Minnesota Session Laws - 1986, Regular Session

  

                         Laws of Minnesota 1986 

                        CHAPTER 411-S.F.No. 1940 
           An act relating to local government; prescribing the 
          powers of community action agencies; regulating 
          payment of severance pay; amending Minnesota Statutes 
          1984, sections 268.53, subdivisions 1 and 5; and 
          465.72. 
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
    Section 1.  Minnesota Statutes 1984, section 268.53, 
subdivision 1, is amended to read: 
    Subdivision 1.  [IN GENERAL.] A community action agency is 
a political subdivision of the state, a combination of political 
subdivisions, a public agency, or a private nonprofit agency 
which has the authority under its applicable charter or laws to 
receive funds under section 268.52 to support community action 
programs as described in section 268.54 and which was designated 
as a community action agency according to federal law or 
regulations, or recognized as a community action agency by the 
governor an eligible entity under the Community Services Block 
Grant Act, Public Law Number 97-35, section 673(1), 95 Stat. 
357, 512 (1981), as amended by, Act of October 30, 1984, Public 
Law Number 98-558, section 202, 98 Stat. 2878, 2884 (1984). 
    Sec. 2.  Minnesota Statutes 1984, section 268.53, 
subdivision 5, is amended to read: 
    Subd. 5.  [FUNCTIONS; POWERS.] A community action agency 
shall:  
    (a) Plan systematically for an effective community action 
program; develop information as to the problems and causes of 
poverty in the community; determine how much and how effectively 
assistance is being provided to deal with those problems and 
causes; and establish priorities among projects, activities and 
areas as needed for the best and most efficient use of resources;
     (b) Encourage agencies engaged in activities related to the 
community action program to plan for, secure, and administer 
assistance available under section 268.52 or from other sources 
on a common or cooperative basis; provide planning or technical 
assistance to those agencies; and generally, in cooperation with 
community agencies and officials, undertake actions to improve 
existing efforts to reduce poverty, such as improving day-to-day 
communications, closing service gaps, focusing resources on the 
most needy, and providing additional opportunities to low-income 
individuals for regular employment or participation in the 
programs or activities for which those community agencies and 
officials are responsible;  
     (c) Initiate and sponsor projects responsive to needs of 
the poor which are not otherwise being met, with particular 
emphasis on providing central or common services that can be 
drawn upon by a variety of related programs, developing new 
approaches or new types of services that can be incorporated 
into other programs, and filling gaps pending the expansion or 
modification of those programs;  
    (d) Establish effective procedures by which the poor and 
area residents concerned will be enabled to influence the 
character of programs affecting their interests, provide for 
their regular participation in the implementation of those 
programs, and provide technical and other support needed to 
enable the poor and neighborhood groups to secure on their own 
behalf available assistance from public and private sources;  
    (e) Join with and encourage business, labor and other 
private groups and organizations to undertake, together with 
public officials and agencies, activities in support of the 
community action program which will result in the additional use 
of private resources and capabilities, with a view to developing 
new employment opportunities, stimulating investment that will 
have a measurable impact on reducing poverty among residents of 
areas of concentrated poverty, and providing methods by which 
residents of those areas can work with private groups, firms, 
and institutions in seeking solutions to problems of common 
concern.  
     Community action agencies, the Minnesota migrant council, 
and the Indian reservations, may enter into cooperative 
purchasing agreements and self-insurance programs with local 
units of government. 
    Sec. 3.  Minnesota Statutes 1984, section 465.72, is 
amended to read: 
    465.72 [SEVERANCE PAY.] 
    Subdivision 1.  [PAYMENT; LIMITS.] Except as may otherwise 
be provided in Laws 1959, Chapter 690, as amended, any county, 
city, township, school district or other governmental 
subdivision may pay severance pay to its employees and 
promulgate rules for the payment of severance pay to an employee 
who leaves employment on or before or subsequent to the normal 
retirement date.  Severance pay shall also include the payment 
of accumulated vacation leave, accumulated sick leave or a 
combination thereof.  The severance pay shall be excluded from 
retirement deductions and from any calculations in retirement 
benefits.  It shall be paid in a manner mutually agreeable to 
the employee and employer and, except as provided in subdivision 
2, over a period not to exceed five years from retirement or 
termination of employment.  If a retired or terminated employee 
dies before all or a portion of the severance pay has been 
disbursed, that balance due shall be paid to a named beneficiary 
or, lacking same, to the deceased's estate.  Except as provided 
in subdivision 2, in no event shall severance pay provided for 
an employee leaving employment exceed an amount equivalent to 
one year of pay. 
    Subd. 2.  [EXCEPTIONS.] The provisions of subdivision 1 
requiring that severance pay be paid over a period not to exceed 
five years from retirement or termination of employment and 
limiting severance pay to an amount equal to one year of pay do 
not apply to severance pay constituting compensation for 
accumulated sick leave in the form of periodic contributions 
toward premiums for group insurance policies provided for a 
former employee by a governmental subdivision. 
    This subdivision applies only to periodic contributions 
that have commenced before the effective date of this act or 
that are required under contracts, or, with respect to employees 
not covered by contracts, personnel policies, formally adopted 
by the governing body of the governmental subdivision, in 
existence on the effective date of this act.  After the 
effective date of this act, a governmental subdivision may not 
enter into a contract or adopt a personnel policy providing for 
a payment in violation of subdivision 1.  A personnel policy or 
portion of a personnel policy in existence on the effective date 
of this act and providing for a payment in violation of 
subdivision 1 is null and void (i) upon the expiration of a 
collective bargaining agreement containing a similar provision 
and covering employees of the governmental subdivision that has 
adopted the policy, or (ii) two years from the effective date of 
this act, whichever is earlier.  Any payments by governmental 
subdivisions in accordance with this subdivision before the 
effective date of this act are validated. 
    Approved March 24, 1986