EXPLANATION-Matter enclosed in bold-faced brackets [thus] in this bill is not enacted
and is intended to be omitted in the law.
SECOND REGULAR SESSION
SENATE BILL NO. 1048
102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY SENATOR FITZWATER.
3499S.01I KRISTINA MARTIN, Secretary
AN ACT
To repeal sections 29.235, 52.150, 374.250, and 610.021, RSMo, and to enact in lieu thereof five
new sections relating to the powers of the state auditor.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Missouri, as follows:
Section A. Sections 29.235, 52.150, 374.250, and 610.021, 1
RSMo, are repealed and five new sections enacted in lieu 2
thereof, to b e known as sections 29.225, 29.235, 52.150, 3
374.250, and 610.021, to read as follows:4
29.225. 1. For purposes of this section, the term 1
"improper governmental activity" includes official 2
misconduct, fraud, misappropriation, mismanagement, waste o f 3
resources, or a violation of state or federal law, rule, or 4
regulation. 5
2. The auditor, or his or her authorized 6
representatives, may audit all or part of any political 7
subdivision or other governmental entity: 8
(1) If, after an investigat ion under section 29.221 of 9
the political subdivision or governmental entity, or its 10
officers or employees, the auditor believes an improper 11
governmental activity has occurred; or 12
(2) When requested by a prosecuting attorney, circuit 13
attorney, or law enforcement agency as part of an 14
investigation of an improper governmental activity. 15
29.235. 1. The auditor and the auditor's authorized 1
agents are authorized to: 2 SB 1048 2
(1) Examine all books, accounts, records, reports, 3
vouchers of any state agency or entity subject to audit, 4
insofar as they are necessary to conduct an audit under this 5
chapter, provided that the auditor complies with state and 6
federal financial privacy requirements prior to accessing 7
financial records includ ing provisions presented in chapter 8
408 and provided that the auditor or other public entity 9
reimburses the reasonable documentation and production costs 10
relating to compliance with examination by the auditor or 11
auditor's authorized agents that pertain to: 12
(a) Amounts received under a grant or contract from 13
the federal government or the state or its political 14
subdivisions; 15
(b) Amounts received, disbursed, or otherwise handled 16
on behalf of the federal government or the state; 17
(2) Examine and inspect all property, equipment, and 18
facilities in the possession of any state agency, political 19
subdivision, or quasi -governmental entity that were 20
furnished or otherwise provided through grant, contract, or 21
any other type of funding by the s tate of Missouri or the 22
federal government; and 23
(3) Review state tax returns, except such review shall 24
be limited to matters of official business, and the 25
auditor's report shall not violate the confidentiality 26
provisions of tax laws. Notwithstanding confidentiality 27
provisions of tax laws to the contrary, the auditor may use 28
or disclose information related to overdue tax debts in 29
support of the auditor's statutory mission. 30
2. All contracts or agreements entered into as a 31
result of the award of a grant by state agencies or 32
political subdivisions shall include, as a necessary part, a 33 SB 1048 3
clause describing the auditor's access as provided under 34
this section. 35
3. The auditor may obtain the services of certified 36
public accountants, qualif ied management consultants, or 37
other professional persons and experts as the auditor deems 38
necessary or desirable to carry out the duties and functions 39
assigned under this chapter. Unless otherwise authorized by 40
law, no state agency shall enter into a ny contract for 41
auditing services without consultation with, and the prior 42
written approval of, the auditor. 43
4. (1) Insofar as necessary to conduct an audit under 44
this chapter or an investigation under section 29.221 , the 45
auditor or the auditor' s authorized representatives shall 46
have the power to subpoena witnesses, to take testimony 47
under oath, to cause the deposition of witnesses residing 48
within or without the state to be taken in a manner 49
prescribed by law, and to assemble records and docu ments, by 50
subpoena or otherwise. The subpoena power granted by this 51
section shall be exercised only at the specific written 52
direction of the auditor or the auditor's chief deputy. 53
(2) If any person refuses to comply with a subpoena, 54
the auditor shall seek to enforce the subpoena before a 55
court of competent jurisdiction to require the attendance 56
and testimony of witnesses and the production of books, 57
papers, correspondence, memoranda, contracts, agreements, 58
and other records. Such court may issue an order requiring 59
such person to appear before the auditor or officers 60
designated by the auditor to produce records or to give 61
testimony relating to the matter under investigation or in 62
question. Any failure to comply with such order of the 63
