Request By:
Mr. Sam Cowan
817 North Main Street
Barbourville, Kentucky 40906
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to a question raised by you as to whether or not there would be any legal conflict were an employee of the Department of Human Resources to become a candidate for the local school board, irrespective of the fact that he may be a merit employee.
KRS 18.310(4) prohibiting political activity among merit employees provides that such employees or officers may be candidates for and occupy a school district office if the office is one for which no compensation other than per diem is provided and the election is on a nonpartisan basis.
All school elections are held on a nonpartisan basis under the terms of KRS 160.230 and compensation for school members are on a per diem basis as provided in KRS 160.280. As a consequence, there would be no violation of the state merit system were an employee of the Department of Human Resources to become a candidate for school board office. Also assuming that he was elected to the position, he could serve in both capacities as KRS 18.310(4) indicates.
Of course, if the employee is a nonmerit employee there would be no statutory restriction, and in neither case would there be any incompatibility upon serving in both capacities under § 165 of the Constitution and KRS 61.080 since both positions are with the state, one being a form of state employment and the other (school board) a state office. Coleman v. Hurst, 226 Ky. 501, 11 S.W.2d 133 (1928).