Request By:
Ms. Patricia A. Depew
Office of City Clerk
City Hall Building
London, Kentucky 40741
Opinion
Opinion By: David L. Armstrong, Attorney General; Walter C. Herdman, Asst. Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of December 19 in which you initially raise the question as to whether or not the position of city clerk/ treasurer under the mayor/council form of government in a city of the fourth class constitutes a municipal office.
The 1982 Legislature enacted KRS 83A.085 requiring each city to establish the office of city clerk. The statute also provides that the office may be combined with any other nonelected city office by inclusion of the title and duties of such office in the ordinance establishing the office of city clerk. The procedures to establish a nonelected city office are detailed in KRS 83A.080(1). Thus the position of city clerk/ treasurer is a municipal office.
In response to your second question concerning the council's approval of the mayor's appointment to the office of city clerk/ treasurer, we refer you to subsection (2) of KRS 83A.082 which requires that the appointments of all nonelected city officers shall be approved by the city legislative body.
In response to your third question, there is no fixed term authorized by statute for the office of city clerk or for that matter any other nonelected office. No doubt the reason for this is the fact that the appointee to this and other such offices may be removed by the mayor at will unless otherwise provided by statute. See KRS 83A.080(2).