse treatment of the program by the internal revenue service or the occurrence of deferral, withholding, or other deductions in excess of the compensation available for any pay period.

Any income deferred under such a plan shall continue to be included as regular compensation for the purpose of computing the contributions to and benefits from the retirement system of such employee. Any sum so deferred shall not be included in the computation of any federal and state income taxes withheld on behalf of any such employee.

(E) This section does not limit the authority of any municipal corporation, county, township, park district, conservancy district, sanitary district, health district, public library, county law library, public institution of higher education, or school district to provide separate authorized plans or programs for deferring compensation of their officers and employees in addition to the program for the deferral of compensation offered by the board. Any municipal corporation, township, public institution of higher education, or school district that offers such plans or programs shall include a reasonable number of options to its officers or employees for the investment of the deferred funds, including annuities, variable annuities, regulated investment trusts, or other forms of investment approved by the municipal corporation, township, public institution of higher education, or school district, that will assure the desired tax treatment of the funds.

Sec. 148.06.  As used in this section:

(A) "Government unit" means a county, township, park district of any kind, conservancy district, sanitary district, health district, public library district, or county law library.

(B) "Governing board" means, in the case of the county, the board of county commissioners; in the case of a township, the board of township trustees; in the case of a park district, the board of park commissioners; in the case of a conservancy district, the district's board of directors; in the case of a sanitary district, the district's board of directors; in the case of a health district, the board of health; in the case of a public library district, the board of library trustees; and in the case of a county law library, the board of trustees of the law library association.

In addition to the program of deferred compensation that may be offered under this chapter, a governing board may offer to all of the officers and employees of the government unit not to exceed two additional programs for deferral of compensation designed for favorable tax treatment of the compensation so deferred. Any such program shall include a reasonable number of options to the officer or employee for the investment of the deferred funds, including annuities, variable annuities, regulated investment trusts, or other forms of investment approved by the governing board, that will assure the desired tax treatment of the funds.

Any income deferred under such a plan shall continue to be included as regular compensation for the purpose of computing the contributions to and benefits from the officer's or employee's retirement system but shall not be included in the computation of any federal and state income taxes withheld on behalf of any such employee.

Sec. 504.11.  (A) The vote on the question of passage of a resolution provided for in section 504.10 of the Revised Code or a motion related to that resolution shall be taken by yeas and nays and entered on the journal, and the resolution or motion shall not be passed without concurrence of a majority of all members of the board of township trustees, except that each emergency resolution under that section shall require the affirmative vote of all of the members of the board for its enactment. If an emergency resolution fails to receive the required vote for passage as an emergency measure but receives the necessary majority for passage as a nonemergency resolution, it shall be considered passed as a nonemergency resolution. Except as otherwise provided in division (B) of this section, a resolution shall become effective thirty days after it is filed with the township fiscal officer. Each emergency resolution shall determine that the resolution is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety, or welfare and shall contain a statement of the necessity for the emergency. Each resolution shall be authenticated by the signature of the township fiscal officer, but the failure or refusal of the fiscal officer to sign a resolution shall not invalidate an otherwise properly enacted resolution.

(B) Each resolution appropriating money, submitting a question to the electorate, determining to proceed with an election, or providing for the approval of a revision, codification, recodification, or rearrangement of resolutions, or publication of resolutions in book form, and any emergency resolution, shall take effect, unless a later time is specified in the resolution, ten days after it is filed with the township fiscal officer. Emergency resolutions shall take effect immediately.

(C) Each resolution shall be recorded in a book, or other record prescribed by the board, established and maintained for that purpose. The township fiscal officer or a duly authorized deputy to the fiscal officer shall, upon the request of any person and upon the payment of a fee established by the board, certify true copies of any resolution, and these certified copies shall be admissible as evidence in any court.

(D) The procedures provided in this section apply only to resolutions adopted pursuant to a township's limited home rule powers as authorized by this chapter.

Sec. 504.23. (A) The board of township trustees of an urban township that adopts a limited home rule government may adopt a general parking authorization plan for subdivision entrances and township cul de sac streets that do not exceed one thousand five hundred feet in length. All regulations and orders arising from such a parking authorization plan shall be posted by the township fiscal officer in at least five conspicuous public places in the township for thirty days before becoming effective, and shall be published in a newspaper of general circulation in the township for three consecutive weeks. In addition to these requirements, no regulations and orders arising from such a parking authorization plan shall become effective until permanent signs giving notice of the applicable parking limitations or prohibitions are properly posted, in accordance with any applicable standards adopted by the department of transportation, at subdivision entrances or at the beginning of any township cul de sac street that does not exceed one thousand five hundred feet in length.

