Topeka ? Democratic legislators Thursday asked the Shawnee County district attorney to investigate secret meetings earlier this month between Kansas Atty. Gen. Phill Kline and conservative members of the State Board of Education.

“Our citizens deserve to have an open, transparent government,” said Senate Democratic Leader Anthony Hensley of Topeka. “This is not what these meetings represent.”

Hensley and state Rep. Paul Davis, D-Lawrence, wrote Shawnee County Dist. Atty. Robert Hecht asking that his office investigate the Feb. 8 meetings.

Kline and the members involved in the meetings have denied they did anything wrong.

Hecht said he only received the letter from Hensley and Davis on Thursday and hadn’t had time to assess the situation. Hecht said if his office did decide to investigate, the probe would not be made public until it was concluded and only if significant findings were made.

Dan Biles, an attorney representing the Board of Education, said he had no problem with the request by Hensley and Davis.

“I feel pretty confident that the board members did not violate our law,” Biles said.

The dispute is over meetings Kline held with members of the board, whose 10 members are split, with conservatives holding a 6-4 majority over moderates.

Under the state open meetings law, meetings with a majority of a quorum of a public board must be held in public. A quorum on the education board is six members, and a majority of that is four.

Kansas Atty. Gen. Phill Kline is demanding that two health centers hand over the complete medical records of nearly 90 female patients, including minors. The investigation was disclosed in a filing to the Kansas Supreme Court by two unidentified clinics. Kline explained his request at a news conference Thursday in his office in Topeka.

Kline held two meetings with three members each. He and members who attended those meetings said Kline discussed school finance litigation and a proposal to put stickers on science books for public schools that say evolution is a theory and not a fact.

Davis said Kline needed to further explain what the meetings were about.

“We clearly need more information on what transpired at these meetings,” he said.

Whitney Watson, a spokesman for Kline, said Hensley and Davis didn’t understand the open meetings law.

“There was no violation,” Watson said, adding that if Hecht decided to investigate, he was sure he would find no problem with the meetings.