Officials in Topeka have reaffirmed the sale of liquor on Sundays, while Hutchinson said no to allowing such sales by failing to bring a proposed ordinance to a vote.

The Topeka City Council on Tuesday voted 9-0 in favor of an ordinance allowing liquor to be sold between noon and 8 p.m. on Sunday and extending the privilege to include beer sales at grocery and convenience stores. Liquor stores are already allowed to sell on Sundays in Topeka, but a new state law required the matter to be addressed again.

In Hutchinson on Tuesday, the Sunday sales ordinance died without a vote – or even any discussion. The matter was on the agenda for Tuesday’s City Council meeting, but when it came up, Mayor Dean Brigman said procedure required a motion to adopt and a second before the council could discuss it. But Ron Sellers’ motion for approval was met with silence, and without a second it died.

Convenience and grocery stores had been pushing for the Sunday sales, but there was opposition from liquor store owners who said they didn’t want to have to be open another day and from people opposed to expanding the sale of alcohol.

In Topeka, the City Council voted without comment from the public.

The Topeka City Council first approved Sunday sales in June 2004 in the aftermath of a court decision that the state’s Liquor Control Act didn’t apply uniformly throughout the state, giving local governments the ability to opt out of its provisions. That 2002 ruling in Wyandotte County was upheld by the Kansas Supreme Court in 2004, and this year the Legislature passed a bill making the law apply uniformly everywhere.

The new version of the law required those local governments that had approved Sunday sales during the interim to reauthorize them by Nov. 15.

Topeka Mayor Bill Bunten opposes Sunday sales and said last week he would probably veto the new ordinance if it passed. But at a work session before Tuesday’s meeting, he said he would not veto the measure if it had the support of at least six members – the number of votes needed to override a veto.