Request By:
Mr. Qulin K. Escue
Grayson County Sheriff
125 West White Oak Street
Leitchfield, Kentucky 42754
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
The Grayson County Fiscal Court has, in the past, paid the telephone expenses of the Grayson County Sheriff's Office. The sheriff's office has been notified that the court will no longer pay that expense.
Your question:
"Considering that the sheriff's office has not paid any excess fees to the county, is there any requirement that the county pay the telephone expenses of its sheriff?"
The sheriff is a fee officer. As such you are required to pay over to the county, each year, the excess of receipts over and above the amount allowable for your personal compensation, the compensation of your legally authorized deputies, and authorized official expenses. Funk v. Milliken, Ky., 317 S.W.2d 499 (1958). Thus a sheriff may be allowed credit, against fees received in excess of his maximum personal compensation and the compensation of his deputies, for certain documented and necessary office expenses. Such expenses may include telephone expenses.
However, you say you have no excess fees to pay into the county. It is our opinion that the fiscal court should fund your documented and necessary office telephone expenses. See KRS 64.530 and Funk v. Milliken, above. In Funk the court pointed out that in an earlier case the sheriff was allowed credit for telephone expenses, because the statutes require the county to furnish him an office; and a telephone is a necessary appurtenance to that office. See Commonwealth v. Nunnelly, 211 Ky. 409, 277 S.W. 506 (1925). That reason also supports the view that the telephone expense can be directly funded out of the county treasury. See also KRS 67.080 and 67.083(3)(p) and (u).