Request By:
Honorable John A. Hartman
Attorney at Law
24 North Main Street
Walton, Kentucky 41094
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of January 20 in which you, as counsel for the Walton-Verona School District, request an opinion concerning the following:
"Mrs. Leola Waller, an existing member of our Board of Education, has been extended an invitation to become a member of the Boone County Board of Health. Before accepting or rejecting the invitation extended, she is concerned whether the two positions as a member of the Walton-Verona Board of Education and a member of the Boone County Board of Health are incompatible positions under the existing Kentucky Law."
Membership on the independent school board would constitute a state office as held in a number of cases, among them being Runyan v. Commonwealth, Ky., 393 S.W.2d 887 (1965); and Cullinan v. Jefferson County, Ky., 418 S.W.2d 407 (1967). On the other hand, membership on the Boone County Board of Health would constitute a county office pursuant to KRS 212.020 and as held in the case of City of Bardstown v. Nelson County, 25 K.L.A. 1478, 78 S.W. 169 (1904).
No person can at the same time hold a state office and a county office as such are incompatible pursuant to § 165 of the Constitution and KRS 61.080 (1).
Under the circumstances the individual in question who is a member of the independent school board could not at the same time serve as a member of the Boone County Board of Health as these positions are incompatible, one with the other. We also might point out that the assumption of the position on the county board of health would vacate the school board position pursuant to KRS 61.090.