Kansas conditions a great many public offices on a faithful-performance bond filed before the officer takes up the duties of the office — county officers under K.S.A. 19-4201, municipal court clerks under K.S.A. 12-4108, commission-form mayors and commissioners under K.S.A. 15-1404. Premiums cost 0.35% of the bond amount, with a $100 minimum. The application includes a credit consent, but it authorizes a soft credit pull only — a soft inquiry that never affects your score.
















Most of these are needed inside the ten days between selection and the oath, so nothing here waits on an underwriter’s desk. Here is the whole thing:
The office, the penal sum your board or council set, and the effective and expiration dates of the term you are being bonded for. That is the application.
The premium is calculated from the amount you entered and the bond issues at checkout. The credit consent on the form authorizes a soft inquiry only, which never touches your score.
The executed bond and power of attorney arrive by email for approval and filing — with the county clerk, the city clerk, or wherever your governing statute or ordinance directs. Wet-ink original mailed on request.
A public official bond is a faithful-performance bond, not a licence bond and not insurance for the officer. The officer is the principal; the surety stands behind them; the obligee is the State of Kansas together with the county, city, township or district the officer serves. It answers for public money and public duty: money that comes into the officer’s hands and is not paid over according to law, books and papers not delivered to a successor, and losses the subdivision suffers from neglect of duty or misfeasance in office.
The amount is almost never in the statute. K.S.A. 19-4201 has each elective county officer give corporate surety to the State of Kansas and the county “in an amount and upon terms and conditions as may be specified” by that county’s commissioners, or be covered by a blanket bond the county buys under the same act; K.S.A. 19-4206 pulls every county officer and employee bond under that one purchasing authority. On the city side K.S.A. 12-4108 has the clerk of the municipal court — or the judge, where no clerk is appointed — execute a bond to the city within 10 days of selection “as the governing body may require,” approved by the governing body and filed with the city clerk. So the number you enter comes from a resolution, an ordinance, or your appointment letter, not from us.
You are usually not the one paying. Under K.S.A. 78-111 the premium on a licensed company’s bond for a public officer, deputy or employee is allowed and paid by the county, township, municipality, school district or other political subdivision the person serves; K.S.A. 12-4108 and 15-1404 say the same thing for their offices. Match the bond term to the term of office — the application asks for the term’s effective and expiration dates precisely so the bond does not run out mid-term — and take a 2 or 3-year term where the office runs that long.
These are the actual issuing fields, including the term dates for the office. The credit consent authorizes a soft inquiry only — it never affects your score.
Start the application →Enter the penal sum your board set, take the executed bond to the clerk, and hand the premium receipt to the treasurer. Free until issued.