Request By:
Mr. Aubrey R. Mooney
Webster County Attorney
Courthouse
Dixon, Kentucky 42409
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You raise the question as to whether a deputy county judge/executive can serve as a member of an airport board operating under the authority of the fiscal court and the city council. The board is composed of members appointed jointly by the mayor of the city council and the county judge pursuant to KRS 183.132.
The deputy county judge/executive can perform any statutory function which can be performed by the county judge/executive. KRS 67.711. Since the county judge/executive, or his deputy in an applicable instance, could make such board appointments, a common law incompatibility of conflict in interest would exist. McQuillin, Municipal Corporations, Vol. 6, § 12.75 (3rd Ed.); and Lemon v. Fiscal Court of Casey County, Ky., 291 S.W.2d 572 (1956). An officer simply cannot be put in a position of making appointments to a board of which he is a member. In addition, KRS 183.132(10) provides that no board member shall hold any official office with the appointing authority. Thus that statute expressly prohibits the deputy county judge/executive from being a member on the airport board.