Request By:
Mr. Bill Abner
Executive Director
Harlan County Urban Renewal
and Community Development Agency
P.O. Box 792
Harlan, Kentucky 40831
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Walter C. Herdman, Asst. Deputy Attorney General
We are responding to the two separate requests by you dated February 8 by separate letters as they deal with different subjects relating to the local Urban Renewal Agency.
You state that the Harlan County Urban Renewal and Community Development Agency has been established by the Harlan County Fiscal Court, and is composed of five board members appointed by the court. The question is raised as to whether or not the Fiscal Court has the right to appoint an administrative body to administer federal or state urban development grants, other than the Urban Development Agency itself.
We assume that the county established the Urban Renewal Agency under the terms of KRS 99.350 rather than attempt to administer the Urban Renewal Act itself. This being the case, the Urban Renewal Agency so established constitutes a separate corporate body and an independent agency that is neither a state, city nor a county agency as pointed out in OAG 70-587. Such an agency has the power to administer the act including the acceptance of grants from the federal or state government, or from any other source as provided in subsection (1)(e) of KRS 99.360 as well as under the terms of KRS 99.555. KRS 99.360(1)(e) reads as follows:
"To borrow from and to accept loans and grants from the federal government of any agency thereof, or from any sources, public or private, for the purposes of KRS 99.330 to 99.510, and to pledge such security as may be required; an agency, notwithstanding the provisions of any other law, may include in any contract for financial assistance with the federal government any conditions which the federal government may attach to its financial aid of a redevelopment project, not inconsistent with the purposes of KRS 99.330 to 99.510."
It would thus appear clear that the Fiscal Court, having established the Harlan County Urban Renewal and Community Development Agency, loses control of such agency in administering the Urban Renewal Act, and cannot, thereafter, legally establish a county administrative board or commission to administer federal or state grants made under the Urban Renewal Act. As a consequence, all such grants should be directed to the agency itself as KRS 99.360 and 99.555 clearly envision.