2-1904. State conservation commission; members; terms; records; seal; powers and duties; rules and regulations; compensation and expenses; employees; office and supplies.
2-1904
2-1904. State conservation commission; members;
terms; records; seal;
powers and duties; rules and regulations; compensation and expenses; employees;
office and supplies.
(a) There is hereby established, to serve as an agency of the state and
to perform the functions conferred upon it in this act, the state
conservation commission. The state conservation commission
shall succeed to all the
powers, duties and property of the state soil conservation committee.
The commission shall consist of nine members as follows:
(1) The director of the cooperative extension service and the director of
the state agricultural experiment station located at
Manhattan, Kansas, or such persons' designees shall serve, ex officio, as
members of the commission.
(2) The commission shall
request the secretary of agriculture of United States of America to
appoint one person and the secretary of the Kansas
department of agriculture to appoint one person, each of whom shall be
residents of the state of Kansas to serve as members of the commission.
These members shall hold
office for four years and until a successor is appointed and qualifies, with
terms commencing on the second Monday in January beginning in 1973.
(3) Five members of the state commission shall be
elected by the conservation district supervisors at a time and place to
be designated by the state conservation commission. The method of
electing such members to be conducted as follows: The state is to be
divided
into five separate areas. Area No. I to include the following
counties: Cheyenne, Rawlins, Decatur, Norton, Phillips, Smith, Osborne,
Rooks, Graham, Sheridan, Thomas, Sherman, Wallace, Logan, Gove, Trego,
Ellis and Russell. Area No. II to include: Greeley, Wichita, Scott,
Lane, Ness, Rush, Pawnee, Hodgeman, Finney, Kearny, Hamilton, Edwards,
Ford, Gray, Haskell, Grant, Stanton, Morton, Stevens, Seward, Meade,
Clark, Comanche and Kiowa. Area No. III to include: Jewell, Republic,
Mitchell, Cloud, Lincoln, Ottawa, Ellsworth, Saline, Rice, McPherson,
Reno, Harvey, Kingman, Sedgwick, Sumner, Harper, Barber, Pratt, Barton
and Stafford. Area No. IV to include: Washington, Marshall, Nemaha,
Brown, Doniphan, Clay, Riley, Pottawatomie, Jackson, Atchison,
Jefferson, Leavenworth, Wyandotte, Johnson, Douglas, Shawnee, Wabaunsee,
Geary, Dickinson, Morris, Osage, Franklin and Miami. Area No. V to
include: Marion, Chase, Lyon, Coffey, Anderson, Linn, Bourbon, Allen,
Woodson, Greenwood, Butler, Elk, Wilson, Neosho, Crawford, Cowley,
Chautauqua, Montgomery, Labette and Cherokee. Areas II and IV will elect
in even number years and Areas I, III and V shall elect in odd
number years for two year terms. The elected commission members from Areas
I, III and V shall take office on January 1, of the even number years. The
remaining two elected members of the state commission from Areas II and IV
shall take office on January 1, of the odd number years. The method of
election is to be by area caucus of the district supervisors
of each of the five separate areas of Kansas. The commission shall
give each district notice of the time and place of such annual election
meeting by letter if a member is to be elected to the commission from
that area that year. The selection of a successor to fill an unexpired
term shall be by appointment by the commission. The successor who is
appointed to fill the unexpired term shall be a resident of the same
area as that of the predecessor.
(b) The commission shall keep a record of its official actions, shall
adopt a seal which seal shall be judicially noticed, and may perform such acts,
hold such public hearings and adopt rules and regulations necessary for the
execution of its functions under this act.
(c) The state conservation commission may employ an
administrative officer and such technical experts as it may require and shall
determine their qualifications and duties. Such officer and experts
shall be in the unclassified service of the Kansas civil service act
and shall receive annual salaries fixed by the commission and approved
by the state finance council. All other agents and employees, permanent
or temporary, required by the state conservation commission, shall be within
the classified service of the Kansas civil service act. The commission
may call upon the attorney general of the state for such legal services
as it may require. It shall have authority to delegate to its
chairperson,
to one or more of its members or to one or more agents or
employees, such powers and duties as it deems proper. It shall be
supplied with suitable office accommodations at the state capital, and
shall be furnished with the necessary supplies and equipment. Upon
request of the commission, for the purpose of carrying out any of its
functions, the supervising officer of any state agency or of any state
institution of learning, insofar as may be possible under
available appropriations and having due regard to the needs of the
agency to which the request is directed, shall assign or detail to the
commission members of the staff or personnel of such agency or
institution of learning and make such special reports, surveys or
studies as the commission may request.
(d) The commission shall designate its chairperson and,
from time to time, may change such designation. A majority of the commission
shall
constitute a quorum, and the concurrence of a majority in any matter
within their duties shall be required for its determination. Members of
the state conservation commission attending meetings of such commission
or attending a subcommittee meeting thereof authorized by such
commission shall be paid compensation, subsistence allowances, mileage
and other expenses as provided in K.S.A. 75-3223, and
amendments thereto. The
commission shall provide for keeping of a full and accurate record of
all proceedings and of all resolutions, regulations and orders issued
or adopted.
(e) In addition to the duties and powers hereinafter
conferred upon
the state conservation commission, it shall have the following duties
and powers:
(1) To offer such assistance as may be appropriate to the
supervisors of conservation districts, organized as provided
hereinafter, in the carrying out of any of their powers and programs;
(2) to keep the supervisors of each of the several districts organized
under the provisions of this act informed of the activities and
experience of all other districts organized hereunder and to facilitate
an interchange of advice and experience between such districts and
cooperation between them;
(3) to coordinate the programs of the several
conservation districts organized hereunder;
(4) to secure the
cooperation and assistance of the United States and any of its agencies
and of agencies of this state, in the work of such districts and to
contract with or to accept donations, grants, gifts and contributions in
money, services or otherwise from the United States or any of its
agencies or from the state or any of its agencies in order to carry out
the purposes of this act;
(5) to disseminate information throughout the
state concerning the activities and programs of the conservation
districts organized hereunder and to encourage the formation of such
districts in areas where their organization is desirable;
(6) to
cooperate with and give assistance to watershed districts and other
special purpose districts in the state of Kansas for the purpose of
cooperating with the United States through the secretary of agriculture
in the furtherance of conservation pursuant to the provisions of the
watershed protection and flood prevention act, as amended;
(7) to cooperate
in and carry out, in accordance with state policies, activities and programs
to conserve and develop the water resources of the state and maintain and
improve the quality of such water resources;
(8) to enlist
the cooperation and collaboration of state, federal, regional,
interstate, local, public and private agencies with the conservation
districts; and
(9) to facilitate arrangements under which conservation
districts may serve county governing bodies and other agencies as their
local operating agencies in the administration of any activity concerned
with the conservation of natural resources.
History: L. 1937, ch. 5, § 4; L. 1951, ch. 11, § 1; L. 1959,
ch. 5, § 1; L. 1972, ch. 5, § 3; L. 1974, ch. 348, § 3; L. 1979,
ch. 6, § 2;
L. 1989, ch. 5, § 1;
L. 1992, ch. 116, § 23;
L. 2001, ch. 86, § 3; April 12.