A no-call law recently approved by Kansas lawmakers remains on hold.

A state official said Wednesday that negotiations had broken down with the company selected to manage the new program, which was designed to cut down unwanted telemarketing calls to Kansans.

Mark Ohlemeier, a spokesman for the Kansas Attorney General’s Office, said Atty. Gen. Carla Stovall was looking for a new company to manage the yet-to-be created no-call list that was the centerpiece of the telemarketing legislation.

Ohlemeier said negotiations with the Direct Marketing Assn., a New York-based firm that manages similar lists for other states, fell apart last week.

“We’re now seeking another vendor,” Ohlemeier said.

The attorney general hopes to make an announcement on a new vendor soon, Ohlemeier said, declining to be more specific about when a deal may be reached.

The office hoped to have a system in place by June. That deadline wasn’t met because Direct Marketing Assn. officials expressed concern about a requirement that Kansas residents be added to the list no later than 30 days after the company received their requests.

Ohlemeier said the company said it could meet that requirement if Kansas residents would send the request form to a special address for Kansans only. But Ohlemeier said it could not guarantee the 30-day service if the requests were mailed to the company’s main address.

That was a problem for Stovall, in part because the company’s main address is widely published in telephone directories and has been given out by many state legislators who receive telemarketing complaints from their constituents.

Attempts to reach officials from Direct Marketing Assn. were unsuccessful.

There are other companies that maintain no-call lists for states, but Ohlemeier declined to say which companies the attorney general had contacted.

Once a company is selected, it could be at least two months before telemarketing companies would have to remove people from their calling lists, under the law.

Once a list is established, companies that want to do telemarketing in the state will have to purchase an updated list every three months. If they are found guilty of calling someone on the no-call list, they could be fined up to $10,000.