Request By:
Mr. William S. O'Daniel
Commissioner
Department for Local Government
909 Leawood Drive
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
In your administration of the Coal Severance Economic Aid Fund, pursuant to KRS 42.325, et seq., you have encountered a problem of statutory interpretation.
KRS 42.330 provides for membership on the Economic Aid Board in each coal producing county, to be comprised of the county judge/executive, one member of the fiscal court selected by the fiscal court, the mayors or chairmen of the board of trustees of the two most populous cities in the county, one member selected by the board of education, and four (4) members at large who are residents of the county to be appointed by the governor.
One of the governor's appointees was named county judge/executive in April 1979, but no one has been selected to fill the vacancy on the EAB.
You ask: What is the procedure for the EAB to follow? Can the EAB transact business until the vacancy is filled.
Of course the Economic Aid Board wishes to carry on its work of selecting local capital projects, to be funded by the Coal Severance Economic Aid Fund. The statutes are silent as to board procedural matters.
In the absence of statute in this situation, it is our opinion that the Economic Aid Board can carry out its statutory functions with the eight members [vacancy in one membership not filled] , provided that a quorum is present, that is, a majority of nine, which would be five members. Then a majority of the quorum could take an effective vote.
Under common law, or in the absence of any statute, a majority of any body constitutes a quorum for the transaction of business, and a majority of the quorum concurring is sufficient to take any particular action.