Request By:
Mr. William G. Fields
9403 Doral Court #9
Louisville, Kentucky 40220
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Asst. Deputy Attorney General
You are employed by the Jefferson County Police Department. You work under the County Police merit system. See KRS 78.425. The merit system statutes are identified as KRS 78.400 to 78.480.
You ask whether you could be a campaign manager or treasurer for a candidate seeking political office.
KRS 78.435(1) and (4) reads:
"(1) No officer or employe covered by the provisions of KRS 78.400 to 78.460 shall directly or indirectly solicit or receive or be in any manner whatever concerned in receiving, soliciting or publicizing any assessment, gift, subscription or contribution to or for any political party or candidate for public office.
(4) No officer or employe covered by KRS 78.400 to 78.460 shall foster, promote, or be concerned with any actions involving political or religious controversies or prejudices while in uniform."
KRS 95.017 reads:
"Uniformed employes of any city or county police or fire department, while off duty and out of uniform, shall be entitled to:
(a) Place political bumper stickers on their privately owned vehicles;
(b) Wear political buttons;
(c) Contribute money to political parties, political candidates and political groups of their choice;
(d) Work at the polls on election days;
(e) Aid in registration or purgation of voters;
(f) Become members of political groups; and
(g) Hold office in political groups and carry out the mandates of that group."
Prior to the amendment of KRS 78.435 (1980 Acts, Ch. 65 § 1), the statute expressly prohibited any officer or employee under the civil service system from acting as an officer of any political organization, or being a member thereof, or taking an active part in any political campaign or serving as a member of any committee of such political organization or circulating or seeking signatures to any petition or official paper provided for by any primary or general election laws, or acting as a worker for any political party, or acting as a worker at the polls in favor of or opposed to any candidate for election or nomination to any public office, federal, state, county, or municipal. The statute, prior to the 1980 Amendment, also prohibited handling political contributions involving county police system officers or employees; and it prohibited individuals and corporations from soliciting political contributions from officers and employees of the police merit system.
In OAG 78-524, copy enclosed, we concluded that KRS 95.017 permits officers and employees of the county police merit system to participate in those political activities expressly listed in that statute while they are off duty and are out of uniform, notwithstanding the provisions of KRS 78.435.
Under KRS 95.017(f)(g), permitting uniformed employees of any county police department, while off duty and out of uniform, to become a member and hold office in political groups and carry out mandates of that group, it is our opinion that you may be a campaign manager or treasurer of a political candidate. The proviso is that you can do that only while off duty and out of uniform.
It is further our opinion that the 1980 Amendment to KRS 78.435 was not designed to override the effect of KRS 95.017 in permitting certain political activity. In fact, as we pointed out above, the Amendment deleted the prohibition, as relates to an officer or employee of the county police, against being an officer of any political organization or taking an active part in any political campaign, etc. Thus, the 1980 Amendment of KRS 78.435 is consistent with the political activities permitted under KRS 95.017; and the Amendment does not mention KRS 78.435. Cf. State Board of Charities and Corrections v. Combs, 193 Ky. 548, 237 S.W.32 (1922), on the point that an amendatory act which is irreconcilable with a previously existing statute repeals by implication the previously existing statute.