Request By:
Ms. Sallie Haynes
Assistant Director
Department of Law
City of Louisville
City Hall
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of November 11 in which you request an opinion on behalf of Mr. Lyman T. Johnson who is on the Board of Trustees of the Louisville Free Public Library with respect to the following question:
"Mr. Johnson who is a trustee of the Louisville Free Public Library was elected as a member of the Jefferson County School Board in Tuesday' general election. We are requesting this opinion so that we might be advised as to whether Mr. Johnson's position on the school board and his position as trustee of the Louisville Free Public Library has created a situation in which there exists a conflict of interest."
The Louisville Free Public Library is operated pursuant to KRS 173.030, et seq. Under these statutes, the library is established by ordinance, the Board of Trustees is created pursuant to KRS 173.040 and the powers of said board are described in KRS 173.050. In addition, the library is financed from city revenues under the terms of KRS 173.070. Thus, there is little doubt that the Louisville Free Public Library is an arm or agency of the city and members of the board of trustees are public officers and officers of the city of Louisville and as indicated in the case of Alvey v. Brigham, 286 Ky. 610, 150 S.W.2d 936 (1940).
On the other hand, membership on the local school board constitutes a state office and members thereof are state officers as held in a number of cases, among them being Runyon v. Commonwealth, Ky., 393 S.W.2d 877 (1965); and Cullinan v. Jefferson County, Ky., 418 S.W.2d 407 (1967).
Section 165 of the Constitution and KRS 61.080 prohibit a state officer from holding a municipal office or employment at the same time. Therefore, we must conclude that membership on the Board of Trustees of the Louisville Free Public Library is incompatible with membership on the local school board. As a consequence, Mr. Johnson cannot hold both positions at the same time.