Kansas Attorney General Opinions

The board of county commissioners of any county is authorized to make a levy of not exceeding two mills for the establishment, operation and maintenance of an emergency medical services program pursuant to K.S.A. 1975 Supp. 65-4302, upon approval of such levy by the voters thereof.

The Legislature may not provide for the incorporation of cities by any law other than one which is a general law and applicable to all cities. H.B. 2895 is not, and thus, plainly does not meet the requirements of Article 12, § 5(a) of the Kansas Constitution. *

U.S.D. #512 does not constitute a "city unified school district" for purposes of K.S.A. 72-8213(b). The board of education of U.S.D. #512 may not order the closing of three elementary schools located in the Osage, Hickory Grove, and Corinth areas of that district without first submitting the proposition at an election or through a pe- tition to the appropriate electors of each school pursuant to either K.S.A. 72-8213(a) or K.S.A. 1975 Supp. 72-8213a. * Dear Mr. Vratil:

A city may, in the exercise of constitutional home rule powers, provide by ordinance for the levy of a merchants' or occupational tax, the proceeds of which may be deposited in a special fund and used for purposes specified in the authorizing ordinance. * *

The Register of Deeds must file and index liens on growing crops, under the above statutes as amended, in the land records for the land upon which the crops are located as well as in the alphabetical records under the name of the owner of said crops.

Under K.S.A. 25-3304(b), a registered voter may file a written declaration with the county election officer changing a declared party affiliation to that of non- affiliation.

Senate Bill 740 does meet the constitutional require- ments of Furman v. Georgia in providing for a mandatory sentence of death upon conviction of murder in the first degree. *

Section 1 of H.B. 2731 may affect the ability of certain associational organizations of persons joined together for common purposes of political expression and communica- tion to serve the purposes for which they were organized, and if so, the procedural requirements of the section may be open to the most serious constitutional First Amendment objections. *

The water purchase contract no. 76-1 dated January 5, 1976, between the State of Kansas by and through the Water Resources Board, and Kansas Gas and Electric Company and Kansas City Power and Light Company, is invalid and unenforceable, by reason of violations of K.S.A. 1975 Supp. 46-233(a) in its making and execution. *

The due process procedure law, K.S.A. 1974 Supp. 72-5436, as amended by Chapter 373 of the 1975 Session Laws, does not apply to teachers of an area vocational-technical school governed by a board of control, as provided for and defined by K.S.A. 72-4412(c).

The Judge of the Magistrate Court of Reno County, Kansas, elected in November, 1974, was elected to a term of four years, and there exists no position to be filled by election at the general election in November, 1976. *

The Kansas filled milk statute and the Kansas Filled Dairy Products Act is not unconsitutional as applied to Milnot, and the determination whether it constitutes a prohibited filled dairy product rests with the Kansas Dairy Commissioner.

The privilege extended to military personnel in acquiring resident status for tuition purposes at state community junior colleges is inapplicable to those individuals confined at the Disciplinary Barracks on the Fort Leavenworth military reservation.

K.S.A. 21-3725 does not clearly distinguish between the intentional manipulation, alteration, destruction or removal of any signal device enumerated therein which is permissible, such as intentional conduct by persons acting properly and within the express scope of their employment, and intentional manipulation, alteration, destruction and removal which is performed for wrongful purposes. K.S.A. 21-3726 does not clearly specify whether it is limited to motor vehicle traffic control devices, or whether it extends also to devices for the control and direction of railroad, aircraft and watercraft

A county law library established under K.S.A. 19-1319 et seq. may not assess and collect user charges for use of a computer terminal and access to a data bank for legal research, for use of the library is required by K.S.A. 19-1320 to be "free of charge" to all eligible users. Use of funds of the library to purchase computer access time for one group of eligible users to the exclusion of all other eligible library users repre- sents an impermissible preferential expenditure of library funds for the benefit of less than all of its patrons. * *

House Bill 2988, which proposes to authorize any county which has made a levy pursuant to K.S.A. 19-1569, since repealed, for the purpose stated in that provision "for the purpose of acquiring a site, building, furnishing and equipping of a courthouse and jail" for the purpose of repair and remodeling of an existing facility, seeks to authorize the use of proceeds of a tax levied for a specific purpose, to be expended for a purpose other than for which the tax was levied, in violation of Article 11, § 5 of the Kansas Constitution.

