Request By:
Mr. William E. Wehrman
Wehrman and Wehrman
301 Pike Street
Covington, Kentucky 41011
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: H. N. McTyeire, Assistant Attorney General
Your first question relates to the authority of the city council to override a veto of the mayor, where it does not do so at the first opportunity. In § 16.46 of McQuillin's, in discussing municipal corporations, the following statement is made:
"The view has been taken that after the ordinance has been reconsidered and the vote taken, in accordance with the charter, it cannot again be reconsidered. "
Browne v. Winchester, 153 Ky. 502, 155 S.W. 1157 (1913).
The case cited is not very good authority for the above statement, but some support is given by the statement on page 1158 as follows:
". . . After the mayor's veto of the ordinance in question, no attempt was made to pass it over his veto by a vote of two-thirds of the whole number of councilmen elected. That being true, the only question to be determined is: Was the ordinance in question properly vetoed? . . ."
We are therefore of the opinion that where an attempt to override the mayor's veto fails, such veto may not be overridden at a subsequent meeting.
As you point out, KRS 86.080 requires that the minutes of the council meeting shall be approved by the council. There is no time limit provided as to when this approval must occur. Ordinarily this means that the approval should be made within a reasonable time. In our opinion an approval two or three months later would not be invalid on this account.
You next raise the question as to whether the city clerk-administrator may be appointed as the city's representative to the Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission of Campbell and Kenton Counties. In our opinion this appointment would be valid because he would be attending the Commission meetings as a representative of the city and would not be considered to be a county officer or employee.
Finally you ask if a city councilman may be a law professor at Northern Kentucky State University without violating KRS 61.080. You will note that to create an incompatible situation set forth in KRS 61.080 a person must be a state officer, a deputy state officer, or a member of the General Assembly and an officer or employee of any county, city or other municipality. In our opinion a university professor is not a state officer or a deputy state officer. Thus there would be no incompatibility.