Request By:
Honorable Milton Wilson
Judge, Jessamine County Court
Court House
Nicholasville, Kentucky 40356
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of December 15 in which you raise the following question:
"The Jessamine County Fiscal Court needs to know if a person can be appointed to a county planning commission if that person lives outside the area of the county planning unit in a city which has a separate planning unit? This is requested pursuant to KRS, Chapter 100.133 as it applies to citizen members. Also, can all members of the fiscal court be appointed to the planning commission? "
Our response to your initial question concerning the right of a member of the county planning commission to reside outside of the area of the county and in a city which has a separate planning unit, would be in the affirmative as held in OAG 76-560 [copy attached]. In this opinion we construed KRS 100.133 as authorizing the mayor to appoint as members representing the city in a joint planning commission a person who resides outside of the city as this statute makes no restrictions on residency of members of said commission. The law would be otherwise as also pointed out with respect to planning commissions in counties containing a population of 300,000 or more, pursuant to KRS 100.137.
Your second question as to whether or not all members of the fiscal court can be appointed to the county planning commission depends upon the total membership of the commission established pursuant to KRS 100.133. Under this statute the commission shall consist of at least five (5) but not more than fifteen (15) members, two-thirds (2/3) of whom must be citizen members, which means members that do not hold any public office. Thus, if the total membership is sufficiently large [two-thirds of which must be citizen members], the balance of the membership could conceivably consist of all of the members of the fiscal court, since there is no restriction on what officials may be appointed to the commission. At least the noncitizen membership could consist of members of the court.