February 2, 1976 ATTORNEY GENERAL OPINION NO. 76-48 Mr. Leonard M. Robinson County Attorney Wabaunsee County Courthouse Alma, Kansas 66401 Re: Lands omitted from tax rolls. Collection, penalties and interest. K.S.A. 79-417, K.S.A. 1975 Supp. 79-1701 et seq., 79-2001. Synopsis: Wh…

A private banking corporation, which builds a court- house and office building, with parking facilities, on United States Government land, but which by contract will retain all right, title and interest in such improvements, including the right to possess, rent and manage until paid in full, shall have its property placed on the tax rolls as tangible personal property pursuant to K.S.A. 79-328, in the county where located.

The Kansas Homestead Tax Relief Law, as amended in 1975, which grants advalorem tax relief to "certain female persons fifty (50) years of age and over who are the surviving spouses of husbands who died during marriage, who own or rent their own homestead, so long as they remain unmarried", but which does not grant similar tax relief to widowers, single men and women, does not violate the Kansas and Federal constitutional provisions which prohibit the granting of discriminatory privileges and immunities. *

The Republican River is a non-navigable river. It is the law of this state that owners of land riparian to non-navigable streams or rivers own the bank and bed of such streams or rivers to the center thereof. * *

A county may by charter resolution exempt itself from K.S.A. 19-1878, and provide substitute and additional provisions in lieu thereof, and obligations issued pursuant to such charter resolution will be approved by this office as issued under lawful authority.

A savings and loan association which has its home office in one county and a branch office in another county is a savings and loan association which is located in each such county within the meaning of K.S.A. 17-5002(b), and idle funds of the county in which the branch office is located may be invested with such savings and loan association in and through its branch office.

House Bills 2083 and 2848, insofar as either may operate to shorten the terms of certain present members of the Board of Public Utilities of Kansas City, Kansas, and require those terms to be filled by election prior to the expiration of the terms as provided by law at the time said members were appointed, are not ex post facto laws, if enacted, and are within the constitu- tional power of the legislature. *

K.S.A. 65-2872 prohibits licensed chiropractic physicians from "performing any surgery." This prohibition was correctly interpreted by Attorney General John Anderson, Jr., in 1960 to prohibit chiropractic physicians from the withdrawal of blood samples .from a living human being by needles or other instruments in any procedure entail- ing the penetration of human tissue. Neither a chiro- practic physician nor nurses, assistants or other employees thereof are authorized to perform surgery, for it is excluded from the practice of chiropractic medicine by the Kansas Healing Arts Act.

K.S.A. 12-1225, which describes the powers of directors of library districts organized under K.S.A. 12-1236 et seq., does not authorize the directors to obtain loans for such library from the federal government, unless and until additional legislative authority is furnished.

K.S.A. 1975 Supp. 8-1911(a) . exempts certain equipment as to special permits when moved on highways under the authority of the Kansas Department of Transporta- tion or local authority, but requires a permit when moving said equipment at anytime from one-half hour after sunset to one-half hour before sunrise and does not allow said equipment to travel on interstate highways unless the vehicle carrying said equipment meets the regulations as to height, width, length, gross weight and axle weight which may be exceeded only under authorization of special permit issued subject to applicable regula

There , exists no present basis upon which to conclude purely as a matter of law that the State of Kansas may or may not be liable for injuries suffered by any person, minor or adult, resulting from side effects of contra- ceptive pills furnished by a family planning center operating under K.S.A. 25-501, or as amended by House Bill 2676.

Change orders to contracts executed under the authority of K.S.A. 1975 Supp. 68-407 are subject to review by the Director of Purchases to determine whether such proposed change orders are within the scope of the ori- ginal contract, or are so substantial as to require the letting of a new and independent contract pursuant to statutory competitive bidding procedures.

A county may not in the exercise of its county home rule powers under K.S.A. 19-101a exempt itself from regulations of the State Forestry, Fish and Game Com- mission establishing open seasons for the hunting, taking and killing of fur-bearing animals.

When zoning land within the three-mile limit pursuant to K.S.A. 12-715b, the city may not impose require- ments such as building permits and setback regulations upon residences and other accessory buildings on tracts of land in excess of three acres which are used exclu- sively for agricultural purposes. *

K.S.A. 19-4320(c) does not prohibit the addition of names to an existing eligible list prior to depletion of the list. *

An information request submitted pursuant to K.S.A. 1975 Supp. 84-9-407(2) may request information regarding a particular financing statement available on the date the request is received by the filing officer, or an earlier date specified in the information request it- self.

A regulation of a unified school district which requires that a student be enrolled in a minimum of five hours per day is not prima facie discriminatory, and purely as a matter of law, the rule is not beyond the authority of the board in the exercise of its general administrative power to adopt reasonable rules and regulations for the governance of the school.

