Request By:
Mr. Ralph E. McClanahan
Estill County Judge/Executive
Courthouse
Irvine, Kentucky 40336
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You raise the question as to whether or not the fiscal court of Estill County can now abolish the salary of the county attorney's secretary that was created by the fiscal court earlier this year.
Subsection (4) of KRS 15.750 provides that "office expenses incurred by the county attorney in the performance of his duties as legal advisor to the county shall be paid by the fiscal court or by the urban county council as required by the Kentucky Revised Statutes." (Emphasis added).
In connection with the duties of the secretary of the county attorney as relates to his civil legal work for the county, the General Assembly has made it mandatory that each fiscal court in the Commonwealth enact the necessary appropriations to pay for such office expenses.
It is our opinion that KRS 15.750(4) mandates the fiscal court to provide a salary for the secretary of the county attorney in carrying out his work for the county.