Request By:
Mr. Damon Surgener
Assistant Executive Director
Kentucky Port and River
Development Commission
Capital Plaza Tower - 24th Floor
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
Certain questions keep cropping up at meetings of the Commission and at the regular monthly local Riverport Authority meetings.
First, you ask whether proxies may be used by the members of the Kentucky Port and River Development Commission and members of a local riverport authority?
The basic principle is that administrative officers cannot delegate to subordinates or to another powers and functions which are discretionary or quasi-judicial in character, or which require the exercise of judgment, in the absence of statute permitting it. 73 C.J.S., Public Administrative Bodies, § 57, p.p. 380-381. Mere ministerial duties may be so delegated. See also 4 McQuillin, Municipal Corporations, § 13.30.
Referring to 73 C.J.S., Public Administrative Bodies, § 57, we find this, at pages 381-382:
"In general administrative officers and bodies cannot alienate, surrender, or abridge their powers and duties, and they cannot legally confer on their employees or others authority and functions which under the law may be exercised only by them or by other officers or tribunals. Although mere ministerial functions may be delegated, in the absence of permissive constitutional or statutory provision, administrative officers and agencies cannot delegate to a subordinate or another powers and functions which are discretionary or quasi-judicial in character, or which require the exercise of judgment, and subordinate officials have no power with respect to such duties."
Our response to your question is in the negative, since we find nothing in the statutes providing for proxies for the aforementioned commission and a local riverport authority. Here we are speaking of the discretionary and quasi-judicial nature of the boards' functions and where the exercise of judgment is required. Cf. KRS 154.320 and 65.540.
The port commission has, inter alia, the authority to aid in the promotion and development of river-related industry, agriculture, and commerce; to aid in the promotion and development of local port authorities; and to aid in the promotion and development of industrial districts, parks, and sites for accommodating industrial complexes that utilize the rivers and river-related sources. See KRS 154.315. The commission may contract in its own name for planning, engineering, promotion and development, consistent with the purposes of KRS 65.510 to 65.530 [local riverport authorities] etc.
A local riverport 1 has the authority to establish, maintain, operate and expand necessary and proper riverport and river navigation facilities, and to acquire and develop property, or rights therein within the economic environs of the riverport or proposed riverport to attract directly or indirectly river-oriented industry. It shall have the duty and such power as may be necessary or desirable to promote and develop navigation, river transportation, riverports, and riverport facilities, and to attract industrial or commercial operations to the property held as industrial parks. See KRS 65.530.
We find nothing in the statutes authorizing the delegation or surrender of such power to subordinates or others, considering that the above mentioned statutes involve the exercise of discretion and judgment in the boards' carrying out their statutory functions.
Question No. 2:
"May a proxy constitute a quorum?"
Since we have concluded that the right to proxy does not exist, the last question is academic and does not require an answer.
Footnotes
Footnotes
1 A riverport authority.