Request By:
Mr. Larry S. Lawson
Spencer County Sheriff Department
Box 475
Taylorsville, Kentucky 40071
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
As Sheriff of Spencer County, you have a problem relating to your deputies.
Your letter reads in part:
"The Taylorsville Lake is about to open here and we have a large county fair held outside the city limits of Taylorsville.
"Taylorsville has three (3) policemen, but the town being a 6th class city, the city police have no authority out of the city limits.
"The Sheriff's Department has one sheriff, one male deputy for law enforcement and one female deputy for bookkeeping.
"I have been taking the deputy and two (2) volunteer special deputies and providing security for the fair but, I have recently found out that the special deputies have no authority to patrol the county fair.
"Fiscal court in March of 1981 set the number of deputies for this office at four (4) but did not mention any pay.
"What I need to know is can I get Fiscal Court to pay my (2) special deputies a small salary and make them full deputies with powers of a deputy sheriff to help answer calls and patrol the fair. The court is financially strapped but, might could pay $25.00 a month or so if it would make the deputies legal.
"I would appreciate a written response as soon as possible as the fair board in particular and the county is trying to figure out what to do."
Under the fiscal court order of March 1981, you are entitled to four (4) regular deputies. However, when you appoint persons to fill the remaining two (2) regular deputy positions, the fiscal court must set reasonable salaries for all four (4) of them. See KRS 64.530 and
Funk v. Milliken, Ky., 317 S.W.2d 499 (1958). The deputies' salaries may be funded out of the fees of your office or the county treasury, or a combination of both sources.
Special deputies appointed under KRS 70.045 can only serve in connection with assisting the sheriff in preparation for and during an emergency situation, such as fire, flood, tornado, storm, or other such emergency situations. The special deputies are not to be salaried since the statute contemplates a spasmodic and short term use of such deputies.
The special deputies have no authority to patrol or provide security for the fair or security for anything other than the emergency situation mentioned above.
In answer to your question, the fiscal court is prohibited by KRS 70.045 from providing salaries for the special deputies. The fiscal court has no authority to convert the special deputies into regular deputies. Do not forget that you are entitled to four (4) regular deputies, for which reasonable salaries must be fixed by fiscal court. See KRS 64.530 and 70.030.