Request By:
Mr. C. O. Robertson
Member - Board of Directors
Lyon County Riverport Auth.
P.O. Box 274
Eddyville, Kentucky 42038
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You have written concerning the legal necessity of hiring a Lyon County Riverport Director. Some two months ago the Lyon County Riverport Authority advertised for a director and received 53 applications. From that list the Authority hired one man as the director.
However, that director worked six weeks and resigned.
Your question:
"Is it necessary to review former applicants and advertise again to hire a replacement for the director that resigned?"
We assume yours is a riverport authority established pursuant to KRS 65.520 et seq. As such, it is a public or governmental agency or corporation.
The key to your question is found in KRS 65.570(2), which reads:
"(2) The authority may employ or retain necessary counsel, agents, employes or other persons to carry out its purposes, work and functions and may prescribe such rules and regulation as it deems necessary."
Assuming that the Authority has not promulgated rules and regulations which specifically treat this subject, the Authority may use any reasonable means to procure an executive director. See Spann v. Stewart, 268 Ky. 97, 103 S.W.2d 651 (1937) 659. No special procedure for the procurement of such executive director is called for in the statutes. Where the port authority has issued rules and regulations covering this subject, the Authority should follow such rules and regulations, provided they are reasonable.
We concluded in OAG 78-541, copy enclosed, that the bidding law, KRS 424.260, does not apply to a riverport authority, which is a body politic and corporate and is a public agency. As a public corporation, it does not fall within any of the covered categories of local governmental units mentioned in KRS 424.260.