Request By:
Hon. John L. Arnett
City Attorney
City of Elizabethtown
P.O. Box 847
Elizabethtown, Kentucky 42701
Opinion
Opinion By: David L. Armstrong, Attorney General; Walter C. Herdman, Asst. Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of October 18 in which you initially raise the question as to the maximum salary that can be paid a mayor of a fourth class city.
The maximum salary that can be paid any elected local official is $7200 per annum as prescribed in Section 246 of the Constitution and KRS 83A.075 as enacted at the 1984 session of the General Assembly. This statute, however, permits the mayor and members of the city legislative body of any city to receive a cost of living raise each year based upon the purchasing power of the dollar (consumer price index) , as computed for these officials by the state Finance and Administration Cabinet. Such figures are to be computed by the second Friday in February of each year. For your information the provisions of KRS 83A.075 read as follows:
"(1) In order to equate the compensation of mayors and members of city legislative bodies with the purchasing power of the dollar, the finance and administration cabinet shall compute by the second Friday in February of every year the annual increase or decrease in the consumer price index of the preceding year by using 1949 as the base year in accordance with section 246 of the Constitution of Kentucky which provides that the mayor in cities of the first class shall be paid at a rate no greater than twelve thousand dollars ($12,000) per annum and mayors in cities other than the first class and legislative body members shall be paid at a rate no greater than seven thousand two hundred dollars ($7,200) per annum.
"(2) The legislative body of the city shall set the compensation of the officer in accordance with KRS 83A.070 at a rate no greater than that stipulated by the finance and administration cabinet. "
As you know, the salary of the mayor and members of the city legislative body must initially be fixed not later than the first Monday in May of the year they are elected. See KRS 83A.070. Once the salary is fixed under this latter section, the legislative body can authorize a cost of living increase in compensation each year not exceeding the amount computed pursuant to KRS 83A.075.
You next raise the question as to whether or not the mayor can be granted an expense account of a certain amount of money each month, for example $300, to take care of any expenses. This in addition to his regular salary.
The answer to the above question would be in the negative. No officer is entitled to a lump sum monthly expense account under KRS 64.710 which reads as follows:
"No public officer or employe shall receive or be allowed or paid any lump sum expense allowance, or contingent fund for personal or official expenses, except where such allowance or fund either is expressly provided for by statute or is specifically appropriated by the general assembly. "
There is no statutory authority for any city officer to receive a lump sum expense allowance. Of course, the mayor would be entitled to be reimbursed for any actual expenses incurred in the performance of his duties, such as his travel, etc.