Kansas Attorney General Opinion 2018-012

September 6, 2018
ATTORNEY GENERAL OPINION NO. 2018- 12
Georgia Ransone, Trustee
Mark Reed, Treasurer
Marilyn Sommers, Clerk
Silver Lake Township
4100 NW Sunset Lane
Silver Lake, KS 66539
Re: 	Townships 	and 	Township 	Officers—General 	Provisions—Townships;
Corporate Status; Powers
Synopsis: 	Townships derive their powers from the legislature. A township may not
exercise a power not granted by the legislature. Cited herein: 	K.S.A. 12-
1928; 12-1683; 12-1691; 19-101; 80-101; 80-104; 80-301; 80-2518; Kan.
Const. Art. 12, Sec. 5.
* 	* 	*
Dear Ms. Ransone, Mr. Reed, and Ms. Sommers:
As the township officers for Silver Lake Township, you ask our opinion on a matter related
to the powers of townships. Specifically, you ask whether a township may solicit and
receive donations. For the reasons discussed below, we conclude the answer to your
question is “no.”
In your letter, you provide background for your question. You describe a water well owned
by the township that is experiencing declining production. You explain that the water is
not used for municipal drinking water, but rather for maintenance of township equipment
and other light industrial and agricultural purposes. After having the well and its related
systems inspected, you determined that the well was insufficient to continue serving
township needs and that the water it provides should be replaced by a connection to a
rural water system, at an estimated cost of $10,000. You note that this would strain the

Georgia Ransone, Mark Reed, and Marilyn Sommers
Page 2
township’s budget, and ask for our opinion on whether the township may use donations
to finance the cost of this project.1
You correctly note that local governments may exercise only those powers specifically
granted by the legislature. This is referred to as Dillon’s Rule, 2 which provides:
It is a general and undisputed proposition of law that a municipal corporation
possesses and can exercise the following powers, and no others: 	First,
those granted in express words; second, those necessarily or fairly implied
in or incident to the powers expressly granted; third, those essential to the
accomplishment of the declared objects and purposes of the corporation—
not simply convenient, but indispensable. Any fair, reasonable, substantial
doubt concerning the existence of power is resolved by the courts against
the corporation. 3
By constitutional amendment in 1961, Kansans “stood Dillon’s Rule on its head by
providing a direct source, from the people, of legislative power for cities.” 4 The legislature
granted home rule to counties in 1974. 5 Townships have not been granted home rule.
The legislature granted townships the power to: 	sue and be sued; purchase and hold
real and personal property; sell, convey and dispose of real and personal property; and
“make all contracts that may be necessary and convenient.” 6 The legislature has not
granted townships the power to accept gifts and donations generally.7
However, your letter inquires whether the power to accept gifts could be implied by other
powers, such as the duty of the trustee to “superintend all the financial concerns of the
township.” 8 In order to answer your question, we must turn to a well-known canon of
statutory construction.
The most fundamental rule of statutory construction is that the intent of the
legislature governs if that intent can be ascertained. We first attempt to
ascertain legislative intent by reading the plain language of the statutes and
giving common words their ordinary meanings. When a statute is plain and
unambiguous, we do not speculate as to the legislative intent behind it and
will not read into the statute something not readily found in it.9
1 Georgia Ransone, Mark Reed, and Marilyn Sommers, Correspondence, June 18, 2018.
2 See General Bldg. Contractors, L.L.C. v. Bd. of Shawnee Cty. Comm’rs, 275 Kan. 525, 533-34 (2003).
3 Dillon, Municipal Corporations, § 237 (5th ed. 1911).
4 Kansas Legislator Briefing Book, Home Rule, at 2 (2015). See Kan. Const. Art. 12, Sec. 5.
5 K.S.A. 19-101.
6 K.S.A. 80-101.
7 But see K.S.A. 80-104 (township may “accept land in the form of a gift, donation or devise”).
8 K.S.A. 80-301.
9 Northern Natural Gas Co. v. ONEOK Field Services Co., 296 Kan. 906, 918 (2013), quoting Stewart Title
of the Midwest v. Reece & Nichols Realtors, 294 Kan. 553, 564-65 (2012) (internal citations omitted).

Georgia Ransone, Mark Reed, and Marilyn Sommers
Page 3
The power to “superintend” is the ministerial power “to have or exercise the charge and
oversight of.”10 We do not believe it is necessary to imply the power to accept gifts and
donations in order for the township trustee to exercise this ministerial power; doing so
would require us to read into the statute an additional grant of power not readily found in
it. We are also mindful of the fact the legislature has granted other municipal corporations
the power the accept gifts and donations generally. 11 This creates a fair, reasonable, and
substantial doubt that this power is implied in any of the other grants of power to
townships. Pursuant to Dillon’s Rule, this doubt must be resolved against the township.
In summary, townships have only the powers granted to them by the legislature. The
legislature has not granted townships the power to accept gifts and donations generally.
The power to accept gifts and donations generally cannot be fairly implied in any of the
other powers granted to townships. For these reasons, we opine that a township does not
have the power to solicit and accept donations.
Sincerely,
Derek Schmidt
Kansas Attorney General
Craig Paschang
Assistant Attorney General
DS:AA:CP:sb
10 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/superintend, accessed on August 17, 2018.
11 E.g., K.S.A. 12-1928 (recreation commission); K.S.A. 12-1683 and 12-1691 (museum boards); K.S.A.
80-2518 (hospital board).