Request By:
Ms. Rose Scott
Nicholas County Clerk
Courthouse
Carlisle, Kentucky 40311
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
Nicholas County is in the process of building a new county hospital and rehabilitating Henryville through a HUD project.
A member of fiscal court owns a concrete plant, the only one in the county. You ask: "Would this be a conflict of interest if he sold supplies to either of these two projects?" The hospital will be funded by a bond issue.
KRS 61.210 prohibits any justice of the peace as a member of fiscal court from directly or indirectly working on or becoming interested in receiving benefits from any contract let by fiscal court in connection with building roads or other internal improvements. "Internal improvements" includes railroads, public roads, bridges, improvement of rivers. Black's Law Dictionary (4th ed.) p. 952. That statute also prohibits such a member of fiscal court directly or indirectly from furnishing for compensation any material to the county to be used in the construction of any road or bridge or other internal improvement. Any officer violating this statute shall be fined not less than $50 nor more than $200 or imprisoned in county jail not less than ten nor more than 40 days, or both, and shall forfeit his office.
KRS 61.220 prohibits any member of fiscal court from becoming interested, directly or indirectly, in any contract for work to be done or materials furnished for the county, or who has an interest in any claim against the county. The violation of this statute carries a fine of not less than $500 nor more than $5,000 for each offense.
As concerns construction of the new county hospital, the furnishing of concrete by the fiscal court member would probably be construed by the courts as a "furnishing of concrete to the county" as envisioned by KRS 61.220, since the fiscal court is responsible for the construction and operation of a county hospital. See KRS 216.040; and Knox County Fiscal Court v. Knox County Gen. Hosp., Ky. App., 528 S.W.2d 672 (1975). The funding of the construction by a bond issue does not alter the county's dominant and controlling role in the construction of a county hospital.
Thus we conclude that KRS 61.220 would unfortunately prohibit the fiscal court member from furnishing concrete to the county hospital project. The interest mentioned in KRS 61.220 is confined to monetary considerations. See Chadwell v. Commonwealth, 288 Ky. 644, 157 S.W.2d 280 (1941) 283.
Concerning the possible application of KRS 61.210 [roads and internal improvements], we do not have sufficient facts about the Henryville rehabilitation project to have an opinion. If you wish to explore that project further, please give us the pertinent facts about the nature of the project and how it is being conducted by fiscal court.