Session of 1999
House Concurrent Resolution No. 5026
By Representative Light
(By Request)
2-11
10 A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION requesting the Kansas Legislature
11 to enact amendments to the Kansas statutes prescribing further or
12 more particular requirements, grounds and procedures for the recall
13 of elected public officers to reduce the possibility of frivolous petitions
14 for recall or petitions for recall that contain inaccurate or false alle-
15 gations being promoted and filed against elected public officers.
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18 WHEREAS, Kansas is one of 24 states that have a Silver Haired Leg-
19 islature and the Kansas Silver Haired Legislature conducted its 16th An-
20 nual Session in October of 1998; and
21 WHEREAS, The Kansas Silver Haired Legislature adopted SHL Res-
22 olution No. 1513 which requested amendments to Kansas statutes re-
23 garding recall of elected public officials; and
24 WHEREAS, The Constitution of the State of Kansas, in section 3 of
25 article 4, provides that all public officials in the state, except judicial of-
26 ficers, are to be subject to recall by the voters of the jurisdiction from
27 which elected and that procedures and grounds therefor are to be pre-
28 scribed by law; and
29 WHEREAS, The grounds for recall of elected officials set forth in
30 K.S.A. 25-4302 are "conviction of a felony, misconduct in office, incom-
31 petence or failure to perform duties prescribed by law"; and
32 WHEREAS, Even though the Kansas statutes require that each peti-
33 tion for recall include the grounds for recall and have been interpreted
34 to require that the petition must state the grounds with particularity, there
35 have been instances of frivolous petitions for recall, or even petitions
36 containing inaccurate or false allegations, being promoted and filed
37 against public office holders; and
38 WHEREAS, In addition to the considerable time and money required
39 to file for and conduct a campaign to be elected to office, elective public
40 office carries with it a certain loss of privacy which has the tendency to
41 discourage qualified persons from running for office; and
42 WHEREAS, A petition for recall, however frivolous or erroneous, can
43 cause damage to an elected public officer's reputation and can cause
44 emotional pain or anxiety to the officer and to the officer's family and
45 friends, and the mere possibility of this happening to a person who is
46 considering running for election or the example of this happening to an-
47 other person in public office can effectively discourage qualified persons
48 from permitting their names to be placed in nomination for elective of-
49 fice: Now, therefore,
50 Be it resolved by the House of Representative of the State of Kansas,
51 the Senate concurring therein: That the Kansas Legislature is hereby
52 requested to enact amendments to the Kansas statutes prescribing further
53 or more particular requirements, grounds and procedures for the recall
54 of elected public officers, except judicial officers, to reduce the possibility
55 of frivolous petitions for recall or petitions for recall that contain inac-
56 curate or false allegations being promoted and filed against elected public
57 officers.
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