Request By:
Mr. Buel E. Stalls
Box 69
Murray, Kentucky 42071
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of March 30 in which you refer to KRS 85.060 (2) requiring an individual to be a freeholder in order to be eligible for membership on the city council in a city of the third class. Under the circumstances, you raise the following question:
"Does the holding of a deed to a cemetery plot in the city cemetery within the city limits meet this criterion and qualify a person to become a member of the common council in a third class city?"
The answer to your question would be in the affirmative as held in OAG 70-428 [copy enclosed]. This opinion refers to cities of the fifth class, however, the freeholder requirement is the same as that under third class cities and, as a consequence, the opinion would apply equally to cities of the third class.
We are also enclosing copies of OAG's 70-323 and 40,632 referred to in OAG 70-428.
In addition, we are enclosing a copy of OAG 75-686 in which we pointed out that the freeholder requirement has been declared to be unconstitutional by a number of federal and state courts as being in violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. However, this question has not reached either the Supreme Court of the United States or Kentucky.