(B) As used in this section, "urban township" has the same meaning as in section 504.01 of the Revised Code.

Sec. 505.391.  (A) If, after the fire department of a township, township fire district, or joint fire district, or a private fire company with which the fire department of a township, township fire district, or joint fire district contracts for fire protection, responds to a false alarm from an automatic fire alarm system at a commercial establishment or residential building, the board of township trustees gives written notice by certified mail that it may assess a charge of up to three hundred dollars for each subsequent false alarm within a period of thirty days occurring after any three false alarm alarms by that system within the same calendar year, the board of township trustees may assess that charge. This notice shall be mailed to the owner and the lessee, if any, of the building in which the system is installed. After the board gives this notice, the board need not give any additional written notices before assessing a charge for a false alarm as provided by this section. If not paid within sixty days after the owner or lessee receives a written notice by certified mail that a charge has been assessed, the charge shall be entered upon the real property tax list and tax duplicate, shall be a lien upon the property served, and shall be collected as other taxes. Charges collected under this section shall be returned to the township general fund.

As (B) If payment of the bill assessing a charge for a false alarm is not received within thirty days, the township fiscal officer shall send a notice by certified mail to the manager and to the owner, if different, of the real estate of which the commercial establishment is a part, or to the occupant, lessee, agent, or tenant and to the owner, if different, of the real estate of which the residential building is a part, indicating that failure to pay the bill within thirty days, or to show just cause why the bill should not be paid within thirty days, will result in the assessment of a lien upon the real estate in the amount of the bill. If payment is not received or just cause for nonpayment is not shown within those thirty days, the amount of the bill shall be entered upon the tax duplicate, shall be a lien upon the real estate from the date of the entry, and shall be collected as other taxes and returned to the township treasury to be earmarked for use for fire services.

(C) As used in this section, "commercial establishment" means a building or buildings in an area used primarily for nonresidential, commercial purposes.

Sec. 505.94.  (A) A board of township trustees may, by resolution, require the registration of all transient vendors within the unincorporated territory of the township and may regulate the time, place, and manner in which these vendors may sell, offer for sale, or solicit orders for future delivery of goods, or the board may, by resolution, prohibit these activities within that territory. If the board requires the registration of all transient vendors, it may establish a reasonable registration fee, not to exceed seventy-five one hundred fifty dollars for a registration period, and this registration shall be valid for a period of at least ninety days after the date of registration. Any board of township trustees that provides for the registration and regulation, or prohibition, of transient vendors under this section shall notify the prosecuting attorney of the county in which the township is located of its registration and regulatory requirements or prohibition. No transient vendor shall fail to register or to comply with regulations or prohibitions established by a board of township trustees under this division.

This division does not authorize a board of township trustees to apply a resolution it adopts under this division to any person invited by an owner or tenant to visit the owner's or tenant's premises to sell, offer for sale, or solicit orders for future delivery of goods.

(B) As used in this section:

(1) "Goods" means goods, wares, services, merchandise, periodicals, and other articles or publications.

(2) "Transient vendor" means any person who opens a temporary place of business for the sale of goods or who, on the streets or while traveling about the township, either sells or offers for sale goods, or solicits orders for future delivery of goods where payment is required prior to the delivery of the goods. "Transient vendor" does not include any person who represents any entity exempted from taxation under section 5709.04 of the Revised Code, that notifies the board of township trustees that its representatives are present in the township for the purpose of either selling or offering for sale goods, or soliciting orders for future delivery of goods, and does not include a person licensed under Chapter 4707. of the Revised Code.

Sec. 515.01.  The board of township trustees may provide artificial lights for any road, highway, public place, or building under its supervision or control, or for any territory within the township and outside the boundaries of any municipal corporation, when the board determines that the public safety or welfare requires that the road, highway, public place, building, or territory shall be lighted. The lighting may be procured either by the township installing a lighting system or by contracting with any person or corporation to furnish lights.

If lights are furnished under contract, the contract may provide that the equipment employed may be owned by the township or by the person or corporation supplying it the lights.

If the board determines to procure lighting by contract and the total estimated cost of the contract exceeds twenty-five thousand dollars, the board shall prepare plans and specifications for the lighting equipment and shall, for two weeks, advertise for bids for furnishing the lighting equipment, either by posting the advertisement in three conspicuous places in the township or by publication of the advertisement once a week, for two consecutive weeks, in a newspaper of general circulation in the township. Any such contract for lighting shall be made with the lowest and best bidder.

