To amend sections 148.04, 148.06, 305.11, 504.11, 505.375, 505.391, 505.94, 515.01, and 5705.10 and to enact section 504.021 of the Revised Code to make changes in various laws pertaining to townships, to permit written distribution of records, in lieu of reading the previous proceedings' record, at a session of the board of county commissioners, and to permit townships and municipal corporations to directly form fire and ambulance districts.

Section 1. That sections 148.04, 148.06, 305.11, 504.11, 505.375, 505.391, 505.94, 515.01, and 5705.10 be amended and section 504.021 of the Revised Code be enacted to read as follows:

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. 305.11.  Immediately upon the opening of each day's session of the board of county commissioners, the records of the proceedings of the session of the previous day shall be read, or provided to each commissioner in written form, by the clerk of the board, and, if correct, approved and signed by the commissioners. When the board is not in session, the record of proceedings shall be kept in the county auditor's office or, if the county has a full-time clerk, in the county commissioners' office, open at all proper times to public inspection. It shall be certified by the president and clerk of the board, and shall be received as evidence in every court in the state.

Sec. 504.021. As used in this chapter, except for its use in sections 504.01 and 504.02 of the Revised Code, a "board of township trustees" means only a board of township trustees of a township that adopts a limited home rule government under this chapter.

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. 505.375.  (A) The (1)(a) The boards of township trustees of one or more townships and the legislative authorities of one or more municipal corporations, or the legislative authorities of two or more municipal corporations, or the boards of township trustees of two or more townships, may negotiate an agreement to form a fire and ambulance district for the delivery of both fire and ambulance services. The agreement shall be ratified by the adoption of a joint resolution by a majority of the members of each board of township trustees involved and a majority of the members of the legislative authority of each municipal corporation involved. The joint resolution shall specify a date on which the fire and ambulance district shall come into being.

(b) If a joint fire district created under section 505.371 of the Revised Code or a joint ambulance district created under section 505.71 of the Revised Code is dissolved to facilitate the creation of a fire and ambulance district under division (A)(1)(a) of this section, the townships and municipal corporations forming the fire and ambulance district may transfer to the fire and ambulance district any of the funds on hand, moneys and taxes in the process of collection, credits, and real and personal property apportioned to them under division (D) of section 505.371 of the Revised Code or section 505.71 of the Revised Code, as applicable, for use by the fire and ambulance district in accordance with this section.

(2)(a) The board of trustees of a joint ambulance district created under section 505.71 of the Revised Code and the board of fire district trustees of a joint fire district created under section 505.371 of the Revised Code may negotiate in accordance with this section to combine their two joint districts into a single district, called a fire and ambulance district, for the delivery of both fire and ambulance services, if the geographic area covered by the combining joint districts is exactly the same. Both boards shall adopt a joint resolution ratifying the agreement and setting a date on which the fire and ambulance district shall come into being. On

(b) On that date, the joint fire district and the joint ambulance district shall cease to exist, and the power of each to levy a tax upon taxable property shall terminate, except that any levy of a tax for the payment of indebtedness within the territory of the joint fire or joint ambulance district as it was composed at the time the indebtedness was incurred shall continue to be collected by the successor fire and ambulance district if the indebtedness remains unpaid. All

All funds and other property of the joint districts that combined into the fire and ambulance district shall become the property of the fire and ambulance district, unless otherwise provided in the negotiated agreement. The agreement shall provide for the settlement of all debts and obligations of the joint districts.

(B)(1) The governing body of the a fire and ambulance district created under division (A)(1) or (2) of this section shall be a board of trustees of at least three but no more than nine members, appointed as provided in the agreement creating the district. Members of the board of trustees may be compensated at a rate not to exceed thirty dollars per meeting for not more than fifteen meetings per year, and may be reimbursed for all necessary expenses incurred, as provided in the agreement creating the district.

(2) The board shall employ a clerk and other employees as it considers best, including a fire chief or fire prevention officers, and shall fix their compensation. Neither this section nor any other section of the Revised Code requires, or shall be construed to require, that the fire chief of a fire and ambulance district be a resident of the district.

Before entering upon the duties of office, the clerk shall execute a bond, in the amount and with surety to be approved by the board, payable to the state, conditioned for the faithful performance of all of the clerk's official duties. The clerk shall deposit the bond with the presiding officer of the board, who shall file a copy of it, certified by the presiding officer, with the county auditor of the county containing the most territory in the district.

The board also shall also provide for the appointment of a fiscal officer for the district. The board and may also enter into agreements with volunteer fire companies for the use and operation of fire-fighting equipment. Volunteer firefighters acting under such an agreement are subject to the requirements for volunteer firefighters set forth in division (A) of section 505.38 of the Revised Code.

(3) Employees of the district shall not be removed from office except as provided by sections 733.35 to 733.39 of the Revised Code, except that, to initiate removal proceedings, the board shall designate a private citizen or, if the employee is employed as a firefighter, the board may designate the fire chief, to investigate, conduct the proceedings, and prepare the necessary charges in conformity with those sections 733.35 to 733.39 of the Revised Code, and except that the board shall perform the functions and duties specified for the municipal legislative authority under those sections. The board may pay reasonable compensation to any private citizen hired for services rendered in the matter.

