Request By:
Mr. Clarence Wolf
P.O. Box 2120
Bowling Green, Kentucky 42101
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
As Mayor of the city of Smiths Grove, a city of the sixth class, you raise a number of questions concerning the procedure required of cities that desire to hold nonpartisan elections. It is your view that a possible conflict exists between certain sections of Senate Bill 26 relating to this question. More specifically, your questions are as follows:
"1. What procedure are cities to follow if they desire non-partisan elections? Are they automatically exempted or is an ordinance required? Do they have the option of enacting an ordinance selecting which statute they wish to follow?
"2. Which procedures are required for nomination of candidates under non-partisan elections? Are primaries required or can nominations be accomplished by petition? If by petition, which procedures should be observed?"
Let us begin by saying that there exists no conflict in our opinion with respect to the statutory procedure for holding nonpartisan municipal elections, and we will review this procedure in detail.
Sixth class cities must convert to the commission form of government and should do so at the coming November election. In this respect we are enclosing a copy of OAG 80-439 explaining this procedure. Any city, including a city of the sixth class, may elect to operate under the nonpartisan city primary statutory provision, namely KRS 83A.170, to which you refer. However, assuming that the city does not elect to have a special city primary by enacting an ordinance to this effect 240 days before the general election, it continues to operate under the general election laws which presently provide for a nonpartisan election in November under the terms of KRS 118.215 (3). Under this statute all candidates filing an independent petition with the county clerk for city offices, regardless of how they file [by groups or individually] must be listed by lot in a single vertical column on the ballot under the office they seek without any independent party designation. This creates in effect a "nonpartisan" election which apparently has created the confusion indicated in your letter. For your information, we are enclosing a copy of OAG 77-240 covering this question.
We might further point out that cities of the fourth class under the commission form of government and those cities of the second, third and fourth classes under the city manager form of government have always been prohibited from participating in the regular May party primary under KRS 118.105 (4) and were, prior to the repeal of Ch. 89 KRS, required to hold special city primaries similar to that now provided by KRS 83A.170. Note KRS 89.060 and 89.440 repealed by Senate Bill 26.
Thus, under the present law sixth class cities will automatically elect their officers in a nonpartisan general election in November under KRS 118.215 (3) as pointed out above, unless they elect to conduct their elections under the nonpartisan primary provisions of KRS 83A.170. Therefore, under the present law, candidates in sixth class cities will file independent petitions as they have been doing, with the county clerk fifty-five (55) days before the November election which would be not later than September 9. They will be listed by lot in a single vertical column under the office of city commissioner and the office of mayor with no independent party designation or symbols, thereby creating a nonpartisan general election for these offices.