Duncan day to day - The corner he painted himself into

 Duncan did three things at once. He refused the joint opinion. He restated the City’s position that the papers are lawful. He handed you the next move and then stepped away from it.

What he got right

He cannot order the County Counselor. City and County counsel work for different clients. A “joint written opinion” was always a political ask, not something a mayor can command across the street.

Jayhawk Racing Properties, LLC v. City of Topeka, 313 Kan. 149, 484 P.3d 250 (2021), is the Kansas Supreme Court case. City of Olathe v. City of Spring Hill, 316 Kan. 64, 512 P.3d 723 (2022), is the follow-on. Both draw a line: a council may not bind future councils to a governmental / legislative policy. It may bind them to a proprietary / administrative deal (pay a sum, buy a thing, maintain a service). Those cases do not say every multi-year city contract is void. Duncan is correct that citing them is not a blanket kill-shot.

An Attorney General formal opinion is requested by an elected official or a government agency, not by a private citizen acting alone. That is the AG’s published rule.

A policy review is not a confession that the contract is illegal. Do not treat his “we may look at allocations” sentence as a legal admission.

What he ducked

Your question was never only “is C-2019-01 a piece of paper that exists.” It was: may half-cent money pay banquets, church dinners, and awards tables. He did not answer that. He answered a different question — are the interlocal and the service agreement facially lawful — and then said the City would not keep performing if it thought they were invalid.

That last sentence is circular. Continuing to write checks does not prove the checks match the ballot. K.S.A. 12-187(g), AG 2001-014, and AG 2017-015 already exist. They were written for this kind of tax, and 2017-015 was written to Topeka about this tax. He does not need a new City Attorney memo to know the purpose stays on the ballot.

Jayhawk and Olathe also cut against him on the auto-renew. Those cases say one board cannot lock the next board into a governmental policy with no end date. Contract 2019-01 rolls forward unless someone gives 180 days’ notice. If hiring GO Topeka and defining “economic development” as whatever the contractor’s budget contains is a policy choice, a later JEDO can end it. That is the opposite of “we must keep performing.”

The corner he painted himself into

He told you the useful review is the Attorney General. He is Mayor. He is an elected official. He can request that opinion this afternoon. So can Cook, Hiller, any commissioner, the County Counselor, or the City Attorney.

If he will not request it, the sentence to use is: You named the referee and then declined to make the call.