Request By:
Mr. Hobert Sublett
Sitka,
Kentucky 41255
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of July 10 in which you raise the question as to the procedure for changing the county commission form of government back to the magisterial form and whether it can be done by this November election.
The procedure for a county having a commission form of government to return to a magisterial form is outlined in KRS 67.050, copy attached. You will particularly note subsection (3) which specifically provides that any county that has voted in favor of having county commissioners may return to its prior form of government by following the same procedure as that provided for establishing a fiscal court consisting of county commissioners under subsections (1) and (2) of the referred to statute.
You will also note under subsection (1) that a petition must be filed signed by at least one hundred (100) legal voters of the county and entered on the order book of the county judge/executive calling an election on the subject of changing the form of government back to the magisterial form. The order must be entered at the next regular term of court after the petition is filed and direct the election to be held at the next regular election held in the county [which of course would be this year] which does not occur within less than sixty (60) days from the filing of the petition. As a consequence, there is time for filing such petition and getting the question placed on the coming November ballot. For your information we are also enclosing copies of OAG's 78-282 and 71-225.