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Sub. H. B. No. 449 As Reported by the House Veterans Affairs CommitteeAs Reported by the House Veterans Affairs Committee
128th General Assembly | Regular Session | 2009-2010 |
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Cosponsors:
Representatives Yuko, Goyal
A BILL
To amend sections 2108.72, 2108.73, 5902.02, and
5923.05 of the Revised Code to allow a DD Form 93,
Record of Emergency Data, to satisfy the written
declaration requirements for designating a person
authorized to direct disposition of human remains,
to modify the membership of the Veterans Advisory
Committee, and to provide publicly employed
firefighters and emergency medical technicians
with a minimum paid military leave of seventeen
24-hour days.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO:
Section 1. That sections 2108.72, 2108.73, 5902.02, and
5923.05 of the Revised Code be amended to read as follows:
Sec. 2108.72. (A) The written declaration described in
section 2108.70 of the Revised Code shall include all of the
following:
(1) The declarant's legal name and present address;
(2) A statement that the declarant, an adult being of sound
mind, willfully and voluntarily appoints a representative to have
the declarant's right of disposition for the declarant's body upon
the declarant's death;
(3) A statement that all decisions made by the declarant's
representative with respect to the right of disposition are
binding;
(4) The name, last known address, and last known telephone
number of the representative or, if the representative is a group
of persons, the name, last known address, and last known telephone
number of each person in the group;
(5) If the declarant chooses to have a successor
representative, a statement that if any person or group of persons
named as the declarant's representative is disqualified from
serving in such position as described in section 2108.75 of the
Revised Code, the declarant appoints a successor representative;
(6) If applicable, the name, last known address, and last
known telephone number of the successor representative or, if the
successor representative is a group of persons, the name, last
known address, and last known telephone number of each person in
the group;
(7) A space where the declarant may indicate the declarant's
preferences regarding how the right of disposition should be
exercised, including any religious observances the declarant
wishes the person with the right of disposition to consider;
(8) A space where the declarant may indicate one or more
sources of funds that may be used to pay for goods and services
associated with the exercise of the right of disposition;
(9) A statement that the declarant's written declaration
becomes effective on the declarant's death;
(10) A statement that the declarant revokes any written
declaration that the declarant executed, in accordance with
section 2108.70 of the Revised Code, prior to the execution of the
present written declaration.;
(11) A space where the declarant can sign and date the
written declaration;
(12) A space where a notary public or two witnesses can sign
and date the written declaration as described in section 2108.73
of the Revised Code.
(B) A written declaration may take the following form:
APPOINTMENT OF REPRESENTATIVE FOR DISPOSITION OF BODILY
REMAINS, FUNERAL ARRANGEMENTS, AND BURIAL OR CREMATION GOODS AND
SERVICES:
I, ................. (legal name and present address of
declarant), an adult being of sound mind, willfully and
voluntarily appoint my representative, named below, to have the
right of disposition, as defined in section 2108.70 of the Revised
Code, for my body upon my death. All decisions made by my
representative with respect to the right of disposition shall be
binding.
(If the representative is a group of persons, indicate the
name, last known address, and telephone number of each person in
the group.)
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Address(es): |
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SUCCESSOR REPRESENTATIVE:
If my representative is disqualified from serving as my
representative as described in section 2108.75 of the Revised
Code, then I hereby appoint the following person or group of
persons to serve as my successor representative.
(If the successor representative is a group of persons,
indicate the name, last known address, and telephone number of
each person in the group.)
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PREFERENCES REGARDING HOW THE RIGHT OF DISPOSITION SHOULD BE
EXERCISED, INCLUDING ANY RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES THE DECLARANT
WISHES A REPRESENTATIVE OR A SUCCESSOR REPRESENTATIVE TO CONSIDER:
ONE OR MORE SOURCES OF FUNDS THAT COULD BE USED TO PAY FOR
GOODS AND SERVICES ASSOCIATED WITH AN EXERCISE OF THE RIGHT OF
DISPOSITION:
The appointment of my representative and, if applicable,
successor representative, becomes effective upon my death.
PRIOR APPOINTMENTS REVOKED:
I hereby revoke any written declaration that I executed in
accordance with section 2108.70 of the Ohio Revised Code prior to
the date of execution of this written declaration indicated below.
I hereby agree that any of the following that receives a copy
of this written declaration may act under it:
- Business operating a columbarium;
- Any other person asked to assist with my funeral, burial,
cremation, or other manner of final disposition.
MODIFICATION AND REVOCATION - WHEN EFFECTIVE:
Any modification or revocation of this written declaration is
not effective as to any party until that party receives actual
notice of the modification or revocation.
No person who acts in accordance with a properly executed
copy of this written declaration shall be liable for damages of
any kind associated with the person's reliance on this
declaration.
