Request By:
Mr. John Swinford
Attorney at Law
Cynthiana, Kentucky 41031
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
The Harrison County Water Association is about to extend its existing water lines and expects to have numerous volunteer workers solicit easements from land-owners in order to lay the lines. The association would like to have the volunteers appointed to be deputy county clerks so they can take acknowledgments and cause the easement documents to be recordable.
You ask: Can such deputies be appointed by the county clerk?
It is our opinion that the only legal deputy county clerks are those appointed by the clerk to fill actual positions authorized by proper orders of fiscal court under KRS 64.530. See
Funk v. Milliken, Ky., 317 S.W.2d 499 (1958).
See OAG 72-815, copy enclosed, of related interest. The question about oaths and bonds for such appointees, being academic under the answer to the first question, does not require an answer.
The solution would be for the association to get volunteers who have notarial commissions.