Request By:
Ms. Patricia A. Depew, Clerk
City of London
London, Kentucky 40741
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of February 16, 1979, in which you raise the question as to whether it would be a conflict of interest for a councilperson to hold a part time job with the city. Our response to your question would be in the affirmative.
A person may, generally speaking, hold a municipal office and employment with the city at the same time without violating KRS 61.080 and § 165 of the Constitution. Where, however, a councilman and a municipal employment are involved we are of the opinion that KRS 61.270 and the common law rule would create a conflict of interest.
KRS 61.270 provides in effect that no member of the city council shall become directly or indirectly interested in any contract with the city and if he does he shall vacate his office and the council shall so declare and fill the vacancy. We find no specific cases involving employment under the circumstances mentioned and it is possible that the legislature may not have intended to include the employment contracts within the terms of the statute.
Irrespective of the applicability of KRS 61.270, a common law conflict would exist based on the principle that when one of the positions is subordinate to and interferes with the other as for example, in this instance where the city council approves all employment contracts it induces a presumption that the two positions cannot be executed with impartiality and honesty and would be against public policy. See Hermann v. Lampe, 175 Ky. 109, 194 S.W. 122 (1917).
For your information we are enclosing copies of OAG 68-300 and 71-415 dealing with this subject.
Under the circumstances a member of a city council in our opinion cannot hold a position of employment with the city assuming of course he receives some compensation.