Request By:
Mr. Bill Bartleman
The Paducah Sun
P.O. Box 2300
Paducah, Kentucky 42001
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of recent date in which you refer to the fact that four (4) commissioners and a mayor were elected this past November in the city of Paducah, a city of the second class operating under the commissioncity manager form of government. With respect to the election of the commissioners, you request an opinion concerning the following:
"The oath of office was given to each of these commission members during the week after the election. The city attorney said that the oath is required within 10 days after the certification of the election.
"Do the terms of office of commissioners and a mayor in a Second Class City operating under the City Manager form of Government begin their terms the date they take the oath of office, or on the First Monday in January?"
Members of the city commission as well as the mayor that were elected at the past November election for regular two (2) and four (4) year terms respectively are required to take office on the first Monday in January of 1980 under the terms of KRS 89.430(5). KRS 62.010(2) provides that each person elected to an office shall take the oath of office on or before the day the term of the office to which he has been elected begins.
Under the circumstances, the commissioners and the mayor elected at the November, 1979 election are not required to take the oath of office until they enter their duties on the first Monday in January of 1980. Of course, they may take the oath prior to that time or at any time following the receipt of their certificate of election. We might add that the courts have construed KRS 62.010(2) to even permit the execution of the oath within a reasonable time after they take office. See
Lewin v. Ft. Mitchell, 148 Ky. 816, 147 S.W. 922 (1912).
In contrast to the time that the commissioners and mayor take office following an election for regular terms, a different situation would exist where the person is elected for an unexpired term pursuant to § 152 of the Constitution. In such a situation the person elected takes office immediately after he has been elected or as soon thereafter as he receives his certificate of election and qualifies for the office which, in this instance, includes the execution of the oath and the posting of the bond pursuant to KRS 89.490.