Iowa law takes on guardian wrongdoing

DES MOINES - Misty Davis of Cedar Rapids hopes a bill Gov. Terry Branstad signed into law Friday will let her re-establish ties with her brother, Jim.

Davis, 29, said she has had limited to no contact with her 39-year-old brother, who has a mild intellectual disability, since her father died in January 2013 and her stepmother became Jim's guardian and shielded him from family members. She said she lost her brother 28 months ago 'not through death, but through guardianship.”

Davis, who sought help from Sen. Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, to get a bill enacted, was on hand at Branstad's Capitol office to witness him signing a law that gives family members a new legal avenue to use if they're blocked from seeing a relative who is incapacitated.

She hopes the law, effective July 1, helps her seek to enforce visitation rights.

'I'm very stubborn and persistent,” she said, 'so this will happen.”

Senate File 306, which addresses communication and visitation rights between an adult ward and another person, is one of the first laws in the nation allowing relatives to ask a judge to enforce visitations.

Also present at Friday's ceremony was Kerri Kasem, daughter of radio personality Casey Kasem - former host of 'America's Top 40” - who lobbied for the bill after her late father was moved from his nursing home in California, first to Nevada and then to Washington without his children's knowledge or consent.

'This is a silent epidemic,” she said. 'There are so many abuses of guardianships and so many abuses of caretakers.”

It was one of 28 bills the governor signed Friday.

Among the other bills Branstad approved was House File 558, a measure designed to balance Iowans' rights at funerals or memorial services. The bill expands the level of privacy for people to reasonably grieve for loved ones, soldiers or civilians, backers say.

H.F. 558 would establish a 1,000-foot buffer between funerals and protesters for one hour before and after the funeral. It is a response to demonstrations by Westboro Baptist Church whose members have shown up at military funerals to deliver its message that God will turn his back on a nation that sanctions abortion and same-sex marriage.

'A grieving family has enough to deal with without having protesters right in their face, so I think it's a reasonable law to have,” Branstad said Friday.

Branstad also signed:

' Senate File 448, a bill designed to pass constitutional muster in sentencing juvenile offenders who have been convicted of Class A murder. High courts at the federal and state levels have called life prison terms without parole cruel and unusual punishment. The bill would give judges in Iowa discretion to impose one of three sentences: life without parole, life with immediate parole, or life with parole after a period of years without specifying that term of years.

' House File 287, a bill that would make it an aggravated misdemeanor to knowingly make, import, install or sell a counterfeit, non-functional or unsafe replacement air bag for a motor vehicle. The crime would be punishable by up to two years in jail.

' Senate File 167, a measure designed to make county government more accountable by banning severance pay for elected officials. The bill also would require a board of supervisors to first adopt a resolution detailing any compensation increase before approving an annual budget that included the pay raise.

' House File 227, a bill requiring law enforcement to get a search warrant before conducting a strip-search. The bill maintains the current legal standard - probable cause - for conducting a strip search, but adds the search warrant requirement, backers say.

' Senate File 456. A bill that allows convenience stores that hold a class C liquor permit to sell 'growlers” - vessels under 72 ounces that are filled with craft or microbrew beer that are sealed and taken for off-premise consumption.

Complete list of bills signed into law Friday:

House File 203: An act providing for the licensing of respiratory care and polysomnography practitioners and polysomnographic technologists and exceptions thereto, making penalties applicable, and including effective date provisions.

House File 227: An act relating to strip searches of persons at a jail or municipal holding facility.

House File 287: An act relating to counterfeit, non-functional, or unsafe air bags, providing penalties, and including effective date provisions.

House File 381: An act relating to the Iowa Health Information Network, and including effective date provisions.

House File 414: An act requiring disclosures by private providers of veterans benefits services and including penalties.

House File 449: An act relating to mental health crisis facilities.

House File 468: An act relating to the appointment of mental health advocates.

House File 525: An act allowing a professional limited liability company or a partnership of veterinarians to provide veterinary care.

House File 558: An act relating to disorderly conduct by persons at funeral or memorial services and making penalties applicable.

House File 569: An act relating to notice of garnishment and levy to a judgment debtor.

House File 579: An act relating to the regulation of health care facilities, elder group homes, assisted living programs, and adult day services programs.

Senate File 125: An act relating to alcoholic beverage control and matters under the purview of the Alcoholic Beverages Division of the Department of Commerce.

Senate File 135: An act relating to campaign finance by requiring electronic filing of certain statements and reports and by raising the minimum dollar amounts that trigger certain regulations.

Senate File 167: An act related to the compensation of elective county officers.

Senate File 203: An act relating to persons and activities regulated by the Board of Nursing.

Senate File 274: An act relating to programs and services under the purview of the Department of Public Health including the Board of Hearing Aid Dispensers and the medical residency training matching grants program and including effective date and retroactive applicability provisions.

Senate File 292: An act relating to the confidentiality of certain juvenile court records.

Senate File 306: An act relating to communication and visitation between an adult ward and another person.

Senate File 335: An act relating to the release of certain information to a procurement organization.

Senate File 401: An act relating to subacute care facilities.

Senate File 412: An act relating to child welfare, including provisions relating to child in need of assistance and delinquency cases.

Senate File 434: An act relating to continuing education requirements for licensed barbers.

Senate File 438: An act requiring the Racing and Gaming Commission to conduct a study on exchange wagering.

Senate File 448: An act relating to the commission of a Class 'A” felony by a person under eighteen years of age, providing penalties, and including effective date and applicability provisions.

Senate File 456: An act concerning the sale and off-premises transportation and consumption of certain containers of beer.

Senate File 457: An act allowing the Office of Ombudsman access in the performance of its duties to the minutes and audio recording of a closed session.

Senate File 462: An act relating to the maintenance and administration of epinephrine in schools and certain other facilities.

Senate File 463: An act relating to the redesign of mental health and disabilities services administered by regions comprised of counties.