Request By:
Mr. Billy J. Balentine
City Councilman
City of Murray
1700 Miller Avenue
Murray, Kentucky 42071
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of April 6 in which you raise the following question:
"Is it legal for the mayor and/or the department head of the City of Murray to hire an employee for the City of Murray without the employee being voted on by the Common Council? This is dealing with the Gas, Water and Sewer, Sanitation and Street Department employees."
In connection with the above question, you enclose a copy of the City of Murray's Personnel Ordinance and refer to several sections of said ordinance relating to the procedure for hiring city employees.
Pursuant to the referred to ordinance, particularly the section relating to the selection of personnel, Page 5, Section II, D., we find the following statement: "The common council will hire or reject the candidates recommended. "
It is clear to us from the terms of the ordinance itself that neither the mayor nor the department heads of the city have been authorized to hire any employee. The names of prospective employees must first be submitted to the city council and it alone either hires or refuses to hire the individuals.
It is a well settled rule that the city council has the sole power to appoint minor officers and employees of the city unless the right is conferred by statute to another body or officer. 62 C.J.S., Mun. Corps., § 704 and McQuillin, Mun. Corps., Vol. 3, § 12.72. At the same time the general rule appears to be as indicated in the McQuillin citation that the selection of officers or employees upon the recommendation of, for example, the mayor or department head, when so authorized by the council, is not considered delegation of the power to appoint nor does the requirement that the appointing authority choose from a specific number of recommended candidates constitute an unauthorized limitation on the power of appointment or a delegation of a substantial portion of such power.
Under the circumstances, it is our opinion that the terms of the ordinance with respect to hiring city personnel are legal.