Request By:
Hon. Norman Liebert, Mayor
City of Watterson Park
4264 Regina Lane
Louisville, Kentucky 40213
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of June 8, in which you relate that on March 10, 1981, the City of Watterson Park was incorporated by the circuit court with 5th class city status, presumably based on its population, which is authorized by KRS 81.060 enacted at the 1980 session of the legislature. The judge appointed a city council consisting of six members, as well as a mayor, all offices to be filled by election in November of 1981. At the second meeting of the council on April 27, an ordinance was considered, fixing the compensation of the referred to officers pursuant to KRS 83A.070(1). However, as of this date the compensation ordinance has not been acted upon pending a response from this office to the following question.
"The question posed is, may the current appointed City Council institute by ordinance a salary for the Mayor or City Council members, effective July 1, 1981, therefore, prior to the election of the new City Council and Mayor in November of 1981, or, alternatively, may the Council effectuate the payment of salary upon the taking of office by the new officers who will be elected in November, 1981?"
KRS 83A.070(1) requires the legislative body of each city to fix a compensation for every elected city officer not later than the first Monday in May in the year in which the officer is elected. Said compensation is not to be changed after his election or during his term of office. This statute is, in effect, a reenactment of KRS 64.580, repealed by the 1980 legislative session. The old Court of Appeals of Kentucky, now the Supreme Court, declared in the case of Wells v. Roberts, Ky., 448 S.W.2d 658 (1969) that the salary statute [KRS 64.580] contemplated that reasonable salaries be paid to public officials, and if no compensation had ever been fixed for the officers, such could be fixed after the May deadline and during the officer's term. Reference is also made to the case of Dennis v. Rich, Ky., 434 S.W.2d 632 (1968).
Under the circumstances and in response to your questions, we believe that the present members of the city council in the newly created city may at this time enact an ordinance fixing the compensation for not only themselves as current members of the council as well as the mayor, but also the salary for those councilmen whose terms will begin in January 1982, by virtue of their election this November since the compensation for these positions have never been previously fixed. Also, insofar as the current city officers are concerned, compensation could be made not only effective on July 1, 1981, but also retroactive to the day they began exercising their official duties.