Request By:
Mr. Bill O'Nan
Councilman
26 Broadway
Dry Ridge, Kentucky 41035
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Walter C. Herdman, Asst. Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of October 22 in which you raise the question as to the residential qualifications required of the city clerk and you cite KRS 87.160 pertaining to cities of the fifth class, to which Dry Ridge belongs, which provides that no person shall be eligible to hold any office in the city unless he is a resident and qualified voter in the city. You also cite a 1955 opinion stating that a city clerk must reside in the city limits.
The 1980 Legislature enacted a comprehensive municipal code governing all classes of cities and at the same time repealed in toto almost all of the various charters governing individual classes of cities, particularly fifth class cities, including of course KRS 87.160 referred to above.
The 1980 code establishes residential qualifications for the mayor and members of the legislative body of every city, but no other municipal officer is included. As a consequence, non-elective municipal officers are not required to reside within the city or be qualified voters therein. As a consequence, the office of city clerk which was established as a statutory office by the 1982 Legislature, under KRS 83A.085, does not require that the office holder possess the referred to qualifications. As we said previously, only the mayor and members of the legislative body are required to be legal residents of the city and qualified voters thereof under KRS 83A.040.
In view of the above, the present city clerk who moved out of the city did not become disqualified by continuing to serve as city clerk by virtue of a change in residence which also required a change in voter registration.