Request By:
Mr. Jan Paul Koch
Attorney at Law
7529 Sussex Drive
Florence, Kentucky 41042
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of January 15 in which you initially raise the question as to whether or not a commissioner under the city manager form of government may receive in addition to his salary a monthly lump sum gasoline allowance which is paid out of the general revenues of the city.
The answer to your question would be in the negative in view of the provision of KRS 64.710 which reads as follows:
No public officer or employe shall receive or be allowed or paid any lump sum expense allowance, or contingent fund for personal or official expenses, except where such allowance or fund either is expressly provided for by statute or is specifically appropriated by the general assembly.
The above statute clearly prohibits the payment of any lump sum amount for expenses of any kind to any public officer unless the state legislature has provided otherwise, which is not the case with respect to municipal officers. We refer you to the case of
McWhorter v. City of Richmond, Ky, App., 514 S.W.2d 678 (1974).
In response to your second question concerning the time that the compensation for members of the city commission is required to be fixed, we refer you to KRS 83A.070 (1) which reads as follows:
(1) The legislative body of each city shall by ordinance fix the compensation of every elected city officer no later than the first Monday in May in the year in which the officer is elected. An elected officer's compensation shall not be changed after his election or during his term of office.
The above statute clearly requires that the compensation of every elected city officer shall be fixed not later than the first Monday in May of the year in which such officers are elected. This means, for example, that the compensation for city commissioners must be fixed not later than the first Monday in May of this year since they are to be elected for regular terms at the 1981 November election.