20-384. Judicial district budgets; responsibilities of chief judge. (a) For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2016, and for each fiscal year thereafter, the chief judge in each judicial district may elect to be responsible for the budget of such judicial district pursuant to the provisions of this section.

(b) For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2016, and each fiscal year thereafter, the chief judge in each judicial district who elects to be responsible for the budget shall prepare such budget and submit it to the chief justice of the supreme court pursuant to K.S.A. 20-158, and amendments thereto. On or before August 1, 2014, and each August 1 thereafter, the chief judge shall notify the chief justice if such chief judge is electing to be responsible for the district court budget for the ensuing fiscal year.

(c) Subject to appropriations therefor, the chief justice shall have the final authority to determine and approve the annual amount allocated to the budget for each judicial district court administration in which the chief judge has elected to be responsible for such budget. Annually, as soon as possible following legislation passed by the legislature and enacted into law appropriating moneys for the judicial branch, the chief justice shall determine such budgeted amount for each such judicial district court administration and notify the chief judge of each such judicial district. On or before June 30 of each fiscal year, the chief judge of each judicial district who elects to be responsible for the budget shall submit to the chief justice such district court's budget for the ensuing fiscal year based upon the dollar amount allocated to such district court by the chief justice for such fiscal year.

(d) After the amount of such district court budget is established by the chief justice, the expenditures under such budget, other than expenditures for salaries mandated by law, shall be under the control and supervision of the chief judge of such judicial district. The judicial administrator of the courts, pursuant to K.S.A. 20-318, and amendments thereto, shall approve all lawful claims submitted by the chief judge within the limits of such judicial district court budget.

(e) The compensation to be paid to district court personnel in such judicial district shall be determined by the chief judge of such judicial district.

(f) The chief judge of such judicial district who elects to be responsible for the budget shall have the authority and power to hire, promote, suspend, demote and dismiss all personnel as necessary to carry out the functions and duties of such judicial district.

(g) Whenever for any fiscal year it appears that the resources of any special revenue fund of the judicial branch are likely to be insufficient to cover the appropriations made against such special revenue funds, the chief justice shall be responsible for determining any allotment system so as to assure that expenditures for any particular fiscal year will not exceed the available resources of any special revenue fund of the judicial branch for that fiscal year. All chief judges who are responsible for the district court budget shall follow any allotment system determined by the chief justice for such fiscal year.

History: L. 2014, ch. 82, § 2; July 1.

L. 2014, ch. 82, was held to be an invalid enactment, see Solomon v. State, 303 K. 512, 364 P.3d 536 (2015).