Request By:
Mr. Allen Muse
113 Crane Street
Somerset, Kentucky 42501
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of October 3 in which you relate you are an employee of the sewer department of the City of Somerset and you are also a candidate for the office of magistrate in the 4th District of Pulaski County. You raise the question as to whether or not, if elected, you could legally continue to serve in the sewer department as a city employee.
There is no constitutional or statutory incompatibility between a county office and city employment. See KRS 61.080 and Section 165 of the Constitution. These provisions would prohibit a person from holding a county office and a city office at the same time but not city employment. As to whether there is a city ordinance in existence prohibiting city employees from holding a public office, such as that of magistrate, we have no information, but in the absence of such a restriction, there would be no constitutional or statutory prohibition.
There is always a possibility of a common law conflict of interest where the duties of the employment and the duties of the office in question cannot be performed with care and ability. However, this is a question of fact which the courts must determine. We might point out, however, that magistrates will no longer have any judicial duties beginning in January, 1978, and as a consequence the duties of the office of magistrate will become limited except for service on the fiscal court.