Request By:
Mr. Gary C. Johnson
Pike County Attorney
P.O. Box 231
Pikeville, Kentucky 41501
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You request the opinion of this office as to whether or not the present Executive Director of the County Housing Authority would need to resign that position if he has filed to run for the office of Property Valuation Administrator. Under conditions hereinafter established, we do not think so.
Pursuant to KRS 132.370(2), property valuation administrators shall be elected in the year in which county elections are held and shall enter upon the discharge of the duties of their office on the first Monday in December after their election. A candidate for that office must possess the qualifications required by § 100 of the Kentucky Constitution and required by KRS 132.380.
The Executive Director of the County Housing Authority is employed by the Authority pursuant to KRS 80.450. The Authority determines his duties, among other things.
Your question is the narrow one of whether there is really any constitutional or statutory prohibition, while he is director of housing, as to his running for P.V.A. We find none. However, it is our opinion that the running for such office must in no way interfere with the carrying out of his required duties as Executive Director of the Housing Authority, which duties are prescribed by the Authority. Duties properly assigned to the Executive Director by the Authority would be in implementation of KRS 80.450, and thus would come under the rule that statutes imposing positive duties on public officers will ordinarily be construed as mandatory, particularly where such duties concern the public interest or the rights of individuals. Board of Education of Floyd County v. Moore, Ky., 264 S.W.2d 292 (1954).
The legislature may provide that a public officer devote his entire time to his duties, whether or not the entire time of the officer is in fact required for the complete and faithful performance of his duties. Board of Education of London Ind. Sch. Dist. v. Miller, Ky., 299 S.W.2d 626 (1957). Here KRS 80.450 does not so provide. We assume the Authority has no such rule or regulation. "However, it has been held that officers need not, in the absence of a provision of law to that effect, devote all their time to the performance of their official duties, but may engage in other occupations." 67 C.J.S., Officers, § 203, p. 665.
As we said, we are of the opinion that the Executive Director of Housing may campaign for the office of P.V.A., subject to his required performance of the duties thrust upon him as Director of Housing.