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Minutes for HB2136 - Committee on Local Government
Short Title
Establishing municipal vacancy appointment limitations.
Minutes Content for Wed, Feb 13, 2019
The Chair opened the hearing on HB2136.
Staff Zach Fridell briefed the Committee on the bill. He explained that the bill is a reintroduction of 2018 SB 370 and is intended to prevent members of city councils and school boards from extending the terms of office without an election. Last year’s bill was introduced by and referred to the Senate Committee on Ethics, Elections and Local Government.
There were no proponents for the bill.
Keith Esau returned to provide neutral observations about the bill (Attachment 12). He commented that he supported the surface intent of the bill, but that the bill does not address the larger problem--the issue of self-replicating government. He explained that, under the present system, the primary issue is that a candidate can become responsive to a board rather than responsive to the citizens of a community. To obviate that problem, he offered two options/solutions: Require partisan elections or allow precinct community members to select a person to fill out a term of office. He recommended an amendment to the bill that would require non-partisan boards to either become partisan for the purpose of allowing the precinct committee people to select replacements, or hold a special election within 45-75 days following the departure of a member of a board or council.
Rob Gilligan, Government Relations Specialist, Kansas Association of School Boards, also provided written-only neutral testimony (Attachment 13).
The Chair closed the hearing on HB2136.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:57 a.m. The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, February 18, 2019, at 9:00 a.m. in Room 218N of the Capitol.
