Request By:
Mr. James Ladd
Municipal Law Clerk
Department of Law
City of Newport
4th and York Streets
Newport, Kentucky 41071
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of June 25 in which you seek an opinion clarifying the residential requirements with respect to the appointment of the Police Chief of the city of Newport.
KRS 95.440(2) contains in part the following:
"Each member of the police or fire department in cities of the second and third classes and urban-county governments shall be a qualified voter in the county containing the city of employment . . ."
The above requirement that each member of the police department be a qualified voter in the county containing the city of employment has in our opinion been impliedly repealed by the Court of Appeals decision in the case of
City of Newport v. Schindler, Ky., 449 S.W.2d 17 (1969), followed by the enactment of KRS 15.335. The Schindler case declared that a police officer is not a constitutional officer and therefore is not required to reside within the city of his employment as required by § 234 of the Constitution. As a consequence, KRS 95.440(2) was not in conflict with Const. 234 requiring that policemen and firement be qualified voters in the county.
The decision in the Schindler case, together with the enactment of KRS 15.335, providing that no person shall be disqualified from holding a position as a peace officer by reason of his residency or voting eligibility except as provided in the Constitution, would therefore repeal by implication the county residential requirement of KRS 95.440(2). In this respect we are enclosing a copy of OAG 70-49 pertaining to a city of the third class which also involved KRS 95.440 and OAG 70-3. Also of interest is OAG 76-416 involving a subsequent amendment to KRS 95.710 pertaining to a similar question involving fourth class cities.
In other words, it is and has been our position that the city can employ a chief of police or a police officer who is neither a resident of the city or county in which the city is located. See also a copy of OAG 73-461.