By LESLIE EIKLEBERRY
Salina Post
During a more than five-hour meeting Monday night, the Salina City Commission did not approve a petition-driven proposed ordinance that sought to limit the commission's authority to impose restrictions on businesses or citizens in response to public emergencies and defered discussion about how to proceed on the matter to next Monday's meeting.
The petition, written by Kevin Korb and circulated by a number of individuals, was verified by the Saline County Clerk's Office and delivered to the city clerk on July 28.
A summary of the proposed ordinance is as follows.
"This ordinance prevents the City of Salina Governing Body from enacting any ordinance, in response to a public emergency, that imposes restrictions on businesses or citizens, leaving that responsibility to Saline County and subject to the Kansas Emergency Management Act."
Several people, including Korb, spoke in support of the proposed ordinance, however, several others encouraged the commission to not relinquish its authority.
City staff prepared for commissioners a three-step approach to dealing with the petition, the first step being to consider inacting the proposed ordinance. The proposed ordinance was not enacted due to a lack of a motion to do so.
The commission also can pursue a "declaratory judgment in Saline County District Court regarding the validity and status of the petition and proposed ordinance," according to information in Step 2.
Step 3 would be consideration of placing the proposed ordinance on the Nov. 2 ballot. Items for the Nov. 2 ballot must be in place by Sept. 1.
The commission also could do a hybrid of Step 2 and Step 3 and submit the proposed ordinance for the November ballot while pursuing a declaratory judgment from the court.
After a 15-minute executive session, the city commission voted 5-0 to defer discussion about the next step in the process to next week's meeting in order to allow city counsel time to pull together the additional information that commissioners requested in order to make a decision on how to proceed.
Additionally, city counsel confirmed that by taking the petition matter under consideration at the meeting, the commission did, indeed, fulfill its obligation to adress the matter within 20 days as specified by state statute.