Request By:
Mr. Rodney A. Miller
City Attorney
311 Main Street
Fulton, Kentucky 42041
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
The city of Fulton (4th class), Kentucky, is interested in entering into a contract with the city of South Fulton, Tennessee. The Kentucky-Tennessee state line is a common boundary between the two cities. They wish to assist each other from time to time when there is a need for additional fire trucks and/or equipment and one of the cities is unable to combat a fire with all of its own equipment. You ask how this can be legally accomplished.
KRS 75.050, in connection with mutual aid contracts, is restricted to Kentucky counties.
We concluded in OAG 76-243 that the fiscal court of Boyd County can contract with a West Virginia city to answer fire calls in Boyd County under the Home Rule Statute, KRS 67.083. However, the Supreme Court has recently declared the statute unconstitutional. See Fiscal Court of Jefferson County v. City of Louisville, Kentucky (76-604) [decided September 16, 1977].
It is our opinion, however, that under the Interlocal Cooperation Act, KRS 65.210 through 65.300, the two cities can enter into a valid mutual aid contract relating to use of fire fighting staff and equipment.
Such a contract must adhere to the requirements of KRS 65.250 and be submitted, when in final form, to the Attorney General of Kentucky and to the Attorney General of Tennessee. When the contract has been fully accomplished or signed, the original agreement should be sent to the Attorney General of Kentucky, along with copies of the minutes of the two legislative bodies authorizing the agreement. Tennessee has adopted an "Interlocal Cooperation Act", very similar to the Kentucky legislation. See Tennessee Code Annotated, Volume 3A, §§ 12-801 through 12-809. See ibid., § 12-804, as amended in 1973.
As Dr. Roy Owsley said in his article, "The Kentucky Interlocal Act", 51 K.L.J. 22, "Reduced to simplest terms, it permits [the Interlocal Act] two or more public agencies to do jointly or cooperatively anything they are empowered to do separately or unilaterally."