court may be punished by such court as contempt. 64 SB 1048 4
5. Testimony and records obtained through the 65
authority to subpoena under this section shall be subject to 66
the same confidentiality and disclosure provisions as 67
provided under section 29.200 for audit workpapers and 68
related supportive material. 69
52.150. 1. The person appointed to fill a vacancy in 1
the office of collector shall execute a bond and collect and 2
pay over the taxes in the manner required of the collector 3
subject to the provisions of subsections 2, 3, 4 and 6 of 4
this section, and his acts shall be as binding and effectual 5
as acts of the regularly elected collector. He may obtain 6
judgment and sell delinquent lands and lots in the manner in 7
which the collector is auth orized to act. 8
2. [The person appointed to fill a vacancy in the 9
office of collector shall within five days after assuming 10
the duties of the office notify the state auditor of the 11
need for an audit of the office.] The state auditor shall 12
[within twenty days of receipt of the notice commence ] 13
conduct an audit of the collector's office if the county 14
governing body passes an order or resolution requesting the 15
audit within thirty days of the appointment of the new 16
collector. 17
3. If requested to conduct an audit by the county 18
governing body under subsection 2 of this section, the state 19
auditor shall: 20
(1) Determine the financial condition of the accounts 21
of the office of the collector; 22
(2) Determine the proper compensation that s hould have 23
been paid to the replaced collector in the past three years 24
and the compensation actually paid during such period; and 25 SB 1048 5
(3) File a report of his finding with the county 26
governing body and the person appointed to fill the vacancy 27
in the office of the collector. 28
4. The county governing body shall notwithstanding any 29
other provision of law to the contrary: 30
(1) Accept the report of the state auditor; and 31
(2) If necessary order the newly appointed collector 32
to withhold and pay any funds owing to the county and the 33
past collector or his estate from current tax revenue; or 34
(3) Direct the prosecuting attorney to file suit 35
against the past collector or his estate or against his bond 36
to recover any overpayment. 37
5. The prosecuting attorney shall represent the 38
county, the county governing body and the newly appointed 39
collector without additional compensation in any civil 40
action arising as a result of this section. 41
6. Any moneys recovered pursuant to this sec tion due 42
the county or any political subdivision within the county 43
shall be paid in the year of recovery as if the funds were 44
collected in the current year. 45
7. The county governing body shall pay to the state 46
auditor from county general revenue t he costs of the audit 47
conducted pursuant to subsections 2 and 3 of this section. 48
374.250. 1. The director shall take proper vouchers 1
for all payments made by the department and shall take 2
receipts from the director of revenue for al l moneys the 3
department pays to the director of revenue. 4
2. At the close of each state fiscal year, the state 5
auditor shall audit, adjust and settle all receipts and 6
disbursements in the insurance dedicated fund and the 7
insurance examiners' fund, and [taxes certified or collected 8
under sections 148.310 to 148.461 or sections 384.011 to 9 SB 1048 6
384.071] and the results shall be reported as part of the 10
annual audit of the state's financial statements . 11
610.021. Except to the extent dis closure is otherwise 1
required by law, a public governmental body is authorized to 2
close meetings, records and votes, to the extent they relate 3
to the following: 4
(1) Legal actions, causes of action or litigation 5
involving a public governmental bod y and any confidential or 6
privileged communications between a public governmental body 7
or its representatives and its attorneys. However, any 8
minutes, vote or settlement agreement relating to legal 9
actions, causes of action or litigation involving a p ublic 10
governmental body or any agent or entity representing its 11
interests or acting on its behalf or with its authority, 12
including any insurance company acting on behalf of a public 13
government body as its insured, shall be made public upon 14
final disposition of the matter voted upon or upon the 15
signing by the parties of the settlement agreement, unless, 16
prior to final disposition, the settlement agreement is 17
ordered closed by a court after a written finding that the 18
adverse impact to a plaintiff or plaintiffs to the action 19
clearly outweighs the public policy considerations of 20
section 610.011, however, the amount of any moneys paid by, 21
or on behalf of, the public governmental body shall be 22
disclosed; provided, however, in matters involving the 23
exercise of the power of eminent domain, the vote shall be 24
announced or become public immediately following the action 25
