County Attorney Marc Goodman will not take action on a complaint filed against the city of Emporia by Planning Commissioner Raymond Rogers.
Rogers announced Tuesday night that he had filed the complaint with Emporia police, alleging that the city of Emporia violated state statute on public projects. The complaint was forwarded to Goodman, who returned it to the city.
“It’s not a criminal issue,” Goodman said. “That’s for the city to work out or for him to hire an attorney.”
Rogers said that the city was required by law to develop a capital improvement plan for each of its infrastructure projects, which then has to be reviewed by both the Emporia-Lyon County Metropolitan Area Planning Commission and the Emporia City Commission. Instead, he said, public money has been spent without going through the process.
“I think I remember once in the last 10 years when we’ve actually complied with state statute,” Rogers said at a planning commission meeting Tuesday night.
Rogers filed the complaint as a private citizen. The planning commission has taken no position on the charges.
Steve Commons, who was Emporia’s city manager for 20 years, said it’s true that capital improvement plans weren’t submitted. However, he said, state law only requires that to happen when a separate capital improvement program has been funded — and Emporia never did.
“We consulted at times with the planning commission, but as far as a formal process that should be followed for formal planning, we never did,” Commons said. “We didn’t have the staff time to do it.”
Sandy Jacquot, counsel for the League of Kansas Municipalities, said that under KSA 12-748, if a city has a comprehensive plan — which Emporia does — it should by law submit any public improvements covered by that plan to the planning commission for review. However, she said, the city commission still has the final say and can overrule the planning commission if it wishes.
There is no penalty listed for violations of the statute, she said.
“There is no civil penalty and it’s certainly not a crime,” Jacquot said. “It’s not like it’s a big deal.”
City Engineer Keith Beatty and City Commissioner Bobbie Agler, who attended Tuesday’s planning commission meeting, declined to comment on Rogers’ charges.
“It would be inappropriate,” Agler said.
City Attorney Blaise Plummer said this morning that while he didn’t agree with Rogers’ interpretation of the statutes, he did understand his desire for a more formal process.
“I would have preferred it to be raised in a different way, but I understand his position,” Plummer said, “I think it’s an issue they can talk about with the city commission and hammer out a process. ... I think it needs to be a dialogue between the city commission and the planning commission.”
Plummer also noted that last June, Commons spent about half a session discussing capital improvements with the planning commission. But the city can look at ways to improve things, Plummer said.
“I know he (Rogers) hasn’t been satisfied with the way it’s happened in the past,” Plummer said.
Rogers said the issue had been raised several times over the years without result.
“To put it bluntly, we’ve been ignored,” he said.