Last year, Atty. Gen. Phill Kline came under political fire for holding private meetings with State Board of Education members.

Kline denied any wrongdoing, and a prosecutor who was asked to investigate the matter said the attorney general didn’t violate the Kansas Open Meetings Act.

Several groups responded to that finding by saying there was a loophole in the law that allowed the meetings and that it needed to be changed.

But when the Kansas Press Assn. and Kansas Sunshine Coalition for Open Government unveiled their legislative agenda Friday, there was no push for a change in that aspect of the open meetings law.

“It didn’t make the cut,” said Harriet Lange, a member of the Sunshine Coalition’s board. “It may be something that we will consider next year.”

The controversy erupted last February when Kline had two meetings with three members of the State Board of Education.

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 10-member education board is six members, and a majority of that is four.

Kline and the six total members who attended those meetings said they discussed finance litigation and a proposal to put stickers on school science books that say evolution is a theory and not a fact.

Kline said he complied with the law by not conveying any of the discussion from one meeting to the other.

But several lawmakers and media groups, including the Lawrence Journal-World, questioned whether the meetings ran afoul of a 1998 legal opinion from the Attorney General’s Office.

That opinion stated it is illegal to host a series of meetings that collectively would total a quorum of board members and where a common topic of discussion occurs.

Doug Anstaett, executive director of the Kansas Press Assn., initially said he thought the Sunshine Coalition would push for a change in that law.

“I was a little surprised” when told it would not, he said. He said the KPA legislative committee would have a meeting soon to determine if the association should try to sponsor legislation.

Sen. Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, said Friday he still intended to introduce a bill this session dealing with the controversy.

“It’s an issue we ought to take a look at,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Sunshine Coalition is suggesting bills that would:

¢ Open under certain conditions sworn statements by law enforcement that are used in arrests.

¢ Require elected officials to receive training on open government rules.

¢ Require that closed sessions of public bodies be tape-recorded so that if there is a dispute about whether it was appropriate to close the session, a judge could listen to the tape and make a determination.

¢ Open background records of private company bus drivers that are hired by schools to transport students.