Request By:
Ms. Helen O'Dell
Larue County Court Clerk
Hodgenville, Kentucky 42748
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your recent letter in which you raise the following question:
"Ronald Nunn of Larue County is now serving on the Larue County School Board, having been elected in Nov. 1975. He has now been hired by the Sheriff of Larue County as Deputy Sheriff. In your opinion is Mr. Nunn eligible to hold these two positions? . . ."
Our response to your question would be in the negative. Membership on the Larue County Board of Education would constitute a state office 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). On the other hand, the position of deputy sheriff would constitute a county office under the terms of § 99 of the Constitution and KRS 70.030, and as held in the case of Keating v. City of Covington, 18 KLR 245, 35 S.W. 1026 (1896).
Section 165 of the Constitution and KRS 61.080 prohibit a state officer from holding a county office at the same time since they are incompatible, one with the other. We also might call your attention to KRS 61.090 which provides that a person assuming an office incompatible with the one he holds, vacates the first office though such vacation is not automatic.