(4) No person shall be appointed as a permanent full-time paid member of the district whose duties include fire fighting, or be appointed as a volunteer firefighter, unless that person has received a certificate issued under former section 3303.07 or section 4765.55 of the Revised Code evidencing satisfactory completion of a firefighter training program. The board may send its officers and firefighters to schools of instruction designed to promote the efficiency of firefighters and, if authorized in advance, may pay their necessary expenses from the funds used for the maintenance and operation of the district.

The board may choose, by adoption of an appropriate resolution, to have the Ohio medical transportation board license any emergency medical service organization it operates. If the board adopts such a resolution, Chapter 4766. of the Revised Code, except for sections 4766.06 and 4766.99 of the Revised Code, applies to the organization. All rules adopted under the applicable sections of that chapter also apply to the organization. The board may likewise remove, by resolution, remove its emergency medical service organization from the jurisdiction of the Ohio medical transportation board.

(C) The board of trustees of a fire and ambulance district created under division (A)(1) or (2) of this section may exercise the following powers:

(1) Purchase or otherwise provide any fire apparatus, mechanical resuscitators, or other fire or ambulance equipment, appliances, or materials; fire hydrants; and water supply for fire-fighting firefighting purposes that seems advisable to the board;

(2) Provide for the care and maintenance of equipment and, for that purpose, purchase, lease, lease with an option to purchase, or construct and maintain necessary buildings;

(3) Establish and maintain lines of fire-alarm communications within the limits of the district;

(4) Appropriate land for a fire station or medical emergency unit needed in order to respond in reasonable time to a fire or medical emergency, in accordance with Chapter 163. of the Revised Code;

(5) Purchase, appropriate, or accept a deed or gift of land to enlarge or improve a fire station or medical emergency unit;

(6) Purchase, lease, lease with an option to purchase, maintain, and use all materials, equipment, vehicles, buildings, and land necessary to perform its duties;

(7) Contract for a period not to exceed three years with one or more townships, municipal corporations, counties, joint fire districts, joint ambulance districts, governmental agencies, nonprofit corporations, or private ambulance owners located either within or outside the state, to furnish or receive ambulance services or emergency medical services within the several territories of the contracting parties, if the contract is first authorized by all boards of trustees and legislative authorities concerned;

(8) Establish reasonable charges for the use of ambulance or emergency medical services under the same conditions under which a board of fire district trustees may establish those charges under section 505.371 of the Revised Code;

(9) Establish all necessary rules to guard against the occurrence of fires and to protect property and lives against damage and accidents;

(10) Adopt a standard code pertaining to fire, fire hazards, and fire prevention prepared and promulgated by the state or by a public or private organization that publishes a model or standard code;

(11) Provide for charges for false alarms at commercial establishments in the same manner as joint fire districts are authorized to do under section 505.391 of the Revised Code;

(12) Issue bonds and other evidences of indebtedness, subject to Chapter 133. of the Revised Code, but only after approval by a vote of the electors of the district as provided by section 133.18 of the Revised Code;

(13) To provide the services and equipment it considers necessary, levy a sufficient tax, subject to Chapter 5705. of the Revised Code, on all the taxable property in the district.

(D) Any municipal corporation or township may join an existing fire and ambulance district, whether created under division (A)(1) or (2) of this section, by its legislative authority's adoption of a resolution requesting the membership and upon approval of the board of trustees of the district. Any municipal corporation or township may withdraw from a district, whether created under division (A)(1) or (2) of this section, by its legislative authority's adoption of a resolution ordering withdrawal. Upon its withdrawal, the municipal corporation or township ceases to be a part of the district, and the district's power to levy a tax on taxable property in the withdrawing township or municipal corporation terminates, except that the district shall continue to levy and collect taxes for the payment of indebtedness within the territory of the district as it was composed at the time the indebtedness was incurred.

Upon the withdrawal of any township or municipal corporation from a district, the county auditor of the county containing the most territory in the district shall ascertain, apportion, and order a division of the funds on hand, including funds in the ambulance and emergency medical services fund, moneys and taxes in the process of collection, except for taxes levied for the payment of indebtedness, credits, and real and personal property on the basis of the valuation of the respective tax duplicates of the withdrawing municipal corporation or township and the remaining territory of the district.

(E) As used in this section:

(1) "Governmental agency" includes all departments, boards, offices, commissions, agencies, colleges, universities, institutions, and other instrumentalities of this or another state.

(2) "Emergency medical service organization" has the same meaning as in section 4766.01 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 twenty 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. 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) A township that has a population greater than fifteen 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:

(1) 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. The fiscal officer shall provide written certification of this determination for the township's records.

(2) The permanent improvement being sold was financed entirely from moneys in the township's 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 148.04, 148.06, 305.11, 504.11, 505.375, 505.391, 505.94, 515.01, and 5705.10 of the Revised Code are hereby repealed.