Request By:
Mr. J. R. Kute
Treasurer
Jeffersontown Fire
Protection District
10540 Watterson Trail
P.O. Box 99204
Jeffersontown, Kentucky 40299
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You request our opinion as to whether certain sections of the Kentucky Model Procurement Code. KRS 45A.345 to 45A.460, apply to fire protection districts established under KRS Chapter 75.
KRS 45A.350 provides in part that KRS 45A.345 to 45A.460 [effective January 1, 1980] shall apply to every "local public agency" in this state. That block of statutes includes, inter alia, provisions for competitive sealed bidding.
KRS 45A.345(8) defines "local public agency" as follows:
"As used in KRS 45A.345 to 45A.460, unless the context indicates otherwise:
* * *
"(8) 'Local public agency' shall mean a city, county, urban-county, school district, special district, or an agency formed by a combination of such agencies under KRS Chapter 79, or any department, board, commission, authority, office or other sub-unit of a political subdivision which shall include the offices of the county clerk, county sheriff, county attorney, coroner and jailer."
A fire protection district is a special and separate taxing district under §§ 157 and 158 of the Kentucky Constitution. See KRS 75.040. It was characterized as a type of municipal corporation in Kelley v. Dailey, Ky., 366 S.W.2d 181 (1963) 183.
Under the definition of "local public agency" given in KRS 45A.345(8), it is our opinion that a fire protection district is a special district, and thus the statutes, KRS 45A.345 to 45A.460, of the Kentucky Model Procurement Code, apply to fire protection districts.