Request By:
Hon. William Miles Arvin
Attorney at Law
Bronaugh Building
Nicholasville, Kentucky 40356
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of April 1, in which you request an opinion concerning the residential qualifications required of a city attorney of a city of the fourth class. You relate that the city has no ordinance pertaining to residency requirements for its city attorney. Your specific question is as follows:
"Can an appointed city attorney serve as city attorney for the fourth class when he resides outside of the city limits of the city in which he serves, but within the county limits of the county where the city is located?"
Our response to your question would be in the affirmative. KRS 69.560, requiring the city attorney of cities of the fourth class to reside within the city, was repealed by the 1980 municipal code, effective July 15, 1980.
Under the present code only the elected officers of the city, such members of the legislative body and the mayor, are required to reside within the city. Reference KRS 83A.040 and Section 234 of the Constitution. We also might point out that the city attorney is not a constitutionally named officer and therefore would not be required to conform to the requirements of Section 234 of the Constitution regarding residence. See City of Newport v. Schindler, Ky., 449 S.W.2d 17 (1970).
Thus, in absence of any city ordinance requiring the city attorney to reside within the city, he may reside outside the city or, for that matter, in another county.