Request By:
Mr. J. Michael Moore
101 Westview Drive
Bardstown, Kentucky 40004
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of September 1 in which you relate that you are an employe of the city of Bardstown under the title of Assistant City Administrator. You are interested in running for the local independent school board and raise the question as to whether or not you are eligible to run for said office and presumably, if elected, hold both positions at the same time.
You would most certainly be eligible to become a candidate for membership on the independent school board [in so far as the question of incompatibility is concerned] but, if elected, you could not hold the school board office and at the same time retain your employment with the city of Bardstown.
Membership on the local school board constitutes a state office and members thereof are state officers as held in a number of cases, among them being Runyon v. Commonwealth, Ky., 393 S.W.2d 877 (1965). Section 165 of the Constitution and KRS 61.080 prohibit a state officer from holding a municipal office or employment at the same time, and there are no qualifying circumstances that might change this.