Effective 01 Jan 2019, see footnote

67.5121. Indemnification, insurance, and bonding requirements permitted — exceptions. — 1. An authority may adopt indemnification, insurance, and bonding requirements related to small wireless facility permits, subject to the requirements of this section.

2. An authority may only require a wireless provider to indemnify and hold the authority and its officers and employees harmless against any damage or personal injury caused by the negligence of the wireless provider or its employees, agents, or contractors.

3. An authority may require a wireless provider to have in effect insurance coverage consistent with subsection 2 of this section, or a demonstration of a comparable self-insurance program, so long as the authority imposes similar requirements on other similarly situated utility right-of-way users, and such requirements are reasonable and nondiscriminatory. An authority shall not require a self-insured wireless provider to obtain insurance naming the authority or its officers and employees as additional insured. An authority may require a wireless provider to furnish proof of insurance, if required, prior to the effective date of any permit issued for a small wireless facility.

4. An authority may adopt bonding requirements for small wireless facilities if the authority imposes similar requirements in connection with permits issued for other similarly situated utility right-of-way users. The purpose of such bonds shall be to:

(1) Provide for the removal of abandoned or improperly maintained small wireless facilities, including those that an authority determines need to be removed to protect public health, safety, or welfare;

(2) Restore the right-of-way in connection with removals under section 67.5113;

(3) Recoup rates or fees that have not been paid by a wireless provider in over twelve months, so long as the wireless provider has received reasonable notice from the authority of any noncompliance listed above and been given an opportunity to cure;

(4) Bonding requirements shall not exceed one thousand five hundred dollars per small wireless facility. For wireless providers with multiple small wireless facilities within the jurisdiction of a single authority, the total bond amount across all facilities shall not exceed seventy-five thousand dollars, which amount may be combined into one bond instrument.

5. Applicants that have at least twenty-five million dollars in assets in the state and do not have a history of permitting noncompliance as defined by an authority within its jurisdiction shall, under section 67.1830, be exempt from the insurance and bonding requirements otherwise authorized by this section.

6. Any contractor, subcontractor, or wireless infrastructure provider shall be under contract with a wireless services provider to perform work in the right-of-way related to small wireless facilities or utility poles, and such entities shall be properly licensed under the laws of the state and all applicable local ordinances, if required. Each contracted entity shall have the same obligations with respect to his or her work as a wireless services provider would have under sections 67.5110 to 67.5121 and other applicable laws if the work were performed by a wireless services provider. The wireless services provider shall be responsible for ensuring that the work of such contracted entities is performed consistently with the wireless services provider's permits and applicable laws relating to the deployment of small wireless facilities and utility poles, and responsible for promptly correcting acts or omissions by such contracted entity.

7. The state highways and transportation commission may establish the same indemnification, insurance, and bond requirements related to small wireless facility permits as it imposes on other users of the state highways and transportation commission right-of-way.

­­--------

(L. 2018 H.B. 1991)

Effective 1-01-19

Expires 1-01-21