Request By:
Mr. Robert Coots
Spencer County Attorney
Courthouse
Taylorsville, Kentucky 40071
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
Your problem concerns the agenda for fiscal court meetings. Your letter reads in part:
"The Fiscal Court of Spencer County has adopted an Administrative Code which provides at page 43:
"'The County Judge/Executive shall prepare an agenda for each Fiscal Court meeting and deliver it to all participants and news media at least 48 hours in advance of any meeting.'
"An interpretation has been made locally that this requires the publication of the agenda in the local paper as a paid item in compliance with Chapter 424 regarding publication times. It has further been interpreted that items which were not placed on the agenda cannot be discussed at the meeting. I can find no statutory provisions requiring publication of an agenda for fiscal court or limiting a fiscal court meeting only to items on a published agenda. "
KRS 67.090 deals with the holding of fiscal court meetings. Except where the fiscal court meets at a site other than the county seat, no newspaper publication by way of newspaper advertisement or other formal newspaper notice is required in the holding of such meetings. KRS 61.825 requires, in the event of special sessions of fiscal court, notice [delivered personally or by mail] to each member of fiscal court and to each local newspaper of general circulation, each news service and each local radio or television station which has on file with fiscal court a written request to be notified of special meetings. Such notices must be delivered personally or by mail at least twenty-four (24) hours prior to the time of such meeting as specified in the notice. If time does not permit giving notice, then notice that is reasonable under existing circumstances and is calculated to inform the public shall be given to the news media and the public. Notice to the news media is notice to the public. Of course a schedule of regular meetings of fiscal court must be available to the public, but notice to the news media would be notice to the public. KRS 61.820.
KRS 67.090 has been interpreted to mean that the county judge/executive in calling of special sessions of fiscal court, must notify the members of the fiscal court of the time and place of the specially called session. Combs v. Center, 234 Ky. 364, 28 S.W.2d 37 (1930) 39. There are no suggestions in such cases that the county judge describe with particularity and specificity the precise subjects to be dealt with in the meeting.
It is our opinion that there is no statute requiring the publication of the agenda of a proposed meeting of fiscal court in the local or other newspapers as a paid item of advertising of the kind envisioned in KRS Chapter 424. Further, it is our opinion that the fiscal court is not limited at the meeting to any precisely formulated agenda, although practical workings of government suggest that informally the county judge/executive and the other members of fiscal court should perhaps keep some central or immediate problem or problems in mind. The truth is that fiscal court has the flexibility of dealing with any subject, at any of its meetings, within its constitutional and statutory range of powers under established principles of parliamentary procedure. Indeed, KRS 64.090(3) provides in part that the "county judge executive may call a special term of the fiscal court for the transaction of any business of which that court has jurisdiction." (Emphasis added). See Johnson v. Cavanah, Ky., 54 S.W. 853 (1900) 854, interpreting a similar statute.
While KRS 67.080(2)(c) requires fiscal court to adopt an administrative code for the county, such code must be in conformity with existing and future constitutional and statutory sections. Cf. Harrison's San. v. Commonwealth, Dept. of Health, Ky., 417 S.W.2d 137 (1967), holding that state administrative regulations properly adopted and filed have the full effect of law and are required to be enforced. KRS 67.710(2) provides that the county judge/executive shall prepare and submit to fiscal court for approval an administrative code incorporating the details of administrative procedure for the operation of the county.
In view of the above mentioned statutory treatment of meetings and notices, it is our opinion that this part of the administrative code requiring the preparation of an agenda for notice to the fiscal court, news media and the public in general is in conflict with the statutes and is inoperative. The General Assembly in enacting KRS 67.090 a long time ago clearly established the principle of flexibility in discussing and acting on county governmental problems in meetings of fiscal court. That legislative policy obviously cannot be eroded or changed by the fiscal courts of Kentucky. Your suggestion as to amending the code to remove this agenda requirement is well taken, we think.