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Signed this ...... day of ....... |
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(Signature of declarant) |
ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF ASSUMPTION OF OBLIGATIONS AND COSTS:
By signing below, the representative, or successor
representative, if applicable, acknowledges that he or she, as
representative or successor representative, assumes the right of
disposition as defined in section 2108.70 of the Revised Code, and
understands that he or she is liable for the reasonable costs of
exercising the right, including any goods and services that are
purchased.
The undersigned hereby accepts this appointment as
representative or successor representative, as applicable, for the
right of disposition as defined in section 2108.70 of the Revised
Code.
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Signed this ...... day of ....... |
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Signature of representative (if representative is a group of persons, each person in the group shall sign) |
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Signed this ...... day of ....... |
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Signature of successor representative (if successor representative is a group of persons, each person in the group shall sign) |
I attest that the declarant signed or acknowledged this
assignment of the right of disposition under section 2108.70 of
the Revised Code in my presence and that the declarant is at least
eighteen years of age and appears to be of sound mind and not
under or subject to duress, fraud, or undue influence. I further
attest that I am not the declarant's representative or successor
representative, I am at least eighteen years of age, and I am not
related to the declarant by blood, marriage, or adoption.
First witness: |
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Name (printed): |
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Residing at: |
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Signature: |
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Date: |
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Second witness: |
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Name (printed): |
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Residing at: |
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Signature: |
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Date: |
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County of ............. SS.
On ..............., before me, the undersigned notary public,
personally appeared ................., known to me or
satisfactorily proven to be the person whose name is subscribed as
the declarant, and who has acknowledged that he or she executed
this written declaration under section 2108.70 of the Revised Code
for the purposes expressed in that section. I attest that the
declarant is at least eighteen years of age and appears to be of
sound mind and not under or subject to duress, fraud, or undue
influence.
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Signature of notary public |
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My commission expires on: |
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(C) Completion of a federal Record of Emergency Data form, DD
Form 93, or its successor form, by a member of the military, is
sufficient to constitute a written declaration under section
2108.70 of the Revised Code if section 13a of DD Form 93, entitled
"Person Authorized to Direct Disposition," has been properly
completed by the member of the military who has subsequently died
while under active duty orders as described in 10 U.S.C. 1481.
Sec. 2108.73. A written declaration executed by a declarant
under section 2108.70 of the Revised Code shall be signed and
dated by the declarant in the presence of either one of the
following:
(A) A notary public who shall make the certification
described in section 147.53 of the Revised Code.
(B) Two witnesses who are adults and who are not related by
blood, marriage, or adoption to the declarant.
(C) If the written declaration is a DD Form 93, Record of
Emergency Data, by whomever the form requires.
Sec. 5902.02. The duties of the director of veterans
services shall include the following:
(A) Furnishing the veterans service commissions of all
counties of the state copies of the state laws, rules, and
legislation relating to the operation of the commissions and their
offices;
(B) Upon application, assisting the general public in
obtaining records of vital statistics pertaining to veterans or
their dependents;
(C) Adopting rules pursuant to Chapter 119. of the Revised
Code pertaining to minimum qualifications for hiring, certifying,
and accrediting county veterans service officers, pertaining to
their required duties, and pertaining to revocation of the
certification of county veterans service officers;
(D) Adopting rules pursuant to Chapter 119. of the Revised
Code for the education, training, certification, and duties of
veterans service commissioners and for the revocation of the
certification of a veterans service commissioner;
(E) Developing and monitoring programs and agreements
enhancing employment and training for veterans in single or
multiple county areas;
(F) Developing and monitoring programs and agreements to
enable county veterans service commissions to address
homelessness, indigency, and other veteran-related issues
individually or jointly;
(G) Developing and monitoring programs and agreements to
enable state agencies, individually or jointly, that provide
services to veterans, including the veterans' homes operated under
Chapter 5907. of the Revised Code and the director of job and
family services, to address homelessness, indigency, employment,
and other veteran-related issues;
(H) Establishing and providing statistical reporting formats
and procedures for county veterans service commissions;
(I) Publishing annually, promulgating change notices for, and
distributing a listing of county veterans service officers, county
veterans service commissioners, state directors of veterans
affairs, and national and state service officers of accredited
veterans organizations and their state headquarters. The listing
shall include the expiration dates of commission members' terms of
office and the organizations they represent; the names, addresses,
and telephone numbers of county veterans service officers and
state directors of veterans affairs; and the addresses and
telephone numbers of the Ohio offices and headquarters of state
and national veterans service organizations.
