2-3002.   Creation of Kansas corn, grain sorghum,soybean, wheat and sunflower commissions; membership; election process; terms;vacancies; districts; ex officio members; first purchasers; meetings.(a) There are hereby created five separate and distinct commissions which shallbe known as the Kansas corn commission, the Kansas grain sorghum commission,the Kansas soybean commission, the Kansaswheat commission and the Kansas sunflower commission. Each commissionwill have members electedthrough an election process as provided in subsection (b)to serve three-year terms, with the exception of transitioncommissioners, serving from the effective date of this act until electionsoccur in 2002, 2003 and 2004, to represent a district or districts identifiedin subsection (b) with the following requirements:

      (1)   Any person meeting the requirements of K.S.A. 2-3003, and amendmentsthereto, of that commodity may seek election as a commissioner to thatcommodity's respective commission representing the district of such person'sofficial residence. Only a grower of each specific commodity shall be a memberof that specific commission;

      (2)   no commission shall have less than seven commissioners representing thenine crop reporting districts identified in subsection (h). If a commission hasless than nine elected commissioners representing crop reporting districts, anycommissioner representing multiple crop reporting districts may only representcommission districts equal to whole and adjoining crop reporting districts thatare within the same election cycle;

      (3)   each commission, by majority approval of the commissions,may appoint two additional at-large commissioners for addedrepresentation for producers due to geographical, cropping pattern or otherreasonable commodity-specific needs. At-large commissioners will serve a termdetermined by the commodity commission not to exceed three-year terms ofappointment, be a Kansas resident and must meet the definition of agrower; and

      (4)   each commission, by majority approval of the commissions, may appoint afirst purchaser as an additional at-large commissioner.Any such first purchaser will serve a term determined by thecommodity commission not to exceed a three-year term of appointment and must bea Kansas resident.

      (b) (1)   Prior to the first election as provided by this act, eachcommodity commission shall notify allgrowers of its respective commodity of the commission election and allappropriate election procedures.

      (2)   Any grower of corn, grain sorghum, soybeans, wheat orsunflowers who is a resident ofthis state, of legal voting age andhas been actively engaged in growing corn, grain sorghum, soybeans, wheat orsunflowers within the preceding three years shall becomean eligible voter upon registering to vote in a commission election.Registration shall be on a single formallowing registration to any or all commission elections. Forms shall beprovided by the commissionsand made available at all county extension offices, county conservationdistrict offices and through theoffice of the secretary. Any grower also shall become registered by signing apetition for a candidate tobe placed on the election ballot, upon the filing of such petition. Candidatepetition forms shall beprovided by the office of the secretary. Registration by internet or othermeans shall also be allowedupon the approval of the secretary.No grower shall cast more than one ballot for any commission election.

      (3)   Any person meeting the qualifications to serve as a commissioner mayappear on the election ballotfor their respective commission district by submitting a petition to be placedon the ballot on or beforeNovember 30 in the year immediately preceding theelection. The petition shallcontain the signatures of 20eligible voters of that commodity commission election to be a valid petition.However, no more than fivepetition signatures shall be used to qualify any candidate from any one county.

      (4)   Commission election ballots shall be mailed to eligible voters by January15 and shall be returned tothe election officer, as provided through the common election procedurerequired in subsection (e), on or before March 1 in the year of any election.Successful candidates in anyelection will have received the highest number of the votes cast. Electionresults will be announced assoon as the election has been determined with successful candidates takingoffice with terms effectiveApril 1 in the year of the election.

      (5)   On and after July 1, 2002, any interested person or entity in theagriculture industry, with emphasis on growers of sunflowers, may submit namesto the governor for appointment to the Kansas sunflower commission. On or afterSeptember 1, 2002, the governor shall appoint nine members to the Kansassunflower commission from among the names submitted to the governor, ifpossible, to represent each of the crop reporting districts as provided inthis section. The terms of the members appointed by the governor shall be thesame as provided in subsection (d) and the same election provisions as providedin this section applicable to the other commissions shall apply to suchappointed members, except that the members appointed to represent districtsIV, V and VI shall not stand for election in 2002 but rather shall have theirinitial term of office to run until the election held for such districtsin 2005. At such time the same election provisions of this section applicableto the other commissions shall apply to such members.

