Request By:
Mr. Jeff Gutsell
The Cincinnati Enquirer
600 Greenup Street
Covington, Kentucky 41011
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of December 4 in which you raise the following questions:
"First, does Kentucky law provide that a city mayor is automatically removed from office by any conviction of a felony? Or, must a vote of the city commission be taken? Is the ouster procedure the same for conviction of a misdemeanor?
"Also, if the mayor sits on the governing board of a public housing authority, is he automatically removed from that body by the fact of any conviction?
"Finally, could the mayor's official votes on either body be challenged in court as invalid if he does not step down between the time of his indictment and any conviction?"
The city of Newport, to which you refer, is a city of the second class operating under the city manager form of government. Any public officer, whether he is appointed or elected, is disqualified from serving as a public officer upon conviction of a felony under the terms of § 150 of the Constitution. Also, KRS 61.040 provides, in effect, that the office of the officer convicted of a felony shall be vacated by such conviction. However, until the public officer [in this case, the mayor] is convicted and his possible conviction procedures relating to appeal have been exhausted or abandoned, the office does not become vacant. See Pineville v. Collett, 294 Ky. 853, 172 S.W.2d 640 (1943).
As a consequence, until the officer's conviction becomes final, he is entitled to continue to serve in his official capacity and his acts are valid. See Commonwealth ex rel Breckinridge v. Winstead, 430 S.W.2d 647 (1968).
The same rules as expressed above concerning the conviction of the officer in question would equally apply to said officer's service as a member of the municipal housing commission established pursuant to Ch. 80 KRS.
The authority of the commission to remove the mayor under KRS 89.530 would appear to be confined to acts of misconduct, inability or willful neglect in the performance of the duties of the office in question.