Request By:
Mr. Arthur Lee Clay
Special Investigator
Department of Human Resources
627 W. Fourth Street
Lexington, Kentucky 40508
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of January 31 in which you raise the question as to whether or not you, as a state employe, have the right to run for the office of City Commissioner of the city of Winchester.
We assume that you are a state merit employe, and based on such assumption, our response to your question would be in the negative.
The controlling statute is KRS 18.310(4), which reads in part as follows:
". . . Officers or employes of the classified service may be candidates for and occupy a town or school district office if the office is one for which no compensation, other than a per diem payment, is provided and the election is on a nonpartisan basis." (Emphasis added).
It is true of course that the city of Winchester, operating under the commission form of government, has so-called nonpartisan elections, however, city commissioners do receive compensation in the form of salaries not to exceed more than three-thousand dollars ($3,000) annually pursuant to KRS 89.110 (2).
You will note that the cited provision of KRS 18.310 does permit a merit employe to run for an office filled on a nonpartisan basis but at the same time the office must be one for which no compensation is authorized, other than a per diem payment, such as members of local school boards receive. As a consequence, we are of the opinion that you cannot become a candidate for the office of city commissioner without violating the provisions of KRS 18.310(4) which, pursuant to the penalty section, namely KRS 18.990(3), would require the forfeiture of your position and make you ineligible for one (1) year for any position in the commonwealth's service. Such violation also would constitute a misdemeanor, subjecting the officer or employe to a sentence of from thirty (30) days to six (6) months in jail.