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Olathe — Johnson County commissioners agreed Thursday to spend $168,300 on an independent review of Oz Entertainment Company's plan to develop a theme park and resort on the site of the former Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant near DeSoto.

But the review won't get under way, commission members agreed, until they have a clear reading on legal issues surrounding Oz's having to pay back $550,000 it got from Wyandotte County, Kansas City, Kan., and the Kansas City Board of Public Utilities in 1991 for a feasibility study.

"I don't want any county money spent until we know these issues have been resolved," Commissioner Annabeth Surbaugh said. Her motion passed, 3-1.

After Oz spent the Wyandotte County money, it decided to move the project to Johnson County. Efforts to get Oz to pay back the money have been unsuccessful.

Earlier this year, legislators passed a law requiring Oz to pay back the $550,000 within 120 days of July 1. Since then, Oz has sent the Unified Government a check for $150,000 for the amounts owed to Kansas City and Wyandotte County governments. The check is now in an escrow account.

Oz also struck an agreement with the Board of Public Utilities (BPU), delaying payment of the remaining $400,000 in exchange for the park's exploring the possibility of buying its electricity from BPU.

Kansas Commerce Secretary Gary Sherrer and Rep. John Ballou, a Gardner Republican whose district includes the park site, both have asked the Kansas Attorney General's Office for an opinion whether Oz and BPU have the authority to delay the payment. The opinion is expected in September.

Surbaugh said she would drop her reservations about proceeding with the independent review if Oz pays back the $550,000 before the opinion is issued.

Commissioner Susie Wolf spoke against the review, saying she

doesn't trust Oz.

"It's not prudent for the county to rely on a company that has been slow and reluctant to pay back debts, nearly a decade old, owed to a public agency," she said.

Commissioner Doug Wood warned that he's hearing rumblings that the law may be unconstitutional because the $550,000 was actually a grant, not a loan. If that's true, he said, the law cannot create a new debt for Oz.

"That would be ex post facto," Wood said. "I believe we fought a war over that with Great Britain."

Oz officials did not attend the commission meeting Thursday. They could not be reached for comment.

Assuming the legal issues are resolved, the commission agreed to hire three consulting firms to provide an independent analysis of the proposed park's potential:

l Deloitte & Touche will analyze attendance figures and revenue projections; $120,000.

l Consoer Townsend Envirodyne Engineers will review the park's likely effect on the county's infrastructure; $30,800.

l Springsted will evaluate the effect on county finances; $17,500.

Dave MacGillivray, a Springsted consultant overseeing the project for the county, said the analysis would take about 60 days to complete.