      (c)   Upon the effective date of this act, each commission created shall meetas soon as feasible to organize, elect officers and ratify the number ofcommissioners and representative districts that commission shall maintain.Commissioners currently serving these commissions immediately prior to theeffective date of this act are appointed to transition terms as follows: (1)Commissioners whose terms expire in June, 2000, shall have their terms extendeduntil April, 2002; (2) commissioners whose terms expire in June, 2001, shallhave their terms extended until April, 2003; and (3) commissioners whose termsexpire in June, 2003, shall have their terms extended until April, 2004.

      (d)   Annual elections for up to three commissioners representing districtsshall begin in January and February of 2002. Commissioners elected shall takeoffice April 1 of the year elected and serve a three-year term. Elections willoccur as follows and continue on a three-year cycle thereafter: (1) Indistricts IV, V and VI, the initial election year shall be 2002; (2) indistricts I, II and III,the initial election year shall be 2003; and (3) in districts VII, VIII and IX,the initial election year shall be 2004.

      (e)   The five grain commissions, as provided in this act shall maintain onfile a common election procedure with the secretary of agriculture, who willserve as the final arbitrator of any disputeregarding the election procedure.

      (f)   Any grower who appropriately registers to vote shall be able to do so inan election for any commissioner representing that commodity and district wherethe grower maintains such grower's official residence.

      (g)   Any challenge to election results for the position of commoditycommissioner representing a district shall be initially reviewed by a panel ofcommissioners, not standing for election that year, and representing allfive grain commissions. If the challenge is notresolved before the panel of commissioners, the secretary shall serve as thefinal arbitrator of the challenge to the election results.

      (h)   Vacancies which may occur shall be filled for unexpired terms byappointment by the remaining commissioners.

      (i)   The dean of the college of agriculture of Kansas state university and thesecretary of the Kansas department of agriculture shall be ex officio members,without the right to vote, of each such commission. Districts are the same ascrop reporting districts established for Kansas by the U.S. department ofagriculture national agricultural statistic service and are as follows:

      (j)   District I shall consist of the following counties: Cheyenne, Decatur,Graham, Norton, Rawlins, Sheridan, Sherman and Thomas.

      District II shall consist of the following counties: Gove, Greeley, Lane,Logan, Ness, Scott, Trego, Wallace and Wichita.

      District III shall consist of the following counties: Clark, Finney, Ford,Grant, Gray, Hamilton, Haskell, Hodgeman, Kearny, Meade, Morton, Seward,Stanton and Stevens.

      District IV shall consist of the following counties: Clay, Cloud, Jewell,Mitchell, Osborne, Ottawa, Phillips, Republic, Rooks, Smith and Washington.

      District V shall consist of the following counties: Barton, Dickinson,Ellis, Ellsworth, Lincoln, McPherson, Marion, Rice, Rush, Russell and Saline.

      District VI shall consist of the following counties: Barber, Comanche,Edwards, Harper, Harvey, Kingman, Kiowa, Pawnee, Pratt, Reno, Sedgwick,Stafford and Sumner.

      District VII shall consist of the following counties: Atchison, Brown,Doniphan, Jackson, Jefferson, Leavenworth, Marshall, Nemaha, Pottawatomie,Riley and Wyandotte.

      District VIII shall consist of the following counties: Anderson, Chase,Coffey, Douglas, Franklin, Geary, Johnson, Linn, Lyon, Miami, Morris, Osage,Shawnee and Wabaunsee.

      District IX shall consist of the following counties: Allen, Bourbon, Butler,Chautauqua, Cherokee, Cowley, Crawford, Elk, Greenwood, Labette, Montgomery,Neosho, Wilson and Woodson.

      (k)   Meetings and any records of any commission created by this act shallbe open to the public tothe same extent as is required by law of public boards and commissions pursuantto the open records act and the open meetings act. Records shall includecontracts entered into by any commission.

      History:   L. 1977, ch. 4, § 2;L. 1988, ch. 10, § 1;L. 1996, ch. 209, § 14;L. 2000, ch. 116, § 2;L. 2002, ch. 93, § 2;L. 2004, ch. 101, § 191;L. 2008, ch. 94, § 1; Apr. 24.