on the motion to authorize institution of such a legal 26
action. Legal work product shall be considered a closed 27
record; 28
(2) Leasing, purchase or sale of real estate by a 29
public governmental body where public knowledge of the 30 SB 1048 7
transaction might adversely affect the legal consideration 31
therefor. However, any minutes, vote or public record 32
approving a contract relating to the leasi ng, purchase or 33
sale of real estate by a public governmental body shall be 34
made public upon execution of the lease, purchase or sale of 35
the real estate; 36
(3) Hiring, firing, disciplining or promoting of 37
particular employees by a public governmenta l body when 38
personal information about the employee is discussed or 39
recorded. However, any vote on a final decision, when taken 40
by a public governmental body, to hire, fire, promote or 41
discipline an employee of a public governmental body shall 42
be made available with a record of how each member voted to 43
the public within seventy -two hours of the close of the 44
meeting where such action occurs; provided, however, that 45
any employee so affected shall be entitled to prompt notice 46
of such decision during the seventy-two-hour period before 47
such decision is made available to the public. As used in 48
this subdivision, the term "personal information" means 49
information relating to the performance or merit of 50
individual employees; 51
(4) The state militia or national guard or any part 52
thereof; 53
(5) Nonjudicial mental or physical health proceedings 54
involving identifiable persons, including medical, 55
psychiatric, psychological, or alcoholism or drug dependency 56
diagnosis or treatment; 57
(6) Scholastic probation, expulsion, or graduation of 58
identifiable individuals, including records of individual 59
test or examination scores; however, personally identifiable 60
student records maintained by public educational 61
institutions shall be open for inspection by the parents, 62 SB 1048 8
guardian or other custodian of students under the age of 63
eighteen years and by the parents, guardian or other 64
custodian and the student if the student is over the age of 65
eighteen years; 66
(7) Testing and examination materials, befo re the test 67
or examination is given or, if it is to be given again, 68
before so given again; 69
(8) Welfare cases of identifiable individuals; 70
(9) Preparation, including any discussions or work 71
product, on behalf of a public governmental body or its 72
representatives for negotiations with employee groups; 73
(10) Software codes for electronic data processing and 74
documentation thereof; 75
(11) Specifications for competitive bidding, until 76
either the specifications are officially approved by the 77
public governmental body or the specifications are published 78
for bid; 79
(12) Sealed bids and related documents, until the bids 80
are opened; and sealed proposals and related documents or 81
any documents related to a negotiated contract until a 82
contract is executed, or all proposals are rejected; 83
(13) Individually identifiable personnel records, 84
performance ratings or records pertaining to employees or 85
applicants for employment, except that this exemption shall 86
not apply to the names, posit ions, salaries and lengths of 87
service of officers and employees of public agencies once 88
they are employed as such, and the names of private sources 89
donating or contributing money to the salary of a chancellor 90
or president at all public colleges and uni versities in the 91
state of Missouri and the amount of money contributed by the 92
source; 93 SB 1048 9
(14) Records which are protected from disclosure by 94
law; 95
(15) Meetings and public records relating to 96
scientific and technological innovations in which th e owner 97
has a proprietary interest; 98
(16) Records relating to municipal hotlines 99
established for the reporting of abuse and wrongdoing , and 100
records relating to reports of allegations of improper 101
governmental activities under section 29.221 ; 102
(17) Confidential or privileged communications between 103
a public governmental body and its auditor, including all 104
auditor work product; however, all final audit reports 105
issued by the auditor are to be considered open records 106
pursuant to this chapter; 107
(18) (a) Security measures, global positioning system 108
(GPS) data, investigative information, or investigative or 109
surveillance techniques of any public agency responsible for 110
law enforcement or public safety that, if disclosed, has the 111
potential to endanger the health or safety of an individual 112
or the public. 113
(b) Any information or data provided to a tip line for 114
the purpose of safety or security at an educational 115
institution that, if disclosed, has the potential to 116
endanger the health or safety of an individual or the public. 117
(c) Any information contained in any suspicious 118
activity report provided to law enforcement that, if 119
disclosed, has the potential to endanger the health or 120
