Request By:
Mr. Bill Kaiser
City Coordinator
City of Bellevue
Poplar and Van Voast
Bellevue, Kentucky 41073
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of August 11 in which you state that there was a resignation on the Bellevue City Council in the month of June, 1978. You further relate that the next regular election for the city council is in 1979; however, in 1978 there are three citywide elections for U.S. Senator, U.S. House of Representatives, and a special election concerning the Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky. Under the circumstances, you desire to know whether any of these elections would authorize the filling of the vacancy on the city council this November for the unexpired term.
The answer to your question would be in the negative. Section 152 of the Constitution controls the filling of vacancies in all elections involving elective offices and provides, in effect, that all such vacancies must be filled at the succeeding November election provided there is a regular election for state and local offices embracing the area in which the vacancy has occurred. Smith v. Ruth, 308 Ky. 60, 212 S.W.2d 532 (1948); and Brumleve v. Ruth, 302 Ky. 813, 195 S.W.2d 777 (1946).
As pointed out in the above cases, federal elections do not qualify and, of course, special elections involving public questions [such as the one involving the Transit Authority] would likewise not qualify since § 152 of the Constitution refers only to regular elections for public officers.
There are, on the other hand, regular school board elections in every county of the state, but only in certain portions of each county. As a consequence, if there is a regular school election that embraces the city of Bellevue at the coming November election, the vacancy on the council would have to be filled at that time, however, every segment or portion of the city must be involved in the school election so that every qualified voter therein would be eligible to vote in not only the school election but also the city election to fill the vacancy in question.
Of course, if the referred to school elections do not qualify as mentioned above, then the appointee would serve out the remainder of the term which ends in January, 1980.