Request By:
Mr. Kenneth S. Baker
Perry County Attorney
Courthouse - P.O. Box 1096
Hazard, Kentucky 41701
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You have requested an opinion on the following question:
"Can the Perry County Judge Executive pay a claim without prior approval of the fiscal court after July 1, 1978?"
The claim filing procedure was dealt with in KRS 68.325. The statute required that the fiscal court of each county at each meeting consider all claims filed against the county in the order that the claims were filed with the county clerk. However, that statute was repealed by § 13, H.B. 33, Ch. 197, 1978 Acts. Section 2 of H.B. 33 (Ch. 197, 1978 Acts) amended KRS 68.020 by providing that all warrants involving claims against the county must be co-signed by the county treasurer and county judge/executive.
Under § 1 of H.B. 33 (Ch. 197, 1978 Acts) the fiscal court must adopt a county administrative code which includes procedures and designation of responsibility for the administration of county fiscal affairs, including receipts and disbursement of county funds and the "filing of claims against the county." (Emphasis added).
H.B. 152 (Ch. 118, 1978 Acts, § 2) amends KRS 67.080 by providing that the fiscal court may regulate and control the fiscal affairs of the county.
It is our opinion that under KRS 67.080(1)(c) the fiscal courts of Kentucky are given control of the fiscal affairs of our counties. In
Pulaski County v. Richardson, 225 Ky. 556, 9 S.W.2d 523 (1928) the court wrote that "We have construed these sections [Sections 1834 and 1840 Carroll's Kentucky statutes] as giving to the fiscal court almost unlimited control of the fiscal affairs of a county." Carroll's Kentucky statutes, Section 1840, was merely the forerunner of what is now KRS 67.080 as amended in 1978. Of similar import is the later case of
Pulaski County v. Hall, Ky., 349 S.W.2d 676 (1961).
While the fiscal court is directed to adopt a county administrative code which will include procedures relating to the filing of claims against the county, and while the county judge/executive can be given a central role in the administrative handling of claims against the county, it is our opinion that under KRS 67.080 and the cases interpreting that statute the fiscal court has no authority to relinquish its overall control of fiscal matters by authorizing the payment of claims by the county judge/executive without the specific approval of the fiscal court. In other words, the fiscal court cannot authorize in the administrative code the county judge/executive to pay claims filed against the county without the express approval of the fiscal court by an appropriate order entered at a meeting thereof. See KRS 67.710 [powers and duties of county judge/executive].
It was pointed out in