Request By:
Byron Lee Hobgood, Esq.
City Attorney, City of Madisonville
P.O. Box 195
Madisonville, Kentucky 42431
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Thomas R. Emerson, Assistant Attorney General
This is in reply to your letter asking the following questions:
"1. Can the City of Madisonville, a fourth class city, adopt electrical standards by ordinance which exceed the standards of the National Electrical Code?
2. If such standards were adopted after March 28, 1978, can they continue in effect until such time as the uniform state building code becomes mandatory within the local government jurisdiction?"
You state that the city adopted a rather stringent electrical code many years ago. In June of 1978, the city adopted the National Electrical Code but in May of 1979, the city readopted its previous more stringent code which exceeds the standards of the National Electric Code. You further state that your questions are "directed at KRS 198B.060(1)."
KRS 198B.060 deals with local enforcement of the uniform state building code and subsection (1) thereof provides as follows:
"Each local government in the state of Kentucky shall employ a building official or inspector and other code enforcement personnel as necessary, or shall contract for such services in accordance with subsections (7) and (9) of this section to enforce the uniform state building code within the boundaries of its jurisdiction, and shall neither adopt nor enforce any other ordinance regulating buildings which conflicts with the uniform state building code, except that a building code adopted by a local government prior to March 28, 1978 may continue in effect until such time as the uniform state building code becomes mandatory within that local government jurisdiction."
The uniform state building code is required to encompass the national electrical code [KRS 198B.050(2)] and the effective dates for the code are set forth in KRS 198B.110. Note particularly subsection (2) of that statute applicable to local governments in a county containing a city of the third or fourth class but not a city of the first or second class. The earliest effective date for portions of the code is six months after promulgation by the board of housing, buildings and construction. Since the board promulgated the code on August 15, 1979, certain sections of the code will become effective on February 15, 1980.
KRS 198B.060(1) does provide that a building code adopted by a local government prior to March 28, 1978 may continue in effect until such time as the uniform state building code becomes mandatory within that local government jurisdiction. We assume from your letter that you are referring to an amendment of the city's electrical code after March 28, 1978, rather than an amendment to or the enactment of a comprehensive city building code. It may be that the city does not even have a comprehensive building code. Thus, in our opinion, KRS 198B.060(1) will not prevent the city from amending its electrical code after March 28, 1978, to provide standards more stringent than the National Electrical Code, which standards will continue in effect until such time as the uniform state building code becomes mandatory within the city.
Furthermore, as additional support for our contention that the city's electrical code can be made more stringent than the state's standards (at least until the uniform state building code takes effect) we direct your attention to KRS 227.300 and 227.320 concerning the standards of safety. The Commissioner of the Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction is required to promulgate standards of safety and those standards of safety, as a result of action by the 1978 session of the General Assembly, shall be adopted and enforced by the authorities of any county, city or other political subdivision. However, after promulgation of the uniform state building code, no part of the standards of safety shall establish any building code other than the uniform state building code. The standards of safety which have been adopted and which are now in effect include the National Fire Codes, Volumes 1-16, and one volume of which is the National Electrical Code. The standards of safety are set forth in 815 KAR 10:015 and they provide in part that the standards contained therein are considered to be minimum standards. See also KRS 227.320. Thus, the electrical code which is now in effect for the state as part of the state's Standards of Safety sets minimum standards, and until the new state building code takes effect, the city's electrical code may be made more stringent than the National Electrical Code which the state has adopted as part of its Standards of Safety.