Request By:
O. Leonard Press
Executive Director
Kentucky Educational Television
600 Cooper Drive
Lexington, Kentucky 40502
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Martin Glazer, Assistant Attorney General
You seek an opinion on the following question:
"Do the statutes, as amended, grant sole authority to KAET to determine who may be exempted from KRS Chapter 18, with salaries limited by KRS 168.080(2), without reference to any other state agency of [sic] office?"
You have cited us to several statutes which were amended in 1980.
KRS 168.080 authorizes the Authority (KET) to employ persons and prescribe qualifications thereof. The statute was amended to include the following language.
". . . [E]xcept that the compensation for these officers and employes exempt from classified services as provided in KRS 18.140 shall be determined by the Authority not to exceed the amount paid to a majority of all of the commissioners of state government. "
Also, KRS 18.140 was amended to exclude from the Merit System in Subsection (1)(e) "including the executive director of Kentucky Educational Television."
And, KRS 64.640 was amended to exclude from the Commissioner of Personnel's determination of salaries in subsection 1 "those officers and employes of Kentucky Educational Television exempt from classified service as provided in KRS 18.140. . . ."
All of the aforesaid statutes were amended by H.B. 287, Chapter 98, 1980 Kentucky Acts.
In reviewing these changes, we cannot see how they grant sole authority to KAET to determine who may be exempt from KRS Chapter 18.
At most, they exclude from the Commissioner of Personnel's determination of salary those positions exempted by the merit system under KRS 18.140.
They would be the executive director of KET, (KRS 18.140(1)(e)), his deputy, (subsection (1)(f)), private secretaries to the director and his deputy, (subsection (1)(j)), as long as their compensations do not exceed the amount paid to the majority of commissioners of state government.
It is the Legislature who determines who is exempted from the merit system and that is done through those entities listed in KRS 18.140.
KET was not given authority to exempt other positions not so listed, nor was it given the sole right to determine the salary of nonexempted positions.
Thus, the answer to your question is, "no."