Kansas City Council votes to settle 2 lawsuits

KANSAS CITY (AP) - The Kansas City Council has taken steps to settle two lawsuits over court fees and a financing agreement involving an area mall.
The council has voted to settle the two lawsuits, which deal with a warrant cancellation fee at Municipal Court and a 2005 tax increment financing agreement over the Blue Ridge Mall.
The council passed an ordinance Thursday to settle the first case for $2.4 million, which the city's Finance Department said would be paid out over two years, from the city's general fund. A judge also has to approve that settlement, which represents an agreement between the city and the plaintiffs in a 2015 class-action lawsuit filed over fees that defendants paid to Kansas City Municipal Court to cancel their warrants.
The court started imposing the warrant cancellation fee to try to reduce the number of people failing to show up for court. But the lawsuit argued that the fee constituted a court cost above what was allowed by Missouri law.
Under the settlement, people would be entitled to refunds of 65 percent of the amount paid. The city attorney's office said about 153,300 warrant fee payments are affected, although some people made more than one payment, so the number of people affected is fewer than the payments made.
The second settlement resolves a lawsuit by the Raytown School District over tax increment financing payments they had expected from Kansas City pertaining to the Blue Ridge Mall TIF plan of 2005.
The City Council agreed to settle that lawsuit for $3 million, with $600,000 paid this year and $200,000 each subsequent year for 12 years.