Request By:
Scott Collins
Attorney at Law
Prestonsburg, Kentucky 41653
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of October 9, 1979 in which you raise the question as to whether or not an employee of the Department of Transportation, Division of Motor Carriers of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, can at the same time serve as councilman of the City of Prestonsburg. You further point out that the City does not pay the councilmen a salary, but pays each member $3.00 per meeting attended.
Assuming that the employee under question is under the State Merit System, KRS 18.310 would prohibit him from becoming a candidate for a municiple office unless the election is on a nonpartician basis with no compensation attached, which is not the case in this instance.
As a consequence the employee in question would be in violation of the State Merit System if he runs for the office of city councilman since it is not a nonpartician election and further, compensation is attached to the office. As a matter of fact KRS 86.053 requires that the compensation of the members of a city legislative body of a fourth class city, to which Prestonsburg belongs, shall be fixed by the legislative body in an amount not to exceed $3,000 per annum. Though the $3.00 per meeting presently attached to the office is presently in violation of this statute it is nevertheless to be considered compensation which in itself would place the employee in question in violation of the State Merit System.