Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach has released new guidance on the Kansas Open Meetings Act (KOMA) and the Kansas Open Records Act (KORA) following the July 1, 2025, implementation of reforms to the sunshine laws.
House Bill 2134 amended the statute to reduce costs for KORA requests and to clarify which public entities are subject to KOMA.
For years, governing bodies such as city councils and county commissions have utilized “subcommittees” composed of one or two governing body members and staff or community members to circumvent the notification and reporting requirements of KOMA.
The act now explicitly makes such subcommittees subject to KOMA.
“A committee composed of public body members and agency staff must comply with KOMA if it was created by the public body and a majority of its members meet. Under the statute, any subcommittee or subordinate group created by a public body or agency is subject to open meeting requirements when a majority of its members convene,” Kobach’s Citizens’ Guide to Open Records reads. “This includes committees tasked with discussing or acting on matters related to the governing body’s responsibilities. The involvement of public body members indicates the group is likely acting on behalf of the governing body. Therefore, such meetings must comply with KOMA to ensure transparency and public access.”
Additionally, even if no members of the governing body sit on the committee, it is still subject to KOMA if it was created by a public board or agency and a majority of its members meet.
Moreover, a private entity that receives funding from a legislative or administrative body of the state — or a taxing subdivision such as a school board — may be considered a “subordinate group” under the law and be subject to KOMA.
“The statute specifies that a private entity is subject to KOMA if it is under the control, directly or indirectly, of the public body,” the guidance reads. “Simply receiving funding does not automatically mean the public body controls the private entity, but it is one factor to consider.”
Livestreams now must include public comment
After considerable controversy over not including public comment periods in livestreams of meetings, or cutting them entirely, KOMA now requires that if a governing body allows a public comment period, it must be included if the meeting is streamed.
“If a public body chooses to provide a live stream, it must ensure that the entire open meeting is available to the public through the selected medium,” the AG’s guidance reads.
Law also makes changes to KORA fees
HB2134 was passed in a rare unanimous vote of both houses, and it should reduce so-called “go away fees.”
Exorbitant fees to fill open records requests are fairly standard practice across the country and in Kansas. Known as a “go away price,” the hope is that if a news organization or resident is quoted an outrageous sum for records, they’ll simply drop the request.
It’s a situation that has prevailed for decades and that previous changes to the Kansas Open Records Act (KORA) have attempted to combat — indeed, as recently as 2015, Kansas has ranked 43rd overall in transparency.
The bill prohibits an agency from charging a fee above the actual cost of furnishing copies of requested records, and specifies that actual costs include the cost to review requests and redact the requested records. The bill also prohibits any incidental costs incurred by the public agency not attributable to furnishing the requested records from being included. Government entities may no longer charge 25 cents per page plus employee time in response to a KORA request, but may charge the actual cost of printing a page, which is closer to five cents. No per-page charges may be imposed for electronic documents.
Additionally, if an agency incurs costs for staff time to provide access to or furnish copies of public records, the bill requires the agency to use in good faith the lowest cost category of staff reasonably necessary to provide such access or copies. The bill requires charges for staff time to be based on the employee’s salary or hourly wage, not including the cost of employee benefits.
Agencies will also be required — upon request — to provide an itemized statement of costs. The statement must include — but is not limited to — the hourly rate for each employee involved in making the records available and an itemized list of any other fees charged to provide access to, or copies of, the requested records.
Executive branch agency heads will be required to establish fees for records.
The KORA revisions also require agencies to make “reasonable efforts to contact” requesters to discuss mitigating costs when staff time exceeds five hours or the estimated cost exceeds $200.
