Request By:
Mr. John H. Golden
Bell County Attorney
P.O. Box 220
pineville, Kentucky 40977
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You have been requested by the Bell Fiscal Court to seek our opinion as to the legality of the P.V.A.'s and the sheriff's maintaining branch offices.
KRS 67.035 reads:
(1) In all counties with a land area of more than seven hundred fifty (750) square miles, the sheriff and county clerk, when authorized by resolution of the fiscal court, may each maintain a brance office in any incorporated or unincorporated city of the county other than the county seat.
(2) The sheriff and county clerk, when authorized by the fiscal court, may appoint one or more deputies for the branch office. The salaries to be paid said deputies together with the office rent and other expenses incidental to maintaining branch offices shall be considered as a part of the necessary expenses of the respective officers and shall be paid in the manner now provided by law for such expenses.
If your county has a land area of more than seven hundred fifty (750) square miles, the sheriff, when authorized by resolution of the fiscal court, may maintain a branch office in any incorporated or unincorporated city of the county other than the county seat. In addition, the sheriff, when authorized by the fiscal court, may appoint one or more deputies for the branch office. The deputies' salaries and branch office rental shall be considered as a part of the official expenses of the sheriff's office. The branch office is not restricted to any particular function of the sheriff's office.
Assuming that Pike County is the only county in Kentucky with more than 750 square miles, there is no statutory authority for a sheriff's branch office in your county. In other words, if you find that your county does not have in excess of 750 square miles land area, there is no statutory authority for a sheriff's branch office.
As relates to the property valuation administrator, KRS 132.410(1) reads:
(1) The fiscal court of each county shall provide for the property valuation administrator a suitable office room or rooms in the county courthouse, or when that is not practicable, in some other building at the county seat, together with suitable furniture. In that office shall be safely kept the books, maps, taxpayers' lists, papers and all other records pertaining to the assessment of property within the county, except when such records are required by law to be placed in the custody of other officers.
KRS 132.410 requires the office of the P.V.A. to be located at the county seat. There are no statutory provisions for a branch office for the P.V.A.
The powers of public officers are limited to those expressly conferred by statute or those which exist by a necessary and clear implication. Blue Boar Cafeteria Co. v. Hackett, 312 Ky. 288, 227 S.W.2d 199 (1950).
CONCLUSION
There is no statutory authority for branch offices for the sheriff or property valuation administrator in Bell County.