Request By:
Honorable F. G. Neikirk
County Attorney
104 W. Columbia Street
Somerset, Kentucky 42501
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
Your jail has been collecting a $5.00 fee for accepting bail bonds (as authorized by your District Judge) after normal office hours. See KRS 30A.060 and RCr 4124. Your question. Does the fee belong to the jailer, personally, or must he include such fees in the fees of his offices.
He must include such fees in the "fees of his office." He would not be earning this fee if he were not a public official. The salary limitations of § 246 of the Kentucky Constitution apply to all public compensation earned by a constitutional officer.
Coleman v. Hurst, 226 Ky. 501, 11 S.W.2d 133 (1928). There the Court said that "If it were allowable to pay compensation up to the constitutional limit for each public position held, the provision of the constitution would mean nothing."
In reporting, his fees and excess fees to fiscal county the jailer must include such bail fees in his report. Funkey Milliken, Ky., 317 S.W.2d 499 (1958) 504, 506.