Request By:
Mr. Harold K. Botner
Madison County Judge Executive
Courthouse
Richmond, Kentucky 40475
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
The fiscal court in your county has demanded that the position of deputy county judge be attached to the secretary-bookkeeper position. The secretary-bookkeeper position refers to your secretary, who maintains your records.
KRS 67.711 reads:
Notwithstanding the provisions of KRS 67.710(7) the county judge/executive of any county may appoint a deputy who shall serve at his pleasure. Such deputy may exercise all administrative powers, duties, and responsibilities of that office, and may assume such other responsibilities as shall be prescribed in the administrative code of the county, except that the deputy county judge/executive shall not act for the county judge/executive as a member or presiding officer of the fiscal court.
Under KRS 67.711 you, as county judge executive, have the authority to employ a deputy county judge executive, without the consent of the fiscal court. Cf. KRS 67.710(7). In addition, the fiscal court is required to provide your deputy with a reasonable salary, viewed in terms of the functions assigned to that post.
KRS 67.080(2)(c) requires any fiscal court to adopt an administrative code. If the fiscal court in your county has adopted an administrative code, and if the code purports to place additional responsibilities on the deputy which would be the equivalent of the secretary-bookkeeper position for assisting the county judge executive, then the administrative code would govern. In the absence of giving the deputy the secretrial-bookkeeping additional role by way of the administrative code, the fiscal court cannot require you to combine those positions. Here we are construing the language of KRS 67.711 in its ordinary sense.