Request By:
Mr. Robert M. Kirtley
Daviess County Attorney
Courthouse
Owensboro, Kentucky 42301
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
We assume that the county coroner has completed a course of instruction entitled "Eleventh Annual Coroners' Conference". Daviess County has a population of 78,327.
The coroner's salary was fixed at $325 per month. You ask whether the county is now required to pay the coroner a minimum of $450 per month under KRS 64.185.
Under KRS 64.185(1) the monthly minimum compensation applying to a coroner in Daviess County is $225. However, under that subsection where the coroner holds a current certificate of continuing education issued jointly by the bureau of training, department of justice, and the medical examiner program, department for human resources, he must be paid a minimum monthly compensation of $450. Subsection (2) of that statute recites that the initial course of continuing education required under subsection (1) shall consist of thirty (30) hours of "approved classroom training. " Annually thereafter the coroner shall attend and successfully complete at least twelve (12) hours of approved training in order to be compensated in accordance with subsection (1) of this section.
You have enclosed a certificate made out to Mr. John A. Haley [who we assume is the coroner in your county]. The certificate was issued by the Kentucky Department of Justice, Bureau of Training.
Counsel for the Department of Human Resources has informed us that the subject annual conference recently held does not qualify as "approved classroom training" under KRS 64.185. Thus the certificate is only a certificate of attendance. No joint certificate of the two departments, as envisioned in KRS 64.185, has yet been issued, since the training program [30 hour program] has not been worked out by the two departments. The initial 30 hours must be 30 hours of "approved classroom training. " Counsel for Human Resources stated to us that it is possible that after the inital 30 hour session is worked out, the annual coroners' conference may count as the annual 12 hours of "approved training. "
It is our opinion that the subject certificate does not qualify the coroner for the monthly minimum of $450 under KRS 64.185(1) and (2).
You ask, where KRS 64.185(1) and (2) are complied with, when the increased minimum pay to the coroner would begin. Where in a particular year the coroner qualifies for the enhanced minimum pay, the increased pay would become effective upon the date of such qualification, since the statute does not provide for retroactive application. KRS 446.080(3).
You ask, in effect, how the coroner can qualify for the monthly minimum compensation of $450. The answer to that is simply that he must hold a current certificate of continuing education issued jointly by the Department of Justice and the Department for Human resources, and which certificate will reflect that he has completed at least the initial course of continuing education consisting of 30 hours of approved classroom training. As we said, annually thereafter the coroner must attend and successfully complete at least twelve (12) hours of approved training in order to be compensated at the rate of $450 per month as a minimum compensation. But there again the certificate must be a joint one, as described above. This suggests that the joint certificate would embrace law enforcement training courses under the aegis of the Department of Justice [KRS 15.330, 15.310(3) and 15A.070] and the Department for Human Resources, Medical Examiner Program [KRS 72.400, 72.220 and 72.210].