Request By:
Mr. L. J. Twyman
Mayor
City of Glasgow
Glasgow, Kentucky 42141
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of December 5 in which you relate that Glasgow is divided into four wards with three councilmen running from each ward, making a 12 man council. It is your position that the city is satisfied with this structural arrangement and can retain same until it desires to make a change. As a consequence there is no mandate under S.B. 26 that it make a change at any particular time.
KRS 83A.020(2) provides that the present organizational structure of each city shall remain in force until changed under this act, and all ordinances and resolutions presently in force that are not in conflict with the provision or this act, remain in force until changed. KRS 83A.030 further provides that each city organized and governed under the mayorcouncil plan shall have a legislative body composed of not less than six nor more than 21 members as prescribed by ordinances in cities of the second, third, and fourth classes. This provision, of course, would apply to the city of Glasgow, a city of the third class. Subsection (3) of this statute provides that before the expiration of the terms of the present legislative body members each city shall take the necessary action to be in compliance with this statute [namely KRS 83A.030] and in no event shall the city fail to comply within two years of the effective date of this act.
Next referring to KRS 83A.100(1) you will note the following:
"(1) The legislative body of a city may by ordinance divide the city into the same number of wards as the number of legislative members. Wards shall be as nearly equal in population as practicable and their boundaries shall be fixed by the ordinance." (Emphasis added)
You will note that if the city is divided into wards there must be the same number of wards as there are members of the legislative body which means in the case of Glasgow that the city must have 12 wards instead of four [the present situation], if the city desires to retain a 12 member council.
The city is obviously in compliance with KRS 83A.030(1)(b) having the maximum number of councilmen allowed by this section. On the other hand, however, it is presently in violation of the terms of KRS 83A.100 requiring that where the city is divided into wards there must be the same number of wards as there are members of the legislative body, which in this case would be 12 instead of the present four. As a consequence we believe that the city must proceed to either expand the number of its wards to 12 or reduce the number of councilmen and alter the number of wards accordingly. Since the ordinance establishing the ward system is contrary to the terms of the present act and particularly subsection (2) of KRS 83.020 mentioned above, it must make the necessary change or changes in sufficient time for next year's primary and general elections.