Request By:
Honorable James L. Gay
City Attorney
City of Versailles
Versailles, Kentucky 40383
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of April 5 in which you request an opinion concerning the following:
"The recent attorney general's opinion appearing in the City Council Salary's should not be based on per meeting basis. The City of Versailles, which is a fourth class city, has extensions that pay the council members $50 per meeting.
"Please advise whether or not the attorney general's opinion includes fourth class cities."
The opinion you refer to is OAG 78-823 which however does not apply to the second or fourth class in view of their exclusion under KRS 82.070 which reads as follows:
"The compensation paid to members of the legislative bodies of all cities which operate under the councilmanic form of government shall be fixed by the legislative bodies of such cities in a sum not to exceed $3,000 per annum. This section shall not apply to cities of the first class nor to cities of the fourth class. "
Cities of the fourth class are however governed by KRS 86.053, which reads as follows:
"The compensation paid to members of the legislative bodies of cities of the fourth class which operate under the councilmanic form of government shall be fixed by the legislative bodies of such cities in a sum not to exceed $3,000 per annum. "
You will note the wording of this statute is almost identical to KRS 82.070 which was the basis of our conclusion in OAG 78-823 that members of the city council can no longer be paid on a per meeting basis. Prior to the 1974 amendment to KRS 86.053 above quoted, members of the city council were to be paid on a per meeting basis in the same manner as provided in KRS 82.070 prior to its amendment.
Under the circumstances, therefore, the conclusion reached in OAG 78-823 would equally apply to fourth class cities in view of the present wording of KRS 86.053 and, as a consequence, members of the city council of the city of Versailles can no longer be paid on a per meeting basis.