Lawrence city commissioners will soon consider various updates to the city’s ethics policy, which has not been updated in nearly 30 years. At its meeting Tuesday, the commission will consider adopting a revised ethics policy for city employees, elected officials and appointed officials. City Manager Tom Markus is proposing the updates to the policy, which was originally created in 1991. Markus said the proposed changes aren’t the result of a recent incident, but that such policies simply need to be reviewed and updated every so often. He said the update creates transparency and dialogue, and also serves as a public message [...]

As city leaders prepare to discuss concerns that downtown panhandlers have become more numerous and aggressive toward visitors, both police and mental health resources will likely be part of the discussion. Some commissioners think that the Lawrence police department should potentially bring back downtown foot patrols to help deter panhandling, but others think to truly address the complex issue of homelessness and panhandling will take more. Commissioner Matthew Herbert, who was elected in 2015, said people have been talking about downtown panhandling being an issue as long as he’s been on the commission. Read more: LJworld.

From the syllabus of the Kansas Court of Appeals in Jayhawk Racing vs. City of Topeka... 6. Municipal corporations have dual capacities—governmental and proprietary. In the governmental capacity, they serve as an arm of the state and are sovereign. In the proprietary capacity, they exercise powers as any corporation does. 7. To procure what is needed for public improvements, cities contract with those people and companies that sell what is needed to do the job. When cities act in such a capacity, their actions are proprietary and are governed by the same legal rules that would govern a private corporate transaction. [...]