Copter deal remains unresolved

By Mike Hall

THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

Is it a good idea to try to kill something that never existed?

And if someone does kill it, who killed it?

Those questions tangled the Topeka City Council in a quagmire of legal and logical questions Tuesday night that resulted in a week's delay on a resolution intended to make it clear the city isn't going to buy a new Robinson R 44 police helicopter.

Mayor Bill Bunten was the first to question the need for the resolution. He noted the resolution, sponsored by Councilman Jeff Preisner, stated a lease-purchase contract with Municipal Services Group Inc. to finance the acquisition was being "terminated."

But Bunten argued the city never had a valid contract with MSG.

Earlier this year, Shawnee County District Attorney Robert Hecht determined the council's original action in authorizing the lease- purchase was flawed because it was missing some provisions required by a state law. When a new authorizing document was drafted, including the required additional wording, the council approved it. But Bunten vetoed it and the council failed to override the veto.

"We're going to terminate something we don't have?" Bunten asked.

Councilman Bill Haynes then took up the argument and ran with it. He argued that adoption of the resolution would give the appearance the council killed the deal when in fact, he contended, it was the law that killed it.

He said the city administration didn't need authorization from the council to notify MSG that the contract was meaningless because it was never properly authorized.

Interim city attorney Braxton Copley continued to recommend the council adopt the resolution. He didn't disagree with Haynes' arguments, but used terms like "out of an abundance of caution," "a formality to get closure" on the matter and "states clearly for the record" in arguing the resolution should be adopted.

Councilman Richard Harmon, like Haynes a lawyer, thought he had found some language that would appease Haynes. He suggested replacing the words "terminates the lease-purchase agreement" with "is null and void and of no legal effect."

But Haynes cited other passages in the resolution that bothered him. So, Harmon suggested a week's delay in acting on the resolution so he and Haynes and Copley could draft a document satisfactory to all of them.

"I understand why there is no meeting of the minds," Harmon said. "I think we can get there."

To which Haynes added, "I think so."

In other action Tuesday, the council:

n Voted 9-0 to deny a $2 million claim by developer Gene Jani over the rejection of a zoning change request.

n Approved unanimously a $1.5 million package of improvements in the Central Park and Holliday Park neighborhoods.

Mike Hall can be reached

at (785) 295-1209

or mike.hall@cjonline.com.

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