Request By:
Mr. Dick Rushing
Executive Vice President
Kentucky Association of Realtors
2348 Nicholasville Road
Lexington, Kentucky 40503
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; John Stephen Kirby, Assistant Attorney General
This letter is in response to your letter dated August 12, 1981. You inquired as to the application of KRS 324.281 to the appointment process for Commissioners to the Kentucky Real Estate Commission. In particular, you asked the following:
Do we submit to Governor Brown no less than three (3) nominees for each appointment to be made? Or may we submit a list of nominees for the Governor to select his three appointments?
What procedure should the Association follow in regard to unexpired terms of Commissioners?
The procedure for appointment of Commissioners to the Kentucky Real Estate Commission is set out in KRS 324.281(1). The Kentucky Association of Realtors (hereinafter K.A.R.) is to submit a list of names to the governor each year from which the governor is to make the appointments needed that year. The pertinent language in KRS 324.281(1) reads as follows:
The Kentucky Association of Realtors shall supply a list of not less than three (3) names to the governor each year from which the broker or salesman appointments are to be made.
Only one "list" is mentioned in the statute from which the "appointments" are to be made; therefore, K.A.R. need only submit a single list of nominees to the governor each year.
It appears that it was the intent of the draftors of the statute to offer the governor a choice of nominees from which to make his appointments; yet, the statute offers no guidance as to the number of nominees to be submitted for each vacant position. The only requirement of the statute is that no less than three (3) nominees be submitted on the list each year. Because the statute yields no guidance as to how many nominees should be nominated for each vacant position, no specific guideline can be offered on the issue. With submission of the list each year, however, K.A.R. should consider the number of vacancies to be filled and submit to the governor sufficient nominees (three or more) in order to provide the governor a choice in making his appointment (s).
The final issue to be addressed is what procedure should be used in regard to filling unexpired terms of Commissioners. Unexpired terms should be filled, as all other vacancies, from the list supplied by K.A.R.; no other appointment procedure is indicated by KRS 324.281(1). The governor may consider names remaining on the list submitted for the year in which the vacancy occurred, or he may await the list to be submitted in the following year. If an unexpired term is to be filled from the list of nominees to be submitted in the coming year, such fact should be taken into consideration in determining the number of nominees to be submitted.