Request By:
Honorable Joseph B. Hennessey
Bracken County Attorney
Brooksville, Kentucky 41004
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of January 7 in which you request an opinion concerning the following:
"Bracken County, Kentucky, employs two men to set up and service voting machines. One of them has been elected and qualified as a magistrate. Can the County, in the future, continue to employ him for the aforesaid purposes?"
Our response to your question would be in the negative as members of the fiscal court cannot be interested in any contract with the county pursuant to KRS 61.220 and as held in the case of
Clark v. Logan County, 138 Ky. 676, 128 S.W. 1079 (1910); and
Thomas v. O'Brien, 138 Ky. 770, 129 S.W. 103 (1910).
KRS 61.220 reads as follows:
"(1) Any member of the fiscal court who becomes interested, directly or indirectly, in any contract for work to be done or material to be furnished for the county or any district thereof, or who becomes interested in any claim against the county of state shall be fined not less than five hundred (500) nor more than five thousand dollars ($5,000) for each offense.
"(2) If any county judge or justice is, by the same act, guilty of a violation of this section and KRS 61.210, he shall be punished as provided in KRS 61.210."