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Douglas County commissioners briefed on Kansas open meetings, records rules as body expands to five members
Summary
County legal counsel reviewed Kansas Open Meetings Act and Open Records Act at a Jan. 15 work session, explaining when a gathering becomes a ‘meeting,’ executive-session rules, ex parte disclosures in quasi‑judicial hearings and how electronic communications can create meeting risks.
Douglas County Board of County Commissioners held a work session on Jan. 15, 2025, to review the Kansas Open Meetings Act (COMA) and Kansas Open Records Act (CORA) after the board expanded from three to five members. County Counselor John Bullock led the presentation in the commission’s new meeting room, telling commissioners the session was meant to clarify when interactions among members must be conducted in public.
The session matters because a majority of the five-member board—three commissioners—now constitutes a quorum for purposes of COMA, creating new limits on how commissioners may communicate about official county business outside public meetings. "You're doing the public's business and the public has a right to know," Bullock said, summarizing the statutes’ public-access objective.
Bullock reviewed the statutory definition of a meeting as a gathering of a majority that engages in interactive discussion of the body's…
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