Request By:
Mr. Ray Fields
Martin County Sheriff
P.O. Box 459
Inez, Kentucky 41224
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You requested our opinion on questions contained in your letter, which reads:
"I would like your opinion on the following questions.
"If the Fiscal Court feels that they have to cut the wages of the county employees, do they have to cut across the board and cut the wages of all county employees, or can they cut some departments and leave some with the same wages that the Fiscal Court set previously?
"The previous Fiscal Court set how many Deputies that the Sheriff is to have. Can the Fiscal Court that is now in office cut the amount of Deputies that was set by the previous Fiscal Court?"
In reducing the compensation of county employees, including nonconstitutional officers, the fiscal court must act with reason and with a uniformly applied policy, generally. They cannot act arbitrarily. Arbitrary classification and treatment of such employees would run afoul of § 2, Kentucky Constitution, and the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution. Any discrimination or unfairness would be unconstitutional. Pritchett v. Marshall, Ky., 375 S.W.2d 253 (1964) 258. In other words, where some are cut and some are not, there must be a reasonable classification established for those who are cut.
As to the second question, the present fiscal court cannot change the number of deputy sheriffs during the term. Funk v. Milliken, Ky., 317 S.W.2d 499 (1958); and KRS 64.530.