Request By:
Hon. William S. Howard
Attorney at Law
111 Cheapside
Lexington, Kentucky 40507
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Patrick B. Kimberlin, III, Assistant Attorney General
This is in response to your recent letter wherein you request an opinion of this office as to the following question:
"Can the Kentucky State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors hold disciplinary hearings pursuant to KRS Chapter 322, as provided in KRS 322.200, et seq., by having a hearing officer conduct the hearing and receive the evidence, make findings of fact and report to the Board who would then decide the matter upon the facts as found by a hearing officer?"
It is our opinion that a disciplinary hearing held pursuant to KRS 322.200 must be conducted by the Board, and not by a hearing officer. We have found nothing in Chapter 322 which would permit a hearing officer to conduct the disciplinary hearing and thereafter submit his findings to the Board and, even if such statutory authority did exist, it would be in conflict with KRS 322.200(1) which states that
"All charges, . . ., shall be heard by the Board. . . ." (Emphasis ours).
This situation is somewhat analogous to that in