Request By:
Hon. Charlie Martin
Boyle County Sheriff
Courthouse
Danville, Kentucky 40422
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Asst. Deputy Attorney General
The CETA program put Ms. Smith in your office in August, 1979. Her duties were answering the phone, waiting on customers, mailing tax bills, typing and logging warrants and other court process. Her time with the CETA program expired February, 1981. The Boyle Fiscal Court approved her remaining as an office clerk, performing the same duties as before, with no law enforcement involved, for the rest of your term. Ms. Smith is 19 years old and will be 20 on April 4, 1981. Your County Attorney has advised you that she cannot be hired as an office clerk because she is not a sworn deputy. A deputy must be 21 years old under KRS 61.300.
Under KRS 64.530, the Fiscal Court is required, not later than the first Monday in May in the year of the election, to fix the number of deputies of the Sheriff's office and their compensation. Thus during the sheriff's term the number of deputies cannot be changed.
Funk v. Milliken, Ky., 317 S.W.2d 499 (1958). Your using this woman as a clerk did no violence to KRS 64.530, since CETA employees are really employees of the county, not your office. Since the CETA employment has expired, it is our opinion that she cannot be hired as a deputy: (1) to do so would violate KRS 64.530, and (2) a deputy must be 21 years of age pursuant to KRS 61.300.
We believe the County Attorney was correct in his analysis. For the purposes of KRS 64.530 and 70.030 (deputy sheriffs) the sheriff's assistants must necessarily be deputies, otherwise he could augment his staff at will. In addition, KRS Chapter 70 (relating to sheriffs) is silent as to a mere assistant, as such. All deputies are required to take an oath. KRS 70.030. Also see KRS 70.036, 70.040, 70.075, 70.130, 70.140, 70.150, 70.160, and 70.210 , relating to the sheriff and his deputies.