Request By:
Honorable Joseph B. Hennessey
County Attorney
Brooksville, Kentucky 41044
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of April 14 in which you raise the following question:
"Is there any incompatibility between the Office of County Attorney-Prosecutor and a member of a Municipal Housing Commission for Fifth Class City set up pursuant to Chapter 80, K.R.S."
Our response to your question would be in the negative. The office of county attorney-prosecutor continues to be a county office even though the county attorney has certain duties with respect to the state and is paid in part by state funds. Reference OAG 77-779. On the other hand, membership on the municipal housing commission has been held to be neither a state, county nor municipal office as contemplated in the Constitution, § 165, and KRS 61.080, in the case of
Louisville Municipal Housing Commission v. Public Housing Adm'r., 261 S.W.2d 286 (1953).
Under the circumstances, we find no statutory or constitutional incompatibility between the office of county attorney-prosecutor and membership on a municipal housing commission.
Of course, the possibility of a common law conflict or interest or incompatibility is always possible, but such is a question of fact that only the courts can decide.