Request By:
Mr. A. T. Wood
Kenton County Clerk
P.O. Box 788
Covington, Kentucky 41012-0788
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Walter C. Herdman, Asst. Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your question as to whether the annexation of a portion of territory located in an adjacent city must go on the ballot where there are no persons, registered voters, or property owners residing in the area to be annexed.
KRS 81A.430 requires that whenever a city desires to annex a part of another city the legislative body of the city proposing the annexation must enact an ordinance to that effect, and provide that the question of annexation shall be submitted to the qualified (registered) voters of that portion of the city to be annexed, at the next regular election. If the majority of those voting on the proposed annexation favor same then the city is authorized to enact the necessary annexation ordinance.
Obviously the statute was designed to permit those qualified voters in the area to be annexed to decide whether or not they want to be annexed by an adjacent city. In your case, however, the placing of the question on the ballot would be a useless and futile procedure since there are no qualified voters in the area, and therefore no resulting vote can be taken on the question.
Under the circumstances, we are of the opinion that the question should not be placed on the ballot under the rule of statutory construction that it is presumed that the legislature did not intend to require a useless and futile thing be done and further that statute should not be construed so as to lead to an absurd conclusion. Washburn v. Paducah Newspapers, Ky., 275 Ky. 527, 121 S.W.2d 911 (1938); Reeves v. Fidelity & Columbia Trust Co., 293 Ky. 544, 169 S.W.2d 621 (1943); Commonwealth v. Randolph, 277 Ky. 724, 127 S.W.2d 398 (1939).
Assumming our conclusion that the terms of the statute cannot be complied with under the circumstances, the question as to the appropriate procedure to be followed by the city must necessarily be determined by the court.