Explanation
BACKGROUND:
Ohio Revised Code Section 9.15 requires that the City be responsible for the cost of burial or cremation of an indigent person. Columbus City Code Chapter 145 addresses that responsibility. In its current form, the legislative maximum amount of $750 does not provide discretion for the Director to determine if such a reimbursement amount is reasonable. This legislation is needed to provide the Director the authority to create and enforce the rules of this chapter and to grant discretionary review upon satisfactory compliance with the chapter.
Title
To amend Chapter 145 of Columbus City Codes to provide the Director of Public Safety the authority to create and enforce the rules of this chapter and to provide for the contracting and discretionary review of the amount the City pays funeral directors for the burial or cremation of indigent persons; and to declare an emergency.
Body
WHEREAS, Chapter 145 of Columbus City Codes and Section 9.15 of the Ohio Revised Code requires the City to sustain the cost of burials of indigent persons under certain circumstances; and
WHEREAS, there is a need to clarify that indigent burial payments may be applied to any justified costs of burial and cremation; and
WHEREAS, the City currently pays to funeral directors a maximum of Seven Hundred Fifty ($750.00) for each indigent burial they perform, without discretionary review to determine reasonableness of cost; and
WHEREAS, the Director of Public Safety shall be empowered to promulgate rules and regulations to carry out the provisions of this chapter; and
WHEREAS, an emegency exists in the usual daily operation of the Department of Public Safety in that it is necessary to provide for a contract to provide these essential services immediately for the preservation of the public health and safety; now, therefore,
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS:
SECTION 1. That the title of Columbus City Code Chapter 145 is hereby amended as fo...
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