The City of Fort Scott, Kansas, has general municipal jurisdiction over the property on which has been constructed a water storage reservoir and dam, and may exercise its police jurisdiction there so as to preserve the public peace and order. *

A municipality which grants a franchise to a public utility, a gas company, which is subject to the regu- lations of the State Corporation Commission may not reserve to itself the unlimited right to require the company to make repairs to its lines in such city. Any provision whereby the fixed charge required by K.S.A. 12-2001, Fifth, may be amended during the term of the franchise or any extension thereof without opportunity for submission to the voters in accordance with K.S.A. 12-2001, Sixth, is void and unenforceable. Acceptance, either formal or implied, is necessary to render a franchise

Venue for the prosecution of the offense of intentional failure to file any report required by the Campaign Finance Act, K.S.A. 25-4101 et seq., to be filed with the Commisison or with the Secretary of State lies only in Shawnee County, and accordingly, the district attor- ney of Shawnee County is the appropriate district at- torney to be notified of any such violations pursuant to K.S.A. 1975 Supp. 25-4125. * *

K.A.R. 48-3-2 which permits attorneys at law who are admitted in other jurisdictions to appear in admini- strative proceedings before the Division of Employ- ment Security does not relieve such attorneys from the requirement of K.S.A. 7-104 that they associate for that purpose with local counsel. * *

A motor vehicle service contract, offered by regis- tered Kansas motor vehicle dealers to purchasers of motor vehicles, providing for the repair or replace- ment of specified mechanical breakdowns, or reim- bursement therefor, and for payment or reimbursement of towing charges and car rental use incidental to such breakdowns, does not constitute a contract of insurance subject to the Kansas insurance code. *

Requirement to appoint board of hospital trustees is not mandatory but directory. Board of county commissioners having entered into agreement with a corporation pursuant to K.S.A. 19-1846 for the operation and maintenance of hospital need not ap- point new board of trustees.

December 16, 1976 ATTORNEY GENERAL OPINION NO. 76- 370 The Honorable Ben Foster State Representative 920 Olive W. Garvey Building 200 West Douglas Wichita, Kansas 67202 Re: Banks--Bank-holding Companies--Interstate Commerce Synopsis: In the event a Kansas corporation acquired con…

February 5, 1976 ATTORNEY GENERAL OPINION NO. 76- 37 Leonard J. Dix Rooks County Attorney Rooks County Courthouse Stockton, Kansas 67669 RE: K.S.A. 79-3101 et seq. Synopsis: Where an instrument, which would assign all right, title and interest in an agreement for sale and purchas…

K.S.A. 16a-3-305 prohibits all wage assignments made in connection with a consumer credit transaction. Wage assignments granted apart from such transactions are not prohibited, nor are such assignments statutorily required to be revocable. A wage assignment is a transfer of interest or right to a specified amount of an individual's regular, periodic compensation arising from an employment relationship. A "deduction" from compensation for purposes of K.S.A. 16a-3-305 is any lawful subtraction from a person's salary which is not otherwise a wage assignment and over which the employee retains the

A foreign limited partnership which has no activity in this state other than holding title to nonoperat- ing working interests in oil and gas producing pro- perties is not doing business as that term is used in K.S.A. 1975 Supp. 56-123b, and is not required to obtain authority to do business in this state as a foreign limited partnership for that activity.

Under Kansas law, a city may annex property only by action of the governing body, and there is no provision for submitting the question of annexation to a legally binding election by the voters of the city. An election which is purely advisory may be called and held on proposed annexation, although such an election is of no legal force and effect and is not binding upon the governing body.

Members of the board of directors of an irrigation dis- trict who are elected as provided by K.S.A. 42-702 are not elected at an election which is conducted by a county election officer. The recall provisions of sec- tions 18 through 31 of ch. 178, L. 1976, apply only to elected public officials who are provided by law to be elected at an election conducted by one or more county election officers. Thus, members of the board of di- rectors of an irrigation district elected as provided in K.S.A. 42-702 are not subject to recall pursuant to §§ 18-31, ch. 178, L. 1976. *

December 14, 1976 ATTORNEY GENERAL OPINION NO. 76- 365 Mr. James J. Smith Attorney at Law 610 Bridge Humboldt, Kansas 66748 Re: Counties--Mental Health Centers--Withdrawal by County Synopsis: The right of a county to withdraw from an agreement establishing a multi-county center p…

K.S.A. 12-705b contains no requirement that plats be approved by the city governing body prior to fil- ing with the register of deeds. *