Request By:
Mr. Bernard C. Hargett
Mason County Attorney
Stanley F. Reed Court
Maysville, Kentucky 41056
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You refer to a telephone conversation that we had with Mr. Lloyd Berry, Jailer of Mason County, Kentucky, in regard to the fiscal court's setting him a minimum guaranteed salary. You ask whether or not the fiscal court could legally do this.
We agree with you. The fiscal court can establish a salary for the county jailer payable out of the county treasury, so long as the salary does not exceed the rubber dollar maximum for the particular year. The rubber dollar maximum in 1978 is $18,763.20. See KRS 64.527 and KRS 64.720. Also see
Commonwealth v. Hesch, Ky., 395 S.W.2d 362 (1965) and
Dennis v. Rich, Ky., 434 S.W.2d 632 (1968) 637. Where the fiscal court has not authorized a salary up to the rubber dollar maximum, the court has ruled that the salary fixing power of the fiscal court remains unexhausted. Thus the setting of such a salary at the present time can be accomplished under the rubber dollar concept.
The jailer derives dieting fees from the feeding of prisoners entrusted to his care pursuant to KRS 64.150. Any difference between the fees paid for dieting the prisoners and the reasonable cost of the food constitutes compensation to the jailer. Obviously the fees of the jailer plus any salary payable out of the county treasury cannot exceed the rubber dollar maximum in the particular year. See