Request By:
Mr. Bill Minix
Allen County Judge/Executive
P.O. Box 115
Scottsville, Kentucky 42164
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You appointed two county policemen. The question is whether they can work out of the sheriff's office.
The answer is that the sheriff's office and his deputies are to operate independently of the county police force organized under KRS 70.540. The latter statute cannot be used to merely supplement the in-house staff of the sheriff. Thus where the county policemen make arrests in misdemeanor cases, they are not entitled to the arrest fee. See KRS 70. 550. The point is that the county police force established under KRS 70.540 and 70.550 cannot be placed under the jurisdiction of the sheriff's department, since it has no organizational connection with the sheriff's department. County policemen must be paid only a salary payable out of the county treasury. The sheriff's office cannot collect the arrest fee when the arrest is made by county policemen.
Secondly, as sheriff you hired a seasonal employee to help during tax collection periods. You ask if you should have taken out a Kentucky retirement sum from her salary. The answer is "no", since KRS 61.510(5) expressly excludes seasonal or part time employees from the Kentucky Retirement System.