Request By:
Hon. David M. Miles
Carroll County Jailer
315 Ninth Street
Carrolton, Kentucky 41008
Opinion
Opinion By: Chris Gorman, Attorney General; Gerard R. Gerhard, Assistant Attorney General
Re: Salary of Jailer, Where Jail Closed, But New Jail to Open, Perhaps in May, 1992. AGO Corr. No. 92-(O)-443.
By letter of March 11, 1992, you indicate that the Carroll County Jail is currently closed, and that you perform duties other than those of the jailer, for which you are paid less than the maximum salary allowed for constitutional officers. Construction of a new jail, you indicate, may be completed about May 1, 1992. You ask whether you should be entitled to full salary when the new jail becomes available, or perhaps even now, since you are being required to ready yourself for operation of the new jail.
Since there is currently no jail in Carroll County and you do not transport prisoners, your current salary as jailer is limited to twelve thousand dollars in accordance with KRS 441.245(5). The statutes do not authorize a salary for services of a jailer incident to preparation for opening of a jail. The fiscal court, pursuant to KRS 441.245(1), must set a salary, for your services as jailer, to take effect upon the opening of the jail currently under construction. The salary set under such provision by the fiscal court, would, of course, be subject to the maximum imposed by § 246 of the Constitution, and the judicial determination in such regard. Discussion follows.
KRS 441.245(1) and (5) are related to your question(s). They provide:
(1) The jailer shall receive a monthly salary from the county jail operating budget.
* * *
(5) Effective January 6, 1986, the salary for jailers in any county where there is no jail and the jailer does not transport prisoners shall be twelve thousand dollars ($ 12,000) per year.
As I understand it from your letter, there is currently no jail in Carroll County, and you do not transport prisoners. It follows that currently your salary as jailer is limited to a maximum of $ 12,000 by KRS 441.245(5) (above).
The statutes do not provide for supplementing or increasing the salary of a jailer, in a county that does not have a jail, to compensate the jailer for services rendered in preparing for the opening of a jail. In the absence of statutory authority for enhancing the salary of a jailer for such purpose, and in view of the specific maximum imposed by statute on the salary of a jailer in a county that does not have a jail, and in which the jailer does not transport prisoners, we believe a jailer is limited to a maximum salary of $ 12,000, until such time as the jail is opened. KRS 441.245(5).
When the jail currently under construction is opened, Carroll County would then have a jail, and KRS 441.245(1) (above) will apply. It follows that the fiscal court should establish a salary for the jailer as the jailer of a county with a jail , such salary to take effect upon the opening of the jail. KRS 441.245(1). The salary established would, of course, be subject to reasonableness in light of the duties involved, and the maximum salary limitation for public officers set by § 246 of the Constitution of Kentucky, and the judicial determinations in such regard. See for example,