Request By:
Mr. Ralph D. Roaden
Executive Director
Financial Disclosure Review Commission
P.O. Box 431
Corbin, Kentucky 40701
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
The General Assembly established in 1978 a Financial Disclosure Review Commission. It is now found in KRS 61.782 through 61.790. KRS 61.788 was amended in the Extraordinary Session of 1979 by S.B. 8.
You request our opinion as two questions. Question No. 1 reads:
"Is a person exempt from filing with the Financial Disclosure Review Commission because his/her position is covered by the Kentucky merit system? "
KRS 61.786 reads:
"The commission shall annually review the financial status of the constitutional officers who are elected by the voters of the state at-large and major management personnel in the executive branch of state government, including the secretary of the cabinet, the governor's chief executive officers. cabinet secretaries, commissioners, deputy commissioners, principal assistants, division directors, members of the parole board, board of tax appeals, board of claims, public service commission, workmen's compensation board and the occupational safety and health review commission and full-time chief administrative officers of these and all other boards and commissions. The commission shall also review the personal financial status of other major management personnel and public officials whom it deems should be subject to such review."
The commission was designed to review the financial status of constitutional officers who are elected by the voters of the state-at-large "and major management personnel of the executive branch of state government. " (Emphasis added).
The statute states specifically certain officers who are included in the second broad category of application. We list them in terms of merit application schematically: Officers Under Merit SystemSecretary of the CabinetNoGovernor's Chief Executive OfficersNoCabinet SecretariesNoCommissionersNoDeputy CommissionersNoPrincipal AssistantsNoDivision Directors (policy making)NoMembers of the Parole BoardNoBoard of Tax AppealsNoBoard of ClaimsNoPublic Service CommissionNoWorkmen's Compensation BoardNoO.S. H. Review CommissionNoFull time chief administrativeNo?1 officers of boards
See KRS 18.140 as to employment excepted from classified service. It may be noted that KRS 18.140(1)(h) excepts from classified service [merit system] "division directors subject to the provisions of KRS 18.150." (Emphasis added). KRS 18.150 relates to the certification of division directors who do not make policy. When we read KRS 18.140 and 18.150 together, we conclude that division directors who do not make policy may be merit system employees. Conversely, those division directors whose duties are policy making in nature are exempt from the merit system or classified service. KRS 18.150 is the device for the personnel board's determination as to which division directors belong and do not belong in the classified service.
As we said the emphasis is upon the category, "major management personnel. " In construing statutes a word is always construed in connection with the words with which it is associated, and where several things are referred to, they are presumed to be of the some class, when connected with a copulative conjunction, unless a contrary intent appears.
Carson & Co. v. Shelton, 128 Ky. 248, 107 S.W. 793 (1908).
Here in KRS 61.786 the various officers listed under the category of "major management personnel" are indeed of the same class or category. They are officers who are the management and policy making personnel of the executive branch.
The answer to your question is that merit system employees are exempt from filing with the Financial Disclosure Review Commission. The statement in KRS 61.786 that the commission shall review the financial status of other major management personnel in no way militates against the premise that merit system personnel were not intended to be covered by this legislation. The statement can only extend to any officers not specifically mentioned under the class "major management personnel. "
Question No. 2:
"Are persons who file with the Financial Disclosure Review Commission required to include information on the part-time employment held by their dependents?"
KRS 61.788, as amended by S.B. 8 [1979 Ex. Sess.], provides in part that "Any covered official employed after April 15 of any year shall, within forty-five (45) days of his employment, file with the commission a financial statement reflecting all offices or employment held by him, his spouse and dependents, his major holdings and net worth as of January 1 of the year of his employment."
The language of the amendment is so broad as to bring in under itscoverage even part time employment of a dependent of a covered official. The answer is "yes". Here we are bound, we believe, by the plain meaning of the language in the statute "a financial statement reflecting all offices or employment held by him, his spouse and dependents . . ." (Emphasis added).