Topeka ? Closed meetings Gov.-elect Kathleen Sebelius has planned for government review teams probably would be illegal once she took office, the Attorney General’s Office said Friday.

But because Sebelius hasn’t yet taken office, the Kansas Open Meetings Act does not appear to apply to the five teams she has appointed to find efficiencies in state government.

“She is acting as a private individual,” said Mark Ohlemeier, spokesman for Atty. Gen. Carla Stovall.

Sebelius is reviewing state government in the weeks leading up to her Jan. 13 inauguration. She and outgoing Gov. Bill Graves have yet to decide how to deal with a projected $310 million deficit on June 30 from the state’s current $4.4 billion budget.

The governor-elect has said she is focusing on a budget for the state’s next fiscal year and that the current budget isn’t her responsibility.

Graves, who has already cut $41 million in spending from the current budget, has said he hoped he and Sebelius can draft a joint plan for dealing with the 2003 budget deficit.

“Not everything is perfectly clear because there’s a transition going on,” said State Budget Director Duane Goossen. “It’s reasonable to expect this to take some time to work out.”

Sebelius has until Feb. 3 to submit her budget proposals to the 2003 Legislature. That package must include a proposed budget for fiscal 2004 and a revised budget for fiscal 2003.

In the past, incoming governors have dealt with current fiscal problems. For example, in 1987, incoming Gov. Mike Hayden had proposals to cut $60 million from the current budget ready for legislators to approve their first week in session.

“The new governor, as part of the budget submission, needs to put in a revised ’03 budget,” Goossen said. “Something needs to happen with the approved budget.”

Sebelius on Thursday announced a telephone hot line and an e-mail address for taking suggestions. She said both would allow Kansans to participate in her planned top-to-bottom review of state government.

The five review teams she’s formed will have public hearings, but Kansans won’t be able to attend meetings where team members discuss some of the suggestions. Sebelius and her aides also don’t plan to say when or where closed meetings will occur.

She and her aides have said the five groups didn’t fall under the Open Meetings Act because they weren’t setting policy, only making recommendations.

The Attorney General’s Office researched the issue after an inquiry from The Associated Press.

Ohlemeier said the Attorney General’s Office believed the review teams, if appointed by a sitting governor, would fall under the Open Meetings Act. That would require open meetings and public notice for those meetings.

“The act most likely would not allow the type of meetings, closed meetings, described by the governor-elect, once she took office,” Ohlemeier said. “However, the act does not appear to apply to governors who have yet to take office.”