Request By:
Mr. John R. Cox
Rowan County Attorney
P.O. Box 9
Morehead, Kentucky 40351
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
Your question is whether the county judge/executive can appoint a deputy judge/executive who resides out of the county. The answer is "yes".
You say the deputy resides in Jessamine County. His home and residence are in Jessamine County. However, the deputy maintains a part-time law office in Rowan County, owns property in Rowan County and is registered to vote in Rowan County. He also maintains law offices in Lexington.
The deputy county judge/executive is purely a statutory office. KRS 67.711. The statute prescribes no residential restrictions for that office. While § 234 of the Kentucky Constitution requires public officers to reside within their respective districts, counties, cities, etc., that section applies only to constitutional officers, i.e., officers who are directly named and designated in the text of the constitution.
City of Newport v. Schindler, Ky., 449 S.W.2d 17 (1970) 18.
KRS 67.711 does not envision that a deputy county judge/executive must necessarily be a full time office. The deputy's role and extent of service will depend purely upon the county judge/executive, since the deputy may exercise any statutory function the county judge/executive can perform.
However, regardless of whether the deputy's job will be a full or part time operation, there is nothing in the constitution or statutes requiring the deputy county judge/executive to actually live or have his legal residence in the county of his appointment.
Under this analysis the question of where the deputy legally resides is moot. Of course, the deputy would have to live in some county in Kentucky, since a Kentucky public officer must live in Kentucky. See the constitutional oath in § 228 (applicable to constitutional and nonconstitutional officers), Kentucky Constitution, which explicitly requires the officer to be a citizen of Kentucky.