Session 2000
Effective: July 1, 2000
SENATE BILL No. 526
An Act concerning asset forfeiture; allocation of forfeited property; amending K.S.A. 1999 Supp. 60-4117 and repealing the existing section.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Kansas:

      Section  1. K.S.A. 1999 Supp. 60-4117 is hereby amended to read as
follows: 60-4117. Except as provided in K.S.A. 1999 Supp. 65-7014, and
amendments thereto: (a) When property is forfeited under this act, the
law enforcement agency may:

      (1) Retain such property for official use or transfer the custody or
ownership to any local, state or federal agency, subject to any lien pre-
served by the court;

      (2) destroy or use for investigative or training purposes, any illegal or
controlled substances and equipment or other contraband, provided that
materials necessary as evidence shall be preserved;

      (3) sell property which is not required by law to be destroyed and
which is not harmful to the public:

      (A) All property, except real property, designated by the seizing
agency to be sold shall be sold at public sale to the highest bidder for
cash without appraisal. The seizing agency shall first cause notice of the
sale to be made by publication at least once in an official county news-
paper as defined by K.S.A. 64-101, and amendments thereto. Such notice
shall include the time, place, and conditions of the sale and description
of the property to be sold. Nothing in this subsection shall prevent a state
agency from using the state surplus property system and such system's
procedures shall be sufficient to meet the requirements of this subsection.

      (B) Real property may be sold pursuant to subsection (A), or the
seizing agency may contract with a real estate company, licensed in this
state, to list, advertise and sell such real property in a commercially rea-
sonable manner.

      (C) No employee or public official of any agency involved in the in-
vestigation, seizure or forfeiture of seized property may purchase or at-
tempt to purchase such property; or

      (4) salvage the property, subject to any lien preserved by the court.

      (b) When firearms are forfeited under this act, the firearms in the
discretion of the seizing agency, shall be destroyed, used within the seiz-
ing agency for official purposes, traded to another law enforcement
agency for use within such agency or given to the Kansas bureau of in-
vestigation for law enforcement, testing, comparison or destruction by
the Kansas bureau of investigation forensic laboratory.

      (c) The proceeds of any sale shall be distributed in the following order
of priority:

      (1) For satisfaction of any court preserved security interest or lien;

      (2) thereafter, for payment of all proper expenses of the proceedings
for forfeiture and disposition, including expenses of seizure, inventory,
appraisal, maintenance of custody, preservation of availability, advertising,
service of process, sale and court costs;

      (3) reasonable attorney fees:

      (A) If the plaintiff's attorney is a county or district attorney, an assis-
tant, or another governmental agency's attorney, fees shall not exceed
15% of the total proceeds, less the amounts of subsection (c)(1) and (2),
in an uncontested forfeiture nor 20% of the total proceeds, less the
amounts of subsection (c)(1) and (2), in a contested forfeiture. Such fees
shall be deposited in the county or city treasury and credited to the special
prosecutor's trust fund. Moneys in such fund shall not be considered a
source of revenue to meet normal operating expenditures, including sal-
ary enhancement. Such fund shall be expended by the county or district
attorney, or other governmental agency's attorney through the normal
county or city appropriation system and shall be used for such additional
law enforcement and prosecutorial purposes as the county or district at-
torney or other governmental agency's attorney deems appropriate, in-
cluding educational purposes. All moneys derived from past or pending
forfeitures shall be expended pursuant to this act. The board of county
commissioners shall provide adequate funding to the county or district
attorney's office to enable such office to enforce this act. Neither future
forfeitures nor the proceeds therefrom shall be used in planning or adopt-
ing a county or district attorney's budget; or

      (B) if the plaintiff's attorney is a private attorney, such reasonable
fees shall be negotiated by the employing law enforcement agency;

      (4) repayment of law enforcement funds expended in purchasing of
contraband or controlled substances, subject to any interagency agree-
ment.

      (d) Any proceeds remaining shall be credited as follows, subject to
any interagency agreement:

      (1) If the law enforcement agency is a state agency, the entire amount
shall be deposited in the state treasury and credited to such agency's state
forfeiture fund. There is hereby established in the state treasury the fol-
lowing state funds: Kansas bureau of investigation state forfeiture fund,
Kansas highway patrol state forfeiture fund and, Kansas department of
corrections state forfeiture fund and Kansas national guard counter drug
state forfeiture fund. Expenditures from the Kansas bureau of investiga-
tion state forfeiture fund shall be made upon warrants of the director of
accounts and reports issued pursuant to vouchers approved by the attor-
ney general or by a person or persons designated by the attorney general.
Expenditures from the Kansas highway patrol state forfeiture fund shall
be made upon warrants of the director of accounts and reports issued
pursuant to vouchers approved by the superintendent of the highway
patrol or by a person or persons designated by the superintendent. Ex-
penditures from the Kansas department of corrections state forfeiture
fund shall be made upon warrants of the director of accounts and reports
issued pursuant to vouchers approved by the secretary of the department
of corrections or by a person or persons designated by the secretary.
Expenditures from the Kansas national guard counter drug state forfeiture
fund shall be made upon warrants of the director of accounts and reports
issued pursuant to vouchers approved by the adjutant general of Kansas
or by a person or persons designated by the adjutant general. Each agency
shall compile and submit a forfeiture fund report to the legislature on or
before February 1 of each year. Such report shall include, but not be
limited to: (A) The fund balance on December 1; (B) the deposits and
expenditures for the previous 12-month period ending December 1.
Upon the effective date of this act, the director of accounts and reports
is directed to transfer each agency's balance in the state special asset
forfeiture fund to the agency's new, state forfeiture fund. All liabilities of
the state special asset forfeiture fund existing prior to such date are hereby
imposed on the Kansas bureau of investigation state forfeiture fund, Kan-
sas highway patrol state forfeiture fund and the Kansas department of
corrections state forfeiture fund. The state special asset forfeiture fund is
hereby abolished.

      (2) If the law enforcement agency is a city or county agency, the
entire amount shall be deposited in such city or county treasury and cred-
ited to a special law enforcement trust fund. Each agency shall compile
and submit annually a special law enforcement trust fund report to the
entity which has budgetary authority over such agency and such report
shall specify, for such period, the type and approximate value of the for-
feited property received, the amount of any forfeiture proceeds received,
and how any of those proceeds were expended.

      (3) Moneys in the Kansas bureau of investigation state forfeiture
fund, Kansas highway patrol state forfeiture fund, Kansas department of
corrections state forfeiture fund and, the special law enforcement trust
funds and the Kansas national guard counter drug state forfeiture fund
shall not be considered a source of revenue to meet normal operating
expenses. Such funds shall be expended by the agencies or departments
through the normal city, county or state appropriation system and shall
be used for such special, additional law enforcement purposes as the law
enforcement agency head deems appropriate. Neither future forfeitures
nor the proceeds therefrom from such forfeitures shall be used in plan-
ning or adopting a law enforcement agency's budget.

      Sec.  2. K.S.A. 1999 Supp. 60-4117 is hereby repealed.

      Sec.  3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its
publication in the statute book.