KC weighs two plans to fund KCPD’s costly settlements. What to know before vote
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Both ordinances are scheduled to appear before the full council on Thursday.
- One ordinance would allocate $5.9 million to the Police Department.
- The alternative would create a $5.9 million Overage Fund for settlements .
Kansas City Council members are set to decide Thursday between separate proposals for funding the Police Department’s legal settlements.
The city’s Finance, Governance and Public Safety Committee recommended an ordinance for approval during Tuesday’s meeting that would maintain the current approach. It would allocate $5.9 million from the city’s legal expense fund to the Police Department to pay legal settlements.
The ordinance will appear before the full council on Thursday, in case a separate ordinance tabled at the council level for weeks fails to pass.
“This ordinance just instantly provides the money,” Mayor Quinton Lucas said during Tuesday’s committee meeting. “There are no other types of discussions. The other ordinance provides funding, adds extra steps, particularly as to future years.”
The tabled ordinance, sponsored by Lucas, would establish the Police Department Overage Fund with a total of $5.9 million available for settlements that would cause the city to go over the 25 percent budgeting threshold required by Missouri law.
The ordinance would allow the city manager to negotiate with the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners to spread out those settlement payments over multiple budget years.
The KCPD police board will seek additional funding beyond the required one-fourth budget requirement to address costs from legal settlements previously approved by the board, with a financial impact in future years and budget cycles, according to the ordinance.
“City Council has received no information on the nature, size, or scope of structured legal settlements impacting this and future years and budget cycles seeking appropriations in excess of state statutory mandate,” the overage fund ordinance said. “The City desires to reduce the detrimental effect of structured legal settlement costs impacting the current and future years and budget cycles on policing and public safety in Kansas City.”
Lucas has said the process would provide more transparency into those payments. He decided to table the ordinance for two weeks in late March following concerns from council members about legal risk. Both ordinances are scheduled to appear before the council on Thursday, ahead of the May 1 start of the new fiscal year.
Concerns over governance
Council Member Johnathan Duncan asked committee members to clarify whether this exhausted the legal fund for the upcoming fiscal year and if there were expectations that Police Department legal settlements would exceed $5.9 million.
“Would one expect lawsuit costs to exceed what was placed within the budget? I think the answer to that is yes,” Lucas said.
Lucas said that the $5.9 million is to cover legal settlements that have already been agreed to in structured settlements. There is still $600,000 in the Police Department’s budget for legal settlements, but if they go beyond that, the department would have to request additional funding from the city.
Duncan, along with Council Member Melissa Robinson, expressed concern that the funding could put the city in a financial bind later in the fiscal year.
“We need better governance,” Duncan said. “We have to be more judicial. It is not this body that is putting the police department in a financial bind. It is the Police Department’s lawsuits that are putting us in a financial bind.”
Rising legal expenses
Police Chief Stacey Graves sent a memo to the department in late January calling for “drastic” cost-saving measures to ensure services remained throughout the year due to a large amount of overtime and budget pressure from legal settlements.
Graves told council members in a council business session in February that the Police Department had paid $10.9 million in legal settlements during the fiscal year.
The Police Department had paid roughly $13.8 million in legal settlements during 2025. The council approved $2 million in late March to cover the gap Graves described during the Feb. 5 business session.
Capt. Jacob Becchina, a KCPD spokesperson, said that since the ordinances are still evolving legislation, he would defer comments on the efforts to the city.
“We continue to strive to be a good partner with the city regarding finances, and engage in discussions around any budgetary questions or issues that come up, at any point in the year,” Becchina said.
This story was originally published April 14, 2026 at 3:27 PM.
