Request By:
Mr. Charles R. Simpson III
Attorney at Law
Suite 709 Kentucky Home Life Building
239 South Fifth Street
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
Your question concerns the expense allowance for the county judge/executive as provided in KRS 67.722, which reads:
"The county judge/executive shall receive an annual expense allowance of three thousand six hundred dollars ($3,600) for performing his duties and fulfilling his responsibilities in the administration of the local county road program. Payment shall be made quarterly in the amount of nine hundred dollars ($900) per quarter, the first such payment to be made for the quarter ending March 31, 1978."
Your specific question is whether there is any formal accounting for the allowance of the county judge/executive, for whom you have directed this question.
While the statute mentions the term "annual expense allowance" , in the same breath it states that the money is "for performing his duties and fulfilling his responsibilities in the administration of the local county road program." (Emphasis added). There is a significant absence, we think, of a legislative declaration that the money is to pay for his expenses accrued while carrying out county road duties. From the statute itself it clearly appears that, without extraneous aid, the courts could say without hesitation that the legislation is in fact and in truth a device to increase the county judge/executive's compensation. See Manning v. Sims, 308 Ky. 587, 213 S.W.2d 577 (1948) 582. The court has written that it should, in interpreting a statute, look to the letter and spirit of the statute, viewing it as a whole. City of Owensboro v. Noffsinger, Ky., 280 S.W.2d 517 (1955) 519. Here the reading of the whole statute indicates that the legislature intended to augment the compensation of the county judge/executive for his duties in connection with the county road program.
In summary, it is our opinion that this allowance is compensation to the county judge/executive, and that he is not required to make any formal accounting of his use of that money, except that it is a part of his compensation for purposes of applying the rubber dollar maximum. See KRS 64.527. The maximum compensation for a county judge/executive in 1978 is $18,763.20 per annum.
The county judge/executive does not have to formally account for necessary and official expenses of his office unless he is filing a claim for reimbursement for such expenses out of the county treasury. See Funk v. Milliken, Ky., 317 S.W.2d 499 (1958). In such case he must document such claimed expenses in the manner required by Funk, above. See also Barkley v. Gatewood, 285 Ky. 179, 147 S.W.2d 373 (1941) as to county reimbursement to an officer for expenses necessary to the proper functioning of the office.