Request By:
Mr. O. Leonard Press
Executive Director
Kentucky Educational Television
600 Cooper Drive
Lexington, Kentucky 40502
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
Your question concerns an interpretation of KRS 168.080, which reads:
"Subject only to availability of funds from any source, the authority may employ and prescribe the qualifications and duties of such persons as it may deem necessary to the proper performance of its purposes and functions; including an executive director to serve as the principal executive of the authority, and a chief engineer to supervise its engineering staff. Compensation shall be such as may be fixed in accordance with the standards established by the state commissioner of personnel."
Your specific question is:
"Does not the language of KRS 168.080 indicate that the Kentucky Authority for Educational Television may fix the compensation of the agency's chief executive without prior approval of the State Commissioner of Personnel so long as such compensation is within the standards established by the Commissioner of Personnel?"
The Kentucky Authority for Educational Television is an independent agency of the state. See KRS 168.030 and 168.100. That being the case, it comes under the broad sweep of statutes relating to state employment under classified service. You will note that KRS 18.140 contains no exception of employees of K.E.T. generally. However, you, as Executive Director of K.E.T., are excepted from the classified service and its compensation schedule under KRS 18.140(1)(e). However, under KRS 64.640(2), the Governor sets the compensation payable out of the state treasury to each officer of an independent agency. Thus KRS 64.640(2) impliedly amends KRS 168.080 to the extent of your compensation coming out of the state treasury. Here KRS 64.640(2) and KRS 168.080 cannot be reconciled, and effect cannot be given to both statutes. City of Pineville v. Meeks, 254 Ky. 167, 71 S.W.2d 33 (1934). Thus we are of the opinion that the courts would rule that KRS 64.640(2) impliedly amended KRS 168.080 in connection with the suggested autonomous action of the authority in setting salaries for K.E.T. employees generally.
Pragmatically and legally, then, the Authority can recommend your annual compensation to the Governor, subject to his approval and fixing under the guidelines set out in KRS 64.640(2). Such compensation in no event can exceed the compensation paid to the Governor under KRS 64.480.