Request By:
Mr. Bennie Garland
P.O. Box 241
Jamestown, Kentucky 42629
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of December 5 in which you seek an opinion concerning the constitutional requirements necessary in order for a person to run for and hold the office of county judge/executive. In connection with your question you relate that you are an employe of the lake Cumberland Area Development District and because of the location of your employment, it has become necessary for you to move three years ago from your home in McCreary County Since moving to Russell County you have never changed your voter registration from McCreary County and have continued to license your car and pay your property taxes thereon. You further relate that you have always considered Pussell County as merely a temporary place of residence because of your employment.
You basically desire to know whether you must physically move back to McCreary County in order to seek the office of county judge/executive. In addition, you desire to know whether there would be any conflict of interest if you remain an employe of the Lake Cumberland Area Development District while you are a candidate for the office of county judge/executive.
Section 100 of the Constitution recuires that a person must reside within the state two (2) years, and one (1) year next preceding his election in the county in which he is seeking office. Legal residence is difficult to determine where the individual is temporarily absent therefrom and the courts have declared it is a question of intent, and facts with each individual case standing on its own. In other words, you may have the intent to continue your legal residence in one place but at the same time the facts will not sustain the contention where there is little or no evidence of the actual retention of residence.
There are certain rules that the legislature and courts have set down as a guideline for determining legal residence, and we are enclosing a copy of OAG 77-182 setting forth these basic rules. Certainly, the fact that you remain a registered voter in McCreary County would be good evidence of retaining legal residency but not necessarily so where you may not have a place to "hang your hat," so to speak, in a particular voting precinct. You could be subject to purgation. Thus, this question must necessarily be decided by the courts.
On the other hand, since you will not he a candidate for the office of county judge/executive until 1981, you could return physically so to speak to McCreary County within one (1) year next preceding the 1981 November election and become without question qualified as to residency.
As far as there being any conflict of interest by your present position and your candidacy for the office, there would be none. A conflict of interest or incompatibility could only develop when you assume the office. See KRS 61.090.