Topeka ? Monday is the deadline for Kansans wishing to put their names and telephone numbers on the state’s no-call telemarketing list. The next directory of residents who don’t want to be bothered by unwanted solicitations will be published Jan. 1 by the attorney general’s office.

The list will be enforced Feb. 1, and the next update will be released in April.

Mark Ohlemeier, spokesman for the attorney general’s office, said more than 45,000 people added their names since Oct. 1.

The first quarterly list, for which the deadline was Sept. 23, had 397,000 names registered. Names remain on the list for five years.

“At this point, we’re pretty satisfied with where we are,” Ohlemeier said.

Legislators created the no-call list during the 2002 session. It is administered by a private company, GovConnect Inc., with headquarters in Denver and New York, under a contract with the Attorney General’s Office.

Telemarketing firms buy the lists from GovConnect, their fee covering the cost of maintaining the list for the state, Ohlemeier said. The contract with GovConnect can be renewed annually.

People can register on the attorney general’s Internet site or by calling (866) 362-4160.

The list does not eliminate all unsolicited calls. Kansans may still get calls from political and charitable organizations and pollsters, as well as companies with which they have had a business relationship within the past three years.

Atty. Gen.-elect Phill Kline said he had not had enough time to review the state’s no-call program to discuss what changes — if any — may be warranted.

“From the reviews that I’ve heard from consumers, it is a very positive service for Kansans,” said Kline, who takes office Jan. 13.

Ohlemeier said the office would make recommendations for changes to Kline that the attorney general could forward to legislators. He wasn’t specific.

A first round of consumer complaints led the attorney general’s office to send letters to offending companies, informing them of the new Kansas law and warning them not to violate it again, Ohlemeier said.

The attorney general’s office has received about 2,000 complaints, but the number has “dropped significantly” since Nov. 1, he said.

“We have not issued any fines, but we expect we will by the end of the year,” Ohlemeier said.

A telemarketer can be fined as much as $10,000 per violation.

Ohlemeier said people who continue to receive unsolicited calls after registering for the no-call list should collect as much information as possible, including the telemarketer’s name, address and phone number.

In Missouri, the attorney general’s office says more than 1.1 million telephone lines have been covered by consumers’ no-call registrations since the law took effect last year. Since enforcement began July 1, 2001, the office has received about 30,600 complaints, and courts have fined 76 companies $680,000.

New regulations announced by the Federal Trade Commission also are designed to strengthen rules that govern telemarketers.

Those changes require telemarketers to transmit identifying information that can be viewed by services like Caller ID and limit the number of “abandoned” calls that hang up or leave people listening to silence on the line.

FTC officials also are taking bids for creating a national no-call list. Like the Kansas list, it would allow consumers to have their names on the list for five years.

“What the FTC does shouldn’t have an effect on the state in the immediate future,” Ohlemeier said. “The state law should be all that is necessary.”