Request By:
Mr. E. G. Wilson
Chief of Police
118 East Main Street
Morganfield, Kentucky 42437
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Thomas R. Emerson, Assistant Attorney General
This is in reply to your letter asking whether a conflict of interest would arise if a clerk of the District Court is appointed as an auxiliary police officer for the city of Morganfield, a city of the fourth class.
Section 114 of the Kentucky Constitution provides in part that the clerks of the Circuit Court shall be elected and shall serve as clerks of the District Court. This office has, in a number of opinions, concluded that circuit court clerks and deputy circuit court clerks are state officers. See, for example, OAG 76-509, OAG 77-537 and OAG 80-246, copies of which are enclosed.
KRS 95.445 in part authorizes the legislative body of a city of the fourth class to provide by ordinance for the establishment of an auxiliary police force. In OAG 68-12, copy enclosed, we said that a person appointed as an auxiliary police officer pursuant to KRS 95.445 is a municipal officer, the same as a regular police officer. See also OAG 74-909 and OAG 78-675, copies enclosed.
KRS 61.080(1) and Section 165 of the Kentucky Constitution provide in part that no person shall, at the same time, be a state officer or a deputy state officer and an officer of any county, city or other municipality, or an employe thereof.
Thus, a person may not, at the same time, serve as clerk of the District Court and an auxiliary police officer for a city of the fourth class.