Request By:
Mr. Tim Firkins
Property Valuation Administrator
504 Fiscal Court Building
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of February 3, in which you raise the following question:
"Whether serving as a Property Valuation Administrator of Jefferson County at the same time serving as a member of the Board of Louisville and Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District is a conflict?"
Our response to your question would be in the negative. The office of PVA is a state rather than county office, as held in the case of
Jefferson County Fiscal Court v. Trager, 302 Ky. 361, 194 S.W.2d 851 (1946). The Louisville and Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District is an independent public body corporate and political subdivision of the state as referred to in KRS 76.010 and so held in the case of
Rash v. Louisville & Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District, 309 Ky. 442, 217 S.W.2d 232 (1949) and
Gnau v. Louisville and Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District, Ky., 346 S.W.2d 754 (1961).
KRS 76.030(2), relating to the qualifications of board members, prohibits any officer or employee of the city or county in which the Metropolitan Sewer District is organized from being eligible for appointment as a member of the board. However, since the PVA is a state officer, this disqualification would not apply. Also, the fact that the Metropolitan Sewer District is a hybrid agency not contemplated by Section 165 of the Constitution and KRS 61.080, dealing with incompatible offices, would remove any objection under these sections to a PVA holding at the same time membership on the sewer district board. In other words, the sewer district would be in the same class as a municipal housing commission, held to be a hybrid agency, which was neither a state, city nor county agency, in the case of
City of Louisville v. Louisville Municipal Housing Commission, Ky., 261 S.W.2d 286 (1953).
Under the circumstances, we find no statutory or constitutional objection to you serving as PVA administrator and at the same time holding membership on the board of the Louisville and Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District. There is, of course, always the possibility of a common law conflict where the duties of both positions cannot be performed with care and ability. However, this is a question of fact that only the courts can determine.