28E.41 Joint county, city, fire district, and school district buildings.

1. A county, city, fire district, or school district, which has areas within its boundaries which overlap areas within the boundaries of another county, city, fire district, or school district, or whose boundaries are contiguous with another county, city, fire district, or school district, may execute an agreement pursuant to this section for the joint construction or acquisition, furnishing, operation, and maintenance of a public building or buildings for their common use. Noncontiguous cities located within the same county, or cities located in contiguous counties, may also execute an agreement for the joint construction or acquisition, furnishing, operation, and maintenance of a joint public building or buildings for their common use. Such an agreement regarding a joint public building may allow for, but is not limited to, any of the following:

a. Acquisition of a construction site and construction of a public building for common use.

b. Purchase of an existing building for joint public use, or conversion of a building previously owned and maintained by a county, city, fire district, or school district for joint public use.

c. Equipping or furnishing a new or existing building for joint public use.

d. Operation, maintenance, or improvement of a joint public building.

e. Any other aspect of joint public building construction, acquisition, furnishing, operation, or maintenance mutually agreed upon by the county, city, fire district, or school district and not otherwise prohibited by law.

2. An agreement pursuant to subsection 1 shall be approved by resolution of the governing bodies of each of the participating counties, cities, fire districts, or school districts and shall specify the purposes for which the joint public building shall be used, the estimated cost thereof, the estimated amount of the cost to be allocated to each of the participating counties, cities, fire districts, or school districts, the proportion and method of allocating the expenses of the operation and maintenance of the building or improvement, and the disposition to be made of any revenues to be derived therefrom, in addition to the provisions of sections 28E.5 and 28E.6, and any other applicable provision of this chapter.

3. a. A county, city, fire district, or school district may expend funds or issue general obligation bonds for the payment of its share of the cost of constructing, acquiring, furnishing, operating, or maintaining a joint public building pursuant to subsection 1. Section 28E.16 shall apply regarding a single election to be authorized by the board of supervisors, city council, governing body of a fire district, and board of directors of a school district, in the event that a single bond issue throughout the overlapping or contiguous areas, or noncontiguous cities located in the same county or cities located in contiguous counties, is contemplated. If separate bond issues are authorized by the governing body of a county, city, fire district, or school district for its respective share of the cost of the joint public building, the applicable bonding provisions of chapters 74, 75, 296, 298, 331, 357B, 359, and 384 shall apply. With regard to any issuance of bonds pursuant to this section, a proposition to authorize an issuance of bonds by a county, city, fire district, or school district shall be deemed carried or adopted if the vote in favor of the proposition is equal to at least sixty percent of the vote cast for and against the proposition in each participating county, city, fire district, or school district.

b. Bonds shall not be issued by a county, city, fire district, or school district until provision has been made by each of the other participating counties, cities, fire districts, or school districts to the agreement for the payment of their shares of the cost of the joint public building. In the event that the cost of the construction or acquisition, furnishing, operation, and maintenance of the joint public building exceeds that which was originally estimated and agreed to, the governing body of a county, city, fire district, or school district shall have the authority, jointly or individually, as appropriate, to expend additional moneys or issue additional bonds to pay their respective portions of the increased costs.

c. The governing body of a county, city, fire district, or school district is authorized to enter into an agreement under this section to construct, acquire, furnish, operate, or maintain the public building which is the subject of the agreement for its own purposes to the same extent and in the same manner as if the public building were wholly owned by and devoted to the uses of the county, city, fire district, or school district.

d. The authority granted to a county, city, fire district, or school district pursuant to this section shall be in addition to, and not in derogation of, any other powers conferred by law upon a county, city, fire district, or school district to make agreements, appropriate and expend moneys, and to issue bonds for the same or similar purposes.

4. For purposes of this section, “fire district” means any governmental entity which provides fire protection services.

99 Acts, ch 145, §1