safety of an individual or the public. 121
(d) Operational guidelines, policies and specific 122
response plans developed, adopted, or maintained by any 123
public agency responsible for law enforcement, public 124
safety, first response, or public health for use in 125 SB 1048 10
responding to or preventing any critical incide nt which has 126
the potential to endanger individual or public safety or 127
health. Financial records related to the procurement of or 128
expenditures relating to operational guidelines, policies or 129
plans purchased with public funds shall be open. When 130
seeking to close information pursuant to this exception, the 131
public governmental body shall affirmatively state in 132
writing that disclosure would impair the public governmental 133
body's ability to protect the security or safety of persons 134
or real property, and shall in the same writing state that 135
the public interest in nondisclosure outweighs the public 136
interest in disclosure of the records; 137
(19) Existing or proposed security systems and 138
structural plans of real property owned or leased by a 139
public governmental body, and information that is 140
voluntarily submitted by a nonpublic entity owning or 141
operating an infrastructure to any public governmental body 142
for use by that body to devise plans for protection of that 143
infrastructure, the public disclosure of which would 144
threaten public safety: 145
(a) Records related to the procurement of or 146
expenditures relating to security systems purchased with 147
public funds shall be open; 148
(b) When seeking to close information pursuant to this 149
exception, the public governmental body shall affirmatively 150
state in writing that disclosure would impair the public 151
governmental body's ability to protect the security or 152
safety of persons or real property, and shall in the same 153
writing state that the public interes t in nondisclosure 154
outweighs the public interest in disclosure of the records; 155
(c) Records that are voluntarily submitted by a 156
nonpublic entity shall be reviewed by the receiving agency 157 SB 1048 11
within ninety days of submission to determine if retention 158
of the document is necessary in furtherance of a state 159
security interest. If retention is not necessary, the 160
documents shall be returned to the nonpublic governmental 161
body or destroyed; 162
(20) The portion of a record that identifies security 163
systems or access codes or authorization codes for security 164
systems of real property; 165
(21) Records that identify the configuration of 166
components or the operation of a computer, computer system, 167
computer network, or telecommunications network, and would 168
allow unauthorized access to or unlawful disruption of a 169
computer, computer system, computer network, or 170
telecommunications network of a public governmental body. 171
This exception shall not be used to limit or deny access to 172
otherwise public records in a file, document, data file or 173
database containing public records. Records related to the 174
procurement of or expenditures relating to such computer, 175
computer system, computer network, or telecommunications 176
network, including the amount of moneys paid by, or on 177
behalf of, a public governmental body for such computer, 178
computer system, computer network, or telecommunications 179
network shall be open; 180
(22) Credit card numbers, personal identification 181
numbers, digital certificates, physical and virtu al keys, 182
access codes or authorization codes that are used to protect 183
the security of electronic transactions between a public 184
governmental body and a person or entity doing business with 185
a public governmental body. Nothing in this section shall 186
be deemed to close the record of a person or entity using a 187
credit card held in the name of a public governmental body 188
or any record of a transaction made by a person using a 189 SB 1048 12
credit card or other method of payment for which 190
reimbursement is made by a publi c governmental body; 191
(23) Records submitted by an individual, corporation, 192
or other business entity to a public institution of higher 193
education in connection with a proposal to license 194
intellectual property or perform sponsored research and 195
which contains sales projections or other business plan 196
information the disclosure of which may endanger the 197
competitiveness of a business; 198
(24) Records relating to foster home or kinship 199
placements of children in foster care under section 210.498; 200
and 201
(25) Individually identifiable customer usage and 202
billing records for customers of a municipally owned 203
utility, unless the records are requested by the customer or 204
authorized for release by the customer, except that a 205
municipally owned utility shall make available to the public 206
the customer's name, billing address, location of service, 207
and dates of service provided for any commercial service 208
account. 209