Request By:
Mr. James S. Secrest
Allen County Attorney
Box 35
Scottsville, Kentucky 42164
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You have written that it appears that under the amendment of KRS 67.130, the fiscal court and not the jailer is now responsible for the maintenance and operation of all county buildings, grounds, etc. The Allen Fiscal Court has been and is now paying the jailer from the county treasury the sum of $400 per month to "clean up the city-county building."
You ask: Is the $400 included in the jailer's compensation for determination of excess fees before and after June 17, 1978 [effective date of amendment].
Prior to the amendment, the old Court of Appeals construed the appropriation for janitorial services to be compensation for the jailer. Perkins v. Cumberland County, 294 Ky. 737, 172 S.W.2d 651 (1943).
In connection with the 1978 amendment of KRS 67.130, while fiscal court is responsible for county building maintenance, if the county judge/executive, with approval of fiscal court, employs the jailer as county building superintendent and is thus given the janitorial duty, this janitorial appropriation is still compensation to the jailer for purposes of determining excess fees. See Funk v. Milliken, Ky., 317 S.W.2d 499 (1958).
Next, you ask if the jailer can receive the maximum compensation for dieting prisoners and in addition the appropriation for cleaning up the courthouse?
Under KRS 64.527, the jailer cannot receive compensation in excess of the maximum rubber dollar level. In other words, his total salary, including dieting fees, plus this janitorial appropriation, cannot exceed the annual rubber dollar maximum for each year of his term.
Of course to qualify for earning the janitorial compensation, he must be appointed as county building superintendent by the county judge/executive, pursuant to KRS 67.130 as amended in 1978, and must actually perform such duties.
Finally, it is permissive only as to whether the county judge/executive, with the approval of the fiscal court, appoints the jailer as county building superintendent, since the statute says "may appoint" . See KRS 446.010(20), providing that generally "may" is permissive.
Where the jailer is not appointed as county building superintendent, the fiscal court can procure such janitorial services from some other source.