OAG 78-106 | KOGC

Request By:

Ms. Jo Crass
City Clerk, City of Murray
City Hall Building
Murray, Kentucky 42071

Opinion

Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General

This is in response to your letter of February 10 in which you raise the following questions:

"Please clarify for the City of Murray (3rd Class) KRS 85.110, Section 4, regarding publication of ordinances. Is it mandatory to publish ordinances?

"Also, please advise if cities of the third class may approve a written draft of minutes of preceding meeting rather than publicly read the minutes."

Our response to your initial question would be in the negative as held in OAG 74-500, a copy of which we are attaching.

Our response to your second question would also be in the negative in view of the following provisions of KRS 85.080 (5), which reads as follows:

"At each regular meeting of the common council the proceedings of the previous regular meeting and of all intervening special meetings, shall be publicly read, corrected, approved, signed by the presiding officer and attested by the clerk." (Emphasis added).

You will note that the above statute requires all prior proceedings of a regular or special meeting be publicly read at the subsequent regular meeting. This refers of course to the "minutes" of such meetings.

LLM Summary

In OAG 78-106, the Attorney General responded to inquiries from the City Clerk of Murray regarding the requirements for publishing ordinances and the approval process for meeting minutes for cities of the third class. The opinion clarified that it is not mandatory to publish ordinances, referencing OAG 74-500 to support this position. Additionally, it was confirmed that the minutes of meetings must be publicly read, corrected, and approved during subsequent meetings, as mandated by KRS 85.080(5).

Support Our Work