Request By:
Mr. Kenneth A. Hager
Meade County Judge-Executive
Courthouse Complex
Brandenburg, Kentucky 40108
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Thomas R. Emerson, Assistant Attorney General
This is in reply to your letter raising questions about a volunteer fire department. You state the Meade County Volunteer Fire Department is operated by the fiscal court which appropriates and budgets $6,000 a year for the maintenance of the department. Fire districts have not been established by ordinance. After fire services have been rendered the department issues a statement to the property owner. Any funds the department receives are deposited into an account to be used at the discretion of the fire department.
You ask whether these monies should be deposited with the county treasurer for accountability and used in budgeting and whether the fiscal court should require an audit of these funds.
Your letter states that fire districts have not been established so apparently the volunteer fire department was not organized as a fire protection district or a volunteer fire department district pursuant to KRS 75.010 or a county fire protection district pursuant to KRS 75.025. Since your letter is not specific regarding the organizational structure of the county volunteer fire department, it is possible that it is an independent organization disassociated from county government that is in some instances established as a separate corporate entity. A volunteer fire department would not be under the jurisdiction of the county government except insofar as contractual agreements are concerned. KRS 75.050 authorizes a county to enter into a contract with a volunteer fire department for fire protection services.
KRS 67.320, which formerly authorized a fiscal court to maintain a fire department, was repealed as of June 17, 1978. However, under the provisions of the county "home rule" statute as amended, a county is authorized to enact ordinances pertaining to police and fire protection. Thus, under KRS 67.083(3)(u), a county may still maintain a fire department.
It may be that the volunteer fire department to which you refer is a unit of the county government rather than an independent unit disassociated from county government such as a nonprofit corporate entity or a volunteer fire district organized pursuant to KRS Chapter 75. If the volunteer fire department is a unit of county government, the fiscal court and not the fire department should act on behalf of the county and make the basic determinations of how to spend the money, how much to spend and the arrangements pertaining to any particular expenditure. The fiscal court has the authority, pursuant to KRS 67.080(1)(c), to regulate and control the fiscal affairs of the county. In Todd County Fiscal Court v. Frey, Ky., 285 S.W.2d 499 (1955), the Court said that the authority to expend the public funds of the county is exclusively vested in the fiscal court. Furthermore, under KRS 67.080(1)(d), the fiscal court may cause correct accounts and records to be kept of all receipts and disbursements of the public funds of the county and have the accounts of all county officers audited, when necessary.
KRS 68.210 to 68.360 deals with the county budget. KRS 68.220 states that the fiscal affairs of each county, except those pertaining to education, shall be administered by the fiscal court under a uniform budget system. The county budget shall provide for all the funds to be expended by the county from current revenue for each fiscal year. KRS 68.240 requires the preparation annually of a proposed budget for the expenditure of all funds which are to be expended by the fiscal court in the next fiscal year.
Thus, in conclusion, if the county volunteer fire department is a unit of the county government, rather than an independent unit disassociated from county government such as a nonprofit corporate entity or a volunteer fire district organized pursuant to KRS Chapter 75, then the monies received by the fire department in connection with fire services it has rendered should be deposited with the county treasurer pursuant to KRS 68.020. Such monies are to be expended in the discretion of the fiscal court pursuant to the budgetary provisions of KRS 68.210 et seq. The fiscal court may have the accounts of county officers audited when necessary.