Request By:
Mrs. Addie D. Stokley
Commissioner
Department of Personnel
Capitol Annex
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Martin Glazer, Assistant Attorney General
This is in reply to your letter of August 1, 1977 seeking an opinion from this office on the following question:
"Can a state police officer, who has attained permanent status, request and receive approval for a one (1) year leave of absence to be appointed to the position of 'District Officer Manager' in the office of a U.S. Senator? "
As you are well aware, the state police are not covered by the general State Merit System law, but are excluded pursuant to KRS 18.140(1)(r) because they are "peace officers in the Department of Justice, provided that said department shall maintain a personnel system imposing the principles herein applicable to peace officers; . . ."
Accordingly, the state police have their own merit system embodied in KRS Chapter 16. KRS 16.170 provides:
"No officer of the bureau shall, directly or indirectly, give, solicit or receive, or be in any manner concerned in giving, soliciting or receiving, any assessment, subscription or contribution for any political party or political purpose whatever. No officer shall, orally or by letter, solicit or be in any manner concerned in soliciting any assessment, subscription or contribution for any political party or purpose whatever from any person holding a position in the bureau. No officer of the bureau shall take any part in political management or affairs or in political campaigns further than to cast his vote and to express privately his opinion. Violation of the provisions hereof shall be grounds for removal."
In OAG 75-713 (copy enclosed), this office previously determined that a state policeman cannot run for a political office while he is on leave of absence. The nexus of that opinion is that an officer on leave status still retains certain rights as a state patrolman to be returned to work and to have certain benefits when he does return. Consequently, he is not severed from the service by being placed on leave status and is still a member of the department.
While your request did not spell out the specific duties of an office manager for a senator, it is common knowledge that persons who work for members of Congress are political appointees, are not covered by a federal civil service (because of that fact) and must by the very nature of their work engage in various types of political activity, such as collecting political contributions, performing political acts for the congressman or senator during political campaigns and performing favors and other acts for constituents of their employers. Therefore, in the very nature of the position, it would seem that an occupant of such a position would be required to engage in political activity of some sort during part of his service. If he were a state trooper on leave of absence, by doing so, he would be involved in violation of KRS 16.170.
In short, the only way this trooper would be able to act as an office manager for a senator would be to resign his position completely with the Kentucky State Police. Otherwise, he would be subject to the penalties which accompany such violation.