SELECTION OF ARCHITECT FOR APPROVING PLANS FOR CITY LIBRARY. Letter, July 22, 1968, to Mr. Frank Hahn, City Attorney, Phillipsburg, Kansas.
You have asked who has the basic responsibility for selecting an architect and approving plans for the construction of a city library to be financed in part by gifts, in part by grants from federal and state sources, and in part from the proceeds of a city tax levy made under K.S.A. 12-1737.
The library will be under the supervision of the existing library board which, under K.S.A. 12-1223 has corporate status and the authority under its own name to acquire, hold and convey real and personal property. Under K.S.A. 1967 Supp. 12-1225 (b), the library board is specificially given the authority to erect a building or buildings for the use of the library "with the approval of the governing body of the municipality." Such "approval" is also required for the acquisition or disposition of real property under K.S.A. 12-1223. We construe both of these requirements as to "approval" as giving to the governing body of the city the equivalent of a veto power over the basic decision to acquire real property or to erect a building. We do not believe they were intended to place the general supervision and control over details of acquisition or erection to the governing body of the city.
We also note that under K.S.A. 1967 Supp. 12-1225 (g) it is the library board which is authorized to receive and administer state and federal grants. In your particular instance, if the federal and state money, together with gifts or donations which are authorized to be received by the library board under (h), were to be administered by the library board while the city governing body controlled the disbursement of the tax funds raised under 12-1737, there would be a needless duplication of effort. In addition, such dual control might necessitate the letting of dual contracts and, if the two bodies could not agree, might result in an impasse so as to block the project entirely.
In view of these considerations, and particularly in view of the fact that the library board clearly is the party responsible for administering federal and state grants and other gifts, it is our view that the better interpretation of the statute is one which would place the primary responsibility for supervising the project o the library board, while reserving to the governing body the right to disapprove the basic decision to build and to determine the limits of the city's financial participation.
- Quoted from Kansas Public Library Laws, Attorney General’s Opinions and Rules and Regulations, State Library of Kansas, March 1979.
Labels: Phillipsburg