Request By:
Honorable Charles O. Davis
Mayor
City of Mayfield
211 East Broadway
Mayfield, Kentucky 42066
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney Genfral; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of July 28, in which you raise the following question:
"The City Council wants to grant a raise to a certain department's employees; we do not have a pay classification plan in effect. I need to know whether or not, in your opinion, such a raise can be granted."
KRS 83A.070(3) referred to by you provides in effect that the legislative board of each city shall fix the compensation of city employees in accordance with the personnel and pay classification plan which shall be adopted by ordinance. This statute appears to be mandatory in requiring the city to initially adopt a pay classification schedule for all city employees. Of course, once such a schedule has been adopted, the compensation of city employees can be altered at intervals by a change in pay grade or reclassification. There is, of course, no restriction under the Constitution or statutes on the amount city employees may receive or when they may receive a change in compensation. However, their compensation must be fixed by ordinance in the manner contemplated by KRS 83A.070(3) and changed in accordance with a duly adopted pay schedule.
Referring to McQuillin, Mun. Corp., Vol. 4, § 12.196, you will note the following general rule concerning the payment of compensation to officers as well as employees, to wit:
"The power to fix the compensation of municipal officers and employees has been deemed to include the power to adjust or regulate, and to imply the plenary right to act by lowering or raising salaries. In many jurisdictions, it has been said that unless forbidden or restrained by law the salary or compensation of an officer or employee of a municipal corporation may be changed from time to time, or increased or diminished during the continuance of the term or period of employment. The right to change may be prescribed by law, and provision may be made for annual salary increments. The amount of compensation, is usually governed by the law in force at the time the services are rendered, not at the time of selection of the officer."
We also might mention the requirements under KRS 91A.030 pertaining to the city budget which provides that no city shall expend any money from any governmental or proprietary fund except in accordance with a budget ordinance adopted pursuant to this statute, which can, of course, be amended at any time.