No lighting contract awarded by the board shall be made to cover a period of more than ten years. The cost of installing and operating any lighting system or any light furnished under contract shall be paid from the general fund of the township treasury.

Sec. 515.07.  If the total estimated cost of any Any contract for a lighting improvement provided for in section 515.06 of the Revised Code is twenty-five thousand dollars or less, the contract may be let without competitive bidding. When If competitive bidding is required used, however, the board of township trustees shall post, in three of the most conspicuous public places in the lighting district, a notice specifying the number, candle power, and location of lights and the kind of supports for the lights as provided by section 515.06 of the Revised Code, as well as the time, which shall not be less than thirty days from the posting of the notices, and the place the board will receive bids to furnish the lights. The board, when using competitive bidding, shall accept the lowest and best bid, if the successful bidder meets the requirements of section 153.54 of the Revised Code. The, but the board may reject all bids.

Sec. 517.16. A board of township trustees may sell cemetery-related items. All revenue received from their sale shall be used to provide for the care and maintenance of any township cemetery in that township, in the manner approved by the board.

As used in this section, "cemetery-related items" include, but are not limited to, monuments, vaults, outer burial containers, markers, and urns, but exclude burial lots.

Sec. 5705.10. (A) All revenue derived from the general levy for current expense within the ten-mill limitation, from any general levy for current expense authorized by vote in excess of the ten-mill limitation, and from sources other than the general property tax, unless its use for a particular purpose is prescribed by law, shall be paid into the general fund.

(B) All revenue derived from general or special levies for debt charges, whether within or in excess of the ten-mill limitation, which is levied for the debt charges on serial bonds, notes, or certificates of indebtedness having a life less than five years, shall be paid into the bond retirement fund; and all such revenue which is levied for the debt charges on all other bonds, notes, or certificates of indebtedness shall be paid into the sinking fund.

(C) All revenue derived from a special levy shall be credited to a special fund for the purpose for which the levy was made.

(D) Except as otherwise provided by resolution adopted pursuant to section 3315.01 of the Revised Code, all revenue derived from a source other than the general property tax and which the law prescribes shall be used for a particular purpose, shall be paid into a special fund for such purpose. Except as otherwise provided by resolution adopted pursuant to section 3315.01 of the Revised Code or as otherwise provided by section 3315.40 of the Revised Code, all revenue derived from a source other than the general property tax, for which the law does not prescribe use for a particular purpose, including interest earned on the principal of any special fund, regardless of the source or purpose of the principal, shall be paid into the general fund.

(E) All proceeds from the sale of public obligations or fractionalized interests in public obligations as defined in section 133.01 of the Revised Code, except premium and accrued interest, shall be paid into a special fund for the purpose of such issue, and any interest and other income earned on money in such special fund may be used for the purposes for which the indebtedness was authorized or may be credited to the general fund or other fund or account as the taxing authority authorizes and used for the purposes of that fund or account. The premium and accrued interest received from such sale shall be paid into the sinking fund or the bond retirement fund of the subdivision.

If (F) Except as provided in division (G) of this section, if a permanent improvement of the subdivision is sold, the amount received from the sale shall be paid into the sinking fund, the bond retirement fund, or into a special fund for the construction or acquisition of permanent improvements; provided that the proceeds from the sale of a public utility shall be paid into the sinking fund or bond retirement fund to the extent necessary to provide for the retirement of the outstanding indebtedness incurred in the construction or acquisition of such utility. Proceeds from the sale of property other than a permanent improvement shall be paid into the fund from which such property was acquired or is maintained, or, if there is no such fund, into the general fund.

(G)(1) A township that has a population greater than twenty thousand according to the most recent federal decennial census and that has declared one or more improvements in the township to be a public purpose under section 5709.73 of the Revised Code may pay proceeds from the sale of a permanent improvement of the township into its general fund if both of the following conditions are satisfied:

(a) The township fiscal officer determines that all foreseeable public infrastructure improvements, as defined in section 5709.40 of the Revised Code, to be made in the township in the ten years immediately following the date the permanent improvement is sold will have been financed through resolutions adopted under section 5709.73 of the Revised Code on or before the date of the sale.

(b) The permanent improvement being sold was financed entirely from moneys in the township's general fund.

(2) The determination of the township fiscal officer under division (G)(1)(a) of this section shall be made in writing and shall be certified to the tax commissioner before any of the proceeds from the sale of a permanent improvement are paid into the general fund.

(H) Money paid into any fund shall be used only for the purposes for which such fund is established.

Section 2. That existing sections 7.12, 148.04, 148.06, 504.11, 505.391, 505.94, 515.01, 515.07, and 5705.10 of the Revised Code are hereby repealed.