Serving Kansas City (Wyandotte County) Kansas for over 50 years!
A program on the history of the Kansas Delaware Tribe will be presented from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 19, at the Wyandotte County Museum, 631 N. 126th St., Bonner Springs.
The museum is located inside Wyandotte County Park, Bonner Springs.
The program includes a presentation, discussion and traditional bean dance presented by the Kansas Delaware Tribe.
The program is free and open to the public.
U.S. District Court Judge Carlos Murguia, who was publicly reprimanded for sexual harassment last fall, resigned his judgeship effective April 1, according to a statement posted by the U.S. District Court.
Last fall, Judge Murguia of Kansas City, Kansas, was reprimanded by the U.S. Court of Appeals, 10th Circuit, which published an order on its website.
In a letter of resignation today to the president, Judge Murguia, who was appointed in 1999, resigned with “a heavy heart and profound apologies, out of respect for the federal judiciary, my colleagues, my community and – most importantly – my family.”
According to a statement by the chief judge, Judge Murguia’s cases will be reassigned to the other district judges of the U.S. District Court of Kansas. Murguia will resign his commission without eligibility for pension or retirement benefits, according to the statement by the chief judge. (http://ksd.uscourts.gov/index.php/2020/02/18/judge-murguia-resignation/)
Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt has notified the city of Frontenac that it violated the Kansas Open Records Act (KORA) when it requested a $3,500 fee in order to furnish copies of public records to a reporter.
In October 2019, a reporter with KOAM and Fox 14 News filed a KORA complaint with the attorney general’s office alleging, in part, that the city’s $3,500 fee request to furnish public records he requested on Sept. 18 was unreasonable.
Upon investigation, the attorney general’s office determined that Frontenac’s fee request was unreasonable and thus violated the KORA because it failed to explain or justify its $3,500 fee request, including why it was seeking $225 per hour for any time spent by its outside legal counsel.
“While the city may recover its actual costs in responding to a KORA request, those costs must still be reasonable,” the attorney general’s office wrote in a finding of violation. “An hourly rate of $225.00 per hour for attorney time is per se unreasonable. Outside counsel may charge a governmental entity for its services. However, based on the public policy and purpose of the KORA, it is unreasonable for a public agency to pass those costs onto a requester without a significant reduction in the hourly fee rate.”
As a result of the finding of violation, the attorney general has imposed the following requirements on the city:
• Cease and desist from any further violation of the KORA;
• Review and amend its city ordinance outlining fees for access to public records to ensure compliance with the KORA;
• Adopt, review, or update any internal city policies governing how staff is to respond to KORA requests, including the calculation of costs necessary to do so;
• Establish and maintain a checklist for city staff to use and consider when calculating actual costs necessary to respond to a KORA request;
• Identify at least one and a half hours of training on the KORA for any interim or permanently appointed city attorney, city administrator, city clerk, city records custodian or others required to respond to or process records requests, and each member of the city council to attend;
• Provide the attorney general with a written report of compliance within 60 days of the finding of violation.
A copy of the finding of violation, which was signed last week by the attorney general, is available at http://ag.ks.gov/open-govt/enforcement-actions. Information about the requirements of the KORA and the KOMA can be found at http://ag.ks.gov/open-govt.