(J) Publishing, by the first day of April of each
odd-numbered year, a directory of the laws of this state dealing
with veterans, as enacted through the conclusion of the previous
session of the general assembly, and distributing the publication
to each county veterans service office and the state headquarters
of each congressionally chartered veterans organization in the
state;
(K) Establishing a veterans advisory committee to advise and
assist the department of veterans services in its duties. Members
shall include a member of the military officers association of
America who is a resident of this state, a state representative of
congressionally chartered veterans organizations referred to in
section 5901.02 of the Revised Code, a representative of any other
congressionally chartered state veterans organization that has at
least one veterans service commissioner in the state, three
representatives of the Ohio state association of county veterans
service commissioners, who shall have a combined vote of one,
three representatives of the state association of county veterans
service officers, who shall have a combined vote of one, one
representative of the county commissioners association of Ohio,
who shall be a county commissioner not from the same county as any
of the other county representatives, a representative of the
advisory committee on women veterans, a representative of a labor
organization, and a representative of the office of the attorney
general. The department of veterans services shall submit to the
advisory committee proposed rules for the committee's operation.
The committee may review and revise these proposed rules prior to
submitting them to the joint committee on agency rule review.
(L) Adopting, with the advice and assistance of the veterans
advisory committee, policy and procedural guidelines that the
veterans service commissions shall adhere to in the development
and implementation of rules, policies, procedures, and guidelines
for the administration of Chapter 5901. of the Revised Code. The
department of veterans services shall adopt no guidelines or rules
regulating the purposes, scope, duration, or amounts of financial
assistance provided to applicants pursuant to sections 5901.01 to
5901.15 of the Revised Code. The director of veterans services may
obtain opinions from the office of the attorney general regarding
rules, policies, procedures, and guidelines of the veterans
service commissions and may enforce compliance with Chapter 5901.
of the Revised Code.
(M) Receiving copies of form DD214 filed in accordance with
the director's guidelines adopted under division (L) of this
section from members of veterans service commissions appointed
under section 5901.02 and from county veterans service officers
employed under section 5901.07 of the Revised Code;
(N) Developing and maintaining and improving a resource, such
as a telephone answering point or a web site, by means of which
veterans and their dependents, through a single portal, can access
multiple sources of information and interaction with regard to the
rights of, and the benefits available to, veterans and their
dependents. The director of veterans services may enter into
agreements with state and federal agencies, with agencies of
political subdivisions, with state and local instrumentalities,
and with private entities as necessary to make the resource as
complete as is possible.
(O) Planning, organizing, advertising, and conducting
outreach efforts, such as conferences and fairs, at which veterans
and their dependents may meet, learn about the organization and
operation of the department of veterans services and of veterans
service commissions, and obtain information about the rights of,
and the benefits and services available to, veterans and their
dependents;
(P) Advertising, in print, on radio and television, and
otherwise, the rights of, and the benefits and services available
to, veterans and their dependents;
(Q) Developing and advocating improved benefits and services
for, and improved delivery of benefits and services to, veterans
and their dependents;
(R) Searching for, identifying, and reviewing statutory and
administrative policies that relate to veterans and their
dependents and reporting to the general assembly statutory and
administrative policies that should be consolidated in whole or in
part within the organization of the department of veterans
services to unify funding, delivery, and accounting of statutory
and administrative policy expressions that relate particularly to
veterans and their dependents;
(S) Encouraging veterans service commissions to innovate and
otherwise to improve efficiency in delivering benefits and
services to veterans and their dependents and to report successful
innovations and efficiencies to the director of veterans services;
(T) Publishing and encouraging adoption of successful
innovations and efficiencies veterans service commissions have
achieved in delivering benefits and services to veterans and their
dependents;
(U) Establishing advisory committees, in addition to the
veterans advisory committee established under division (K) of this
section, on veterans issues;
(V) Developing and maintaining a relationship with the United
States department of veterans affairs, seeking optimal federal
benefits and services for Ohio veterans and their dependents, and
encouraging veterans service commissions to maximize the federal
benefits and services to which veterans and their dependents are
entitled;
(W) Developing and maintaining relationships with the several
veterans organizations, encouraging the organizations in their
efforts at assisting veterans and their dependents, and advocating
for adequate state subsidization of the organizations;
(X) Requiring the several veterans organizations that receive
funding from the state annually to report to the director of
veterans services and prescribing the form and content of the
report;
(Y) Investigating complaints against county veterans services
commissioners and county veterans service officers if the director
reasonably believes the investigation to be appropriate and
necessary;
(Z) Taking any other actions required by this chapter.
Sec. 5923.05. (A)(1) Permanent public employees who are
members of the Ohio organized militia or members of other reserve
components of the armed forces of the United States, including the
Ohio national guard, are entitled to a leave of absence from their
respective positions without loss of pay for the time they are
performing service in the uniformed services, for periods of up to
one month, for each calendar year in which they are performing
service in the uniformed services.
