Request By:
T. L. Groves, Mayor
City of Flatwoods
2411 Argillite Road
Flatwoods, Kentucky 41139
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Walter C. Herdman, Asst. Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of September 24 in which you raise the question as to the procedure that the City of Flatwoods must follow in order to revoke its previous decision to operate under the special city primary act, namely KRS 83A.170.
As you know, of course, the city originally enacted an ordinance electing to operate under the special city primary act pursuant to KRS 83A.050(1) requiring the adoption of an ordinance so providing not later than 240 days prior to a regular election at which any city office is to be filled. Subsection 2 of the referred to statute provides that a city may change the manner of electing its city officers under the terms of subsection 1 previously mentioned, except that no change shall be made earlier than 5 years from the last change. This means, of course, that after the elapse of 5 years from the time the city elected to operate under the special city primary law it may again enact an ordinance within the 240-day time frame required under subsection 1 to repeal its original ordinance. Following this action, the city would then operate under the general election laws which would permit it to select its officers through the regular party primary or through the filing of independent petitions.
We trust the above answers your questions.