Request By:
Mr. Bob W. Hite
Union County Judge Executive
P.O. Box 60
Morganfield, Kentucky 42437
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
Various questions concerning the county treasurer are contained in your recent letter. They read:
"(1) Who is the county treasurer accountable to? Is the treasurer accountable to the fiscal court and when the court is not in session is she accountable to the county judge?
"(2) Union County has adopted a personnel policy that clearly spells out sick time, days off, vacations, hours of work, holidays, etc. Does the County Treasurer fall under this policy? Is the treasurer a county employee?
"(3) For the first time, the fiscal court hired a full time treasurer. However, we now find there is not sufficient work to warrant full time employment. Can the fiscal court when making the next budget, change back to a part time treasurer even though there is one year remaining on the present appointment?"
Under KRS 68.020(1), the county treasurer is primarily accountable to the fiscal court, since that body is in charge of county finances. See KRS 67.080 and 67.083. Under subsection (1) of KRS 68.020, the county treasurer must disburse county money (except for money in the jail budget - see KRS 441.008) in such manner and for such purpose as may be authorized by appropriate authority of the fiscal court. All warrants for payment of funds from the county treasury, as approved by the fiscal court, shall be co-signed by the county treasurer and the county judge executive. Thus the treasurer must cooperate with the county judge executive in connection with administering receipts and payment of county money. See KRS 68.020 for other details of the county treasurer's responsibilities.
Each settlement of the county treasurer as to county funds must be approved by fiscal court pursuant to KRS 68.030.
You write that the Union Fiscal Court has adopted a personnel policy that spells out sick time, days off, vacations, hours of work, holidays, etc. See KRS 68.005. You ask whether the county treasurer falls under this policy and whether the treasurer is a county employee.
The county treasurer is an appointed public officer for a particular term, not a county employee in the usual sense. See KRS 68.010. However, we see no reason why the fiscal court in providing a county administrative code, cannot establish personnel provisions involving sick time, vacation time, hours of work, etc., which could apply to the county treasurer, provided they are not in conflict with the statutes relating to that office. See KRS 68.005(1), (2) and (3). For example, the county treasurer can only be removed from office for cause. KRS 68.010(3); and Stanley v. Fiscal Court of Hopkins County, 189 Ky. 390, 224 S.W. 1081 (1920).
The county treasurer, though appointed to an office for a term of years, does not fall into an autonomous and independent role. He or she is a treasurer, not for the people in that broad sense, but a treasurer for county government, subject to the proper orders of the fiscal court as relates to county finances, and to the direction of the county judge executive in administering orders and policies of the fiscal court relating to county finances.
As relates to question no. 3, under KRS 68.010, the office of county treasurer is not spelled out as a part-time office. The basic intent in the historical establishment of that office was that the county treasurer would devote sufficient time to perform the statutory functions of that office, as spelled out in KRS 68.020.