Request By:
Honorable Phillip Bruce Leslie
Corporation Counsel
City of Flatwoods
Braden Building
Greenup, Kentucky 41144
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of February 2 in which you submit an ordinance of the city of Flatwoods which changes the membership on the council from twelve (12) to six (6) and divides the city into six (6) wards pursuant to KRS 83A.030 (1) (b). The ordinance further provides for the election of city officers on a nonpartisan basis pursuant to KRS 83A.170. You ask that we review the ordinance, particularly in light of the additional provision that excludes [partisan] primary elections.
Where a city elects to operate under the special nonpartisan city primary statute, namely KRS 83A.170, which the enclosed ordinance indicates, no person can be elected to office in November unless he is first nominated in the special May primary. See subsection (2) of KRS 83A.170. This statute prohibits any candidate from being nominated in the regular party primary in May as well as filing as an independent fifty-five (55) days before the November election. As a matter of fact, there can be no "write-in" voting in November when the special city primary procedure is adopted. See Hales v. Langford, Ky., 446 S.W.2d 647 (1969). You will note that this case construed KRS 89.440 [repealed] which was in its original form almost identical to KRS 83A.170.
We might also mention that under Section 3 of the ordinance, reference should be made to the fact that city councilmen must reside in their respective wards though they are elected at large by the voters of the city. See KRS 83A.100 (4) (a).
The ordinance would thus appear to be in compliance with the laws governing the subject except for the omission in Section 3 mentioned above.