Request By:
Honorable Paul Fauri
General Counsel
Department for Human Resources
Commonwealth of Kentucky
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: K. Gail Leeco, Assistant Attorney General
You have requested an opinion as to whether it is mandatory for each local health department to publish an individual itemized financial statement in accordance with KRS 424.220. KRS 424.220 states, in part:
. . . every public officer of any school district, city, county or subdivision or district less than a county, whose duty it is to collect, receive, have the custody, control or disbursement of public funds, and every officer of any board or commission of a city, county or district whose duty it is to collect, receive, have the custody, control or disbursement of funds collected from the public in the form of rates, charges or assessments for services or benefits, shall at the expiration of each fiscal year prepare an itemized, sworn statement of the funds collected, received, held or disbursed by him during the fiscal year just closed. . . The statement shall show the amount of funds collected and received, from what sources received, the amount disbursed, the date of each disbursement, for what purpose expended, and to whom paid. . . . The officer shall procure and include in or attach to the statement as a part thereof a certificate from the cashier or other proper officer of the banks in which the funds are or have been deposited during the past year, showing the balance, if any, of funds to the credit of the officer making the statement. The officer shall, within sixty (60) days after the close of the fiscal year, cause the statement to be published in full in a newspaper qualified under KRS 424.120 to publish advertisements for the city, county or district, as the case may be. . . .
This office has previously concluded that the provisions of KRS 424.220 apply to local health department monies raised locally. OAG 64-330. You have asked us to reexamine our previous opinion in light of the thorough supervision of the financial functions of local health departments by the Department of Human Resources required by KRS 211.170.
Pursuant to the authority of KRS 211.170, the Department of Human Resources has structured the fiscal organization of local health departments as follows. Local health departments deposit monies derived from local sources, such as service fees, fiscal court appropriations, and voluntary contributions, in a local bank account. Each month, the local health department makes a disbursement from this account to a central bank account maintained by the Department of Human Resources. Also deposited in this central bank account are state and federal funds. From this central bank account, using the local, state, and federal funds, the Department of Human Resources pays all of the expenses incurred by the local health department. The amount of the monthly disbursement from the local account to the central account is the local department's pro rata share for these expenditures made by D.H.R. on its behalf. The Department also prepares monthly and annual financial statements for each local health department. These statements reflect all receipts and all disbursements. The statements are available to the public on request.
In our opinion, this fiscal organization does not exempt a local health department from the requirements of KRS 424.220. The Department's supervision does not relieve the public officer of the local health department from his duty to collect, receive, have custody, control or disbursement of funds. It is this duty which triggers the requirements of publishing. Nor does the public's access to monthly and annual statements relieve the local health department from publishing. The legislative intent in KRS 424.220 is to provide detailed publication for the reading public. OAG 77-142. The legislature does not regard an audit which is available to the public as obviating the necessity for publication. See the provisions of KRS 75.255, for example, which specifically state that an audit made available to the public does not relieve a fire protection district from the requirements of KRS 424.220. See OAG 80-240, copy attached. This office maintains its opinion that a local health department is required to publish under KRS 424.220 as to the funds it receives and disburses unless it falls within an exception to the statute.
An exception to the requirement of publishing under KRS 424.220 has recently been enacted with regard to various taxing districts, including a public health taxing district created pursuant to KRS 212.720 to 212.760. Senate Bill 62, Section 3, effective July 15, 1980, provides:
(1) At least once every twelve (12) months, a district shall:
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(c) Publish, in lieu of the provisions of KRS 424.220, but in compliance with other applicable provisions of KRS Chapter 424, the names and addresses of the members of its governing body and chief executive officer, and either a summary financial statement which includes the location of supporting documents, or the location of district financial records which may be examined by the public.
It would seem that where a local health department is co-extensive with a public health taxing district with all its income and disbursements recorded in the district's financial records, the new legislation demonstrates an intention to substitute publishing information as to the availability of financial records for publishing the previously-required detailed financial statement. Therefore, as to these local health departments, there is soon to be effective an exception to the publishing requirements of KRS 424.220. Where the local health department is not co-extensive with a public health taxing district with the same financial records, it will have to publish in accordance with KRS 424.220 .