AGO 1989-013.

Case DateFebruary 10, 1989
CourtKansas
Kansas Attorney General Opinions 1989. AGO 1989-013. February 10, 1989ATTORNEY GENERAL OPINION NO. 89-13Mr. Jack Dalton Attorney at Law Southwest Kansas Area Mental Health Center 208 W. Spruce Dodge City, Kansas 67801-1147 Re: Counties and County Officers--Mental Health Centers and Services--Community Mental Health Centers and Community Facilities for the Mentally Retarded; Duties of Board; Financial Assistance to Psychology Students Synopsis: K.S.A. 19-4001 et seq. do not authorize expenditure of county mental health center funds for the purpose of offering scholarships or other types of financial assistance to psychology students. Cited herein: K.S.A. 19-4001; 19-4003. * * * Dear Mr. Dalton: As legal counsel for the Southwest Kansas Area Mental Health Centers you request our opinion on a proposed expenditure of funds by area mental health centers. Specifically, you ask whether K.S.A. 19-4001 et seq. permit the board of directors to offer scholarships or other types of financial assistance to psychology students in return for their commitment to work for the area mental health center for a minimum specified period of time. You state that a review of K.S.A. 19-4001 et seq. offers nothing to suggest that such a plan would be prohibited. You further state that since the area mental health center is established pursuant to law, it appears to be a quasi-municipal corporation. We concur with these statements. However, lack of prohibition does not automatically allow an action by a quasi-municipal corporation. "Municipal corporations possess and can exercise only such powers as are expressly conferred or those necessarily or fairly implied from or incident to those expressly conferred, or those essential to the accomplishment of the declared objects and purposes of the corporation." 56 Am.Jur.2d, Municipal Corporations, Counties, and Other Political Subdivisions, § 227 (1971). When there is a question as to whether a municipal corporation may exercise a particular power, powers granted to municipal corporations will not be extended by implication where the extent of the power is uncertain. McQuillan, Municipal Corporation, § 10.19 (1988). "In this state it has long been the rule that school districts and other subdivisions of the state have only such powers as are conferred upon them by statute, specifically or by clear...

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