City commissioners broke the state's open meetings law by holding a closed-door meeting to discuss granting more than million in incentives to a local company, the Kansas attorney general has found. But Attorney General Paul Morrison is willing to forgo prosecution if city commissioners agree to admit their wrongdoing and personally pay for two hours of professional training on the open meetings law.

A start-up pharmaceutical company that community leaders recently agreed to give a multimillion-dollar package to keep in Lawrence could have its first drug on the market in four years, its CEO said Wednesday.

Dan Flynn, CEO of Deciphera Pharmaceuticals, told a Lawrence Chamber of Commerce crowd that major testing on a cancer treatment drug should begin this spring.

“If everything went well, I would just love to see a Deciphera drug out there in 2011,” Flynn said. “I know that sounds like a long time, but actually it is a fast-track.”

But Flynn wasn’t interested in answering several basic questions about his company’s more immediate plans, despite it being awarded more than $3 million in cash incentives from the city, county, Kansas Bioscience Authority, Douglas County Development Inc. and Lawrence-Douglas County Bioscience Authority.

Flynn declined to comment on when his company hopes to move into a vacant building in the East Hills Business Park, which is part of the incentives package approved last week. Flynn also declined to comment on how many employees his company currently has – or to provide additional details about what stage of development his company’s drug projects currently are in.

Flynn was cryptic in why he didn’t want to answer the basic questions. Flynn told a Journal-World reporter that he had no comment before any questions were asked.

All he would say: “I’m protecting my interests.”

The process the Deciphera incentives package went through has come under scrutiny since its approval last week. The package included a tax rebate program – the first of its kind in Lawrence.

The tax rebate is similar to a tax abatement, but Deciphera’s tax rebate program did not go through any of the review or process that is required for a tax abatement.

Flynn, during his remarks to the chamber crowd, praised the city for offering the package.

“It is an innovative strategy, a little outside the box for Lawrence, but I really applaud it,” Flynn said.

Flynn was part of a Chamber-sponsored luncheon detailing bioscience companies in Lawrence.