(2) As used in this section:
(a) "Calendar year" means the year beginning on the first day
of January and ending on the last day of December.
(b) "Month" means twenty-two eight-hour work days or one
hundred seventy-six hours, or for a public safety employee,
seventeen twenty-four-hour days or four hundred eight hours,
within one calendar year.
(c) "Permanent public employee" means any person holding a
position in public employment that requires working a regular
schedule of twenty-six consecutive biweekly pay periods, or any
other regular schedule of comparable consecutive pay periods,
which is not limited to a specific season or duration. "Permanent
public employee" does not include student help; intermittent,
seasonal, or external interim employees; or individuals covered by
personal services contracts.
(d) "State agency" means any department, bureau, board,
commission, office, or other organized body established by the
constitution or laws of this state for the exercise of any
function of state government, the general assembly, all
legislative agencies, the supreme court, the court of claims, and
the state-supported institutions of higher education.
(e) "Service in the uniformed services" means the performance
of duty, on a voluntary or involuntary basis, in a uniformed
service, under competent authority, and includes active duty,
active duty for training, initial active duty for training,
inactive duty for training, full-time national guard duty, and
performance of duty or training by a member of the Ohio organized
militia pursuant to Chapter 5923. of the Revised Code. "Service in
the uniformed services" includes also the period of time for which
a person is absent from a position of public or private employment
for the purpose of an examination to determine the fitness of the
person to perform any duty described in this division.
(f) "Uniformed services" means the armed forces, the Ohio
organized militia when engaged in active duty for training,
inactive duty training, or full-time national guard duty, the
commissioned corps of the public health service, and any other
category of persons designated by the president of the United
States in time of war or emergency.
(g) "Public safety employee" means a permanent public
employee who is employed as a fire fighter or emergency medical
technician.
(B) Except as otherwise provided in division (D) of this
section, any permanent public employee who is employed by a
political subdivision, who is entitled to the leave provided under
division (A) of this section, and who is called or ordered to the
uniformed services for longer than a month, for each calendar year
in which the employee performed service in the uniformed services,
because of an executive order issued by the president of the
United States, because of an act of congress, or because of an
order to perform duty issued by the governor pursuant to section
5919.29 of the Revised Code is entitled, during the period
designated in the order or act, to a leave of absence and to be
paid, during each monthly pay period of that leave of absence, the
lesser of the following:
(1) The difference between the permanent public employee's
gross monthly wage or salary as a permanent public employee and
the sum of the permanent public employee's gross uniformed pay and
allowances received that month;
(2) Five hundred dollars.
(C) Except as otherwise provided in division (D) of this
section, any permanent public employee who is employed by a state
agency, who is entitled to the leave provided under division (A)
of this section, and who is called or ordered to the uniformed
services for longer than a month, for each calendar year in which
the employee performed service in the uniformed services, because
of an executive order issued by the president of the United
States, because of an act of congress, or because of an order to
perform duty issued by the governor pursuant to section 5919.29 or
5923.21 of the Revised Code is entitled, during the period
designated in the order or act, to a leave of absence and to be
paid, during each monthly pay period of that leave of absence, the
difference between the permanent public employee's gross monthly
wage or salary as a permanent public employee and the sum of the
permanent public employee's gross uniformed pay and allowances
received that month.
(D) No permanent public employee shall receive payments under
division (B) or (C) of this section if the sum of the permanent
public employee's gross uniformed pay and allowances received in a
pay period exceeds the employee's gross wage or salary as a
permanent public employee for that period or if the permanent
public employee is receiving pay under division (A) of this
section.
(E) Any political subdivision of the state, as defined in
section 2744.01 of the Revised Code, may elect to pay any of its
permanent public employees who are entitled to the leave provided
under division (A) of this section and who are called or ordered
to the uniformed services for longer than one month, for each
calendar year in which the employee performed service in the
uniformed services, because of an executive order issued by the
president or an act of congress, such payments, in addition to
those payments required by division (B) of this section, as may be
authorized by the legislative authority of the political
subdivision.
(F) Each permanent public employee who is entitled to leave
provided under division (A) of this section shall submit to the
permanent public employee's appointing authority the published
order authorizing the call or order to the uniformed services or a
written statement from the appropriate military commander
authorizing that service, prior to being credited with that leave.
(G) Any permanent public employee of a political subdivision
whose employment is governed by a collective bargaining agreement
with provision for the performance of service in the uniformed
services shall abide by the terms of that collective bargaining
agreement with respect to the performance of that service, except
that no collective bargaining agreement may afford fewer rights
and benefits than are conferred under this section.
Section 2. That existing sections 2108.72, 2108.73, 5902.02,
and 5923.05 of the Revised Code are hereby repealed.
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