Request By:
Mr. James D. Gilles
106 Legion Boulevard
Owensboro, Kentucky 43201
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of June 11 in which you raise the following questions:
"(1) Do the provisions of KRS 89.610 permit the submission to the voters of a proposed ordinance which would require the City to enter into a collective bargaining agreement with various City employee units?
"(2) If the answer to the first question is in the affirmative, may the submitted ordinance contain specific details such as a prohibition against strikes and a mandatory binding arbitration provision?"
In response to your questions we refer you to the fairly late case of
Plageman v. Board of Commissioners, City of Covington, Ky. App., 569 S.W.2d 191 (1978). This case involved the application of KRS 89.610, the initiative statute pertaining to cities operating under the city manager form of government and held that the question of the passage of an ordinance pertaining to collective bargaining was a proper subject for referendum, provided the ordinance was not merely a refinement of a present collective bargaining agreement between the two parties which would place the subject ordinance in a category of an administrative matter not subject to referendum. On the other hand, if no such agreement or ordinance were in existence, the court was of the opinion that such an ordinance would be legislative in nature as it would set a course of policy and therefore be subject to the initiative process. In the Plageman case the court remanded the question back to the trial court for further proof on the matter.
Under the circumstances, we can only conclude that if the proposed ordinance involving collective bargaining is not administrative in nature as previously mentioned, it would be subject to the initiative process under KRS 89.610 and could of course contain a prohibition against strike and a mandatory binding arbitration provision.
On the other hand and as of July 15, KRS 89.610 is repealed by Senate Bill 26, enacted at the 1980 Session, and thereafter has no application to cities operating under the city manager form of government. In its place Senate Bill 26 enacted KRS 83A.120 which provides a detailed procedure for the submission of public questions generally that are authorized by statute. This may be done by either a resolution of the city legislative body or a petition meeting the requirements of the Act. This is a general statute applicable to cities of all classes and forms of government, including those operating under the city manager form of government which are otherwise controlled by KRS 83A.150.
You will note that KRS 83A.120 permits only those public questions that are authorized by statute to be submitted to the voters of the city and in this respect we find no such provision with respect to the question of collective bargaining. As a consequence, it would appear that after the effective date of Senate Bill 26 [July 15, 1980], the proposed ordinance could not be submitted to the voters of the city.