Authority of Boards

How Much Authority Does the Board of County Commissioners Have?
Twenty-five years of legislative initiatives, state court rulings, including one from the Kansas Supreme Court, numerous opinions from the Office of Attorney General and innumerable courthouse conflicts have failed to clarify this basic governance question.

The legislative authority of Boards of County Commissioners in Kansas remains imprecise and in dispute. Legal ambiguities surrounding the county commission’s authority, compounded by political competition for power from other elected county officers, result in wasted public resources, destructive organizational conflict, and diminished public trust in county governments. "Authority of Boards of County Commissioners in Kansas" whitepaper