Request By:
Ms. Gretchen Kaiser
City Clerk
City of St. Matthews
P.O. Box 7097
St. Matthews, Kentucky 40207
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of January 23 in which you request an opinion concerning the following:
"St. Matthews is a fourth class city. Until November, 1979, the City Council had never fixed the salary of the Mayor or Councilmen. On November 27, 1979, the Council voted themselves a salary of $3,000 per year.
"It later developed that one of the successful candidates for office is an employee of the Commonwealth under the merit system and would lose her job with the Commonwealth if she accepted the position with the salary. (OAG 79-626).
"Having fixed the salary effective January 1, 1980, may the City legally change it from an annual salary to a per diem, or reduce the salary to nothing?"
As pointed out in OAG 79-626 [to which you refer], the city of St. Matthews had the authority to fix the compensation of the office of mayor and city councilmen in November, 1979 in view of the fact that there had been no compensation fixed for any previous terms. However, once the compensation for the referred to officers has been fixed, it cannot be changed thereafter during the term of the officers. This is specifically prohibited under KRS 64.580 which provides in effect that the annual compensation of city officers elected by popular vote shall be fixed by the city legislative body and once fixed shall not be changed during their term. Section 161 of the Constitution likewise prohibits the compensation of any constitutionally named officers, such as mayor and councilmen, from being changed during their term of office. See in addition the case of
Sarakatsannis v. Baker, Ky., 488 S.W.2d 683 (1972).
Under the circumstances, the compensation fixed by the city council on November 29, 1979 cannot be changed either to per diem or reduced to zero.