SF 395 – Stalking
SF 404 – Shorthand Reporters
HF 496 – Military Victim Advocates
HF 535 – Nonsubstantive Code Editor’s Bill
HF 536 – Substantive Code Editor’s Bill
HF 570 – Municipal Tort Liability for Recreational Activities
FLOOR ACTION:
SF 395 relates to the definition of stalking for criminal prosecutions. It expands the definition of “course of conduct” for the crime of stalking to include technological devices repeatedly used to locate, listen to or watch another person without a legitimate purpose. In addition, the elements to prove a criminal offense are modified: a person commits stalking when they purposefully engage in a course of conduct directed at another that would cause a reasonable person to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated or threatened. Under current law, a person must fear that the stalker intends to cause bodily injury or death to them or an immediate family member. In addition, the law will require that the stalker knows or should know that a reasonable person would feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated or threatened, or fear bodily injury or death by the course of conduct. [3/19: 46-0 (Bertrand, Chapman, Chelgren, Kapucian absent)]
SF 404 relates to the certification and regulation of shorthand reporters. The bill will provide accreditation of training acquired while in military service and provide reciprocal licensing for veterans who hold a valid shorthand reporter certification in another state. These changes are intended to implement Iowa’s Home Base Iowa efforts. The bill allows the Board of Examiners of Shorthand Reporters to consider an applicant’s past record of any felony conviction, as well as an applicant’s past record of disciplinary action with respect to certification as a shorthand reporter in any jurisdiction. The bill creates a new Code section that prohibits a shorthand reporting service’s agreement from requiring a certified shorthand reporter to relinquish control of an original deposition transcript and copies of the transcript before it is certified by the shorthand reporter. The bill specifies that a shorthand reporter’s audio recordings used solely for the purpose of providing a verbatim written transcript of a court proceeding or a proceeding conducted in anticipation of use in a court proceeding are considered the personal property and private work product of the reporter and thus not subject to discovery or open records laws. [3/19: 46-0 (Bertrand, Chapman, Chelgren, Kapucian absent)]
HF 535 is the nonsubstantive Code Editor’s bill, which includes technical corrections in provisions scattered throughout the Code. The bill includes 13 numerical updates, 26 terminology corrections, 21 grammatical changes, 4 corrections of clerical errors, 34 standardization of citations, and 40 updates to Code section style or format, among other technical improvements. [3/23: 47-0 (Bertrand, Chelgren, Schoenjahn absent)]
HF 536 is the substantive Code Editor’s bill, which relates to statutory corrections that may adjust language to reflect current practices, insert earlier omissions, delete redundancies and inaccuracies, delete temporary language, resolve inconsistencies and conflicts, update ongoing provisions, or remove ambiguities, and including effective date and retroactive applicability provisions. [3/23: 47-0 (Bertrand, Chelgren, Schoenjahn absent)]
HF 570 clarifies that cities and other municipalities are exempt from liability when municipal facilities that were designed for recreational purposes have been constructed or reconstructed in good faith in accordance with recognized standards of design. In addition, when people are engaged in recreational activities on the public property and the claimed injuries or damages result from the normal and expected risks inherent in the recreational activity, the municipality is exempt from liability. [3/23: 48-0 (Chelgren, Schoenjahn absent)]
COMMITTEE ACTION:
HF 496 relates to the confidentiality of communications between the victim of a sexual assault who is in the military and their military victim advocate (counselor). The bill provides that, except under specified circumstances, communications between the victim and the advocate are confidential, and the advocate cannot be required to give evidence in civil or criminal proceedings relating to the communications. [3/24: short form (Whitver absent)]