Request By:
Robert H. Allphin
Commissioner
Department of Revenue
Frankfort, Kentucky 40620
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Martin Glazer, Assistant Attorney General
You seek an opinion as to whether Property Valuation Administrators must be paid full salaries when they work only 40 per cent of a work week.
We have considered various aspects of the Property Valuation Administrator in previous opinions.
In OAG 80-287 we advised that there was no statutory authority for paying for unused accrued annual leave for PVAs or their deputies upon their leaving.
That same opinion cited subsection 1 of KRS 132.590, in part, as follows:
"Should a property valuation administrator for any reason vacate the office in any year during his term of office he shall be paid only for the calendar days actually served during the year."
We also note the following language in KRS 132.620(1):
". . . . Whenever the property valuation administrator fails to render the services required of him or he performs any of his duties in such a manner as to fail to comply substantially with the requirements of the law, he shall be required to pay a sum that will reasonably compensate the Commonwealth of Kentucky for its costs in rendering the duties required to be performed by the public valuation administrator. . . ."
Subsection 2 provides a means of deduction from future payments owed the PVA or claimed from the PVA's bondsman.
A similar statute dealing with all officers, KRS 61.120 provides:
"If any officer paid in whole or in part out of the state treasury or by any county fails or neglects to perform his duties, without a good excuse set out in full by his affidavit and certified by order of court to the executive department for finance and administration or other paying officer, there shall be thereafter deducted from his salary such an amount as the total number of days during the year in which he failed or neglected to discharge his duty bears to the whole number of days in the year for which he received compensation. So much of the amount deducted as is necessary shall be applied to the payment of the special officer who performs the duty of the officer so failing."
Therefore, if the PVA fails to perform his duties, his salary can be reduced for that period of time in which he does not perform the services for which he is being paid. Whether a PVA who is working only forty percent (40%) of the work week is failing to perform his duties is a factual question which must initially be determined by the Department of Revenue and, ultimately, perhaps, by the courts.
If the PVA has certified a time and attendance of a deputy which is false, the department can recover that money so falsely paid by withholding the sums falsely reported, or seek to recover same from the PVA. Where the false certification is shown to be deliberate and knowing, a criminal action can be instituted, probably under KRS Chapter 522 and 523. Also KRS 132.990(2) authorizes fines against the PVA who wilfully fails or neglects to perform any duty legally imposed upon him up to $500 for each offense. A judgment of conviction may declare the office vacant.