Committee advances bill to create Kansas Municipal Employee Whistleblower Act

At a meeting of the Committee on Local Government, members voted to advance House Bill 2160 to the full House after adopting an amendment that adds statutory definitions for malfeasance and misappropriation.

The bill, described by the committee revisor as “the bill to create the Kansas Municipal Employee Whistleblower Act, which is modeled after the current state employee whistleblower act 75-2973,” would extend to municipal employees the same legal protections currently available to state employees for reporting or disclosing unlawful or dangerous actions by their employer, the revisor said.

The measure would replicate the state act’s definition of disciplinary action and add two provisions not in the state law: a definition of malfeasance and misappropriation and a provision allowing municipal employees to bring a direct cause of action in district court for violations of the new act. “It will go into effect on July 1, if enacted,”…