Request By:
Ms. Billie Say
Affirmative Action Coordinator
Northern Kentucky University
Highland Heights, Kentucky 41076
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of December 11 in which you raise the following question.
". . . I am requesting a formal opinion as to whether or not there would be a conflict of interest in having someone, who is currently employed in the office of a commonwealth attorney, serve on a state university's board of regents."
Our response to your question would be in the negative. Your question basically involves a possible incompatible situation rather than a conflict of interest. An employee of the commonwealth's attorney would be considered a state employee as the commonwealth attorney is a state officer as held in a number of cases, among them being
Miller v. Robinson, 306 Ky. 653, 209 S.W.2d 977 (1948). At the same time, a member of the Northern Kentucky University Board of Regents established pursuant to KRS 164.320 would be considered a state officer as held in OAG 73-8, copy attached.
There is no constitutional or statutory objection under either § 165 of the Constitution or KRS 61.080 governing incompatible offices that would prohibit a person from holding two state offices, or a state office and state employment at the same time. See