Request By:
Mr. Edwin Bradshaw
Marrowbone
Kentucky 42759
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of February 7 in which you raise the question as to whether or not the mayor of the city of Burkesville, who you state is nonsalaried, can at the same time hold the position of Superintendent of the Cumberland County Schools.
The answer to your question would be in the negative. The Mayor of the city of Burkesville, a city of the fifth class, is a municipal officer pursuant to KRS 87.170 and § 160 of the Constitution. At the same time the superintendent of the county schools is a state officer pursuant to KRS 160.350 and as held in a number of cases, among them being Whitley County Board of Education v. Rose, 267 Ky. 283, 102 S.W.2d 28 (1937); and Board of Education of Graves County v. DeWeese, Ky., 343 S.W.2d 598 (1960).
Section 165 of the Constitution and KRS 61.080 provide in effect that no state officer or deputy state officer shall at the same time hold a municipal office.
As a consequence, the offices of school superintendent and that of mayorare incompatible, one with the other. The fact that the mayor may not receive a salary is of no consequence in determining incompatibility under the Constitution and statutes.