Request By:
Mr. Richard C. Bernhardt
Director, Hopkinsville-Christian
County Planning Commission
Courthouse Annex, Room 307
Hopkinsville, Kentucky 42240
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of September 27 in which you raise the following questions:
"1. If the County Judge appoints a person who happens to also be a member of the City Council, does that member serve as an Ex Officio member of the Commission with his term corresponding to his term of office, or can that member serve as a citizen member?
"2. If the Mayor of the City of Hopkinsville appoints a citizen member who serves as a citizen member for a portion of their term and during the term of office on the Planning Commission, that individual is then elected to Fiscal Court, can they remain serving on the Planning Commission as a citizen member, or must they then serve as an Ex Officio member from Fiscal Court, or must they resign from the Planning Commission?
"3. If the County Judge or the Mayor appoints a member who also is a member of either respective legislative bodies, for example, the Mayor appointing a member of City Council, must that person then serve as an Ex Officio member or can that person serve as a citizen member apart from their duties upon City Council? "
The answers to your questions are basically found under the provisions of KRS 100.133, 100.141, and 100.143. Under the initial two sections, the mayor of each participating city and the county judge of each participating county are authorized to appoint members to the joint planning commission consisting of citizen members and elected officials who serve in an ex officio capacity. The latter statute provides that the term of office of all elected public officials appointed to the planning commission shall be the same as their official tenure in office.
Where, in response to your initial question, the county judge appoints an individual who is a member of the city council, he serves as an ex officio member with his commission term corresponding with his term as city councilman and he cannot serve as a citizen member unless appointed as such after the expiration of his term as an ex officio member by virtue of his elected office.
In response to your second question, the citizen member who is appointed by the mayor would cease to be a member upon his being elected to the fiscal court. A member, in other words, cannot wear two hats at the same time and he would have to resign his citizen membership in order to be eligible to being selected by the county judge as an ex officio member by virtue of his county office.
Our response to your third question would be in the negative for the reasons expressed above to the effect that a member cannot serve both as an ex officio member by virtue of his office and at the same time serve as a citizen member.