Request By:
Mr. John J. Slattery, Jr.
General Counsel
Kentucky Education Association
101 West Muhammad Ali Boulevard
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear
Through your request to this office, you seek an opinion for the Kentucky Education Association involving a provision of the Kentucky Teachers' Retirement statutory law. The Association's concern relates to the meaning and scope of KRS 161.260. KRS 161.260, in pertinent part to your concern, reads as follows:
". . . Nominations for trustees shall be made by a nominating committee consisting of one committee member selected by the retirement system membership of each of the districts of the Kentucky education association, and one committee member to be selected by retired teachers, on a statewide basis, from among the annuitants of the retirement system. No person may be a member of the nominating committee who is not a member of the system, except for the committee member to be selected from among the annuitants of the system. The president of the Kentucky education association shall preside over the meeting of the nominating committee and the secretary of the teachers' retirement system shall act as secretary to the committee. Two persons shall be nominated by the nominating committee for each position to be filled. All expenses of the election shall be paid by the board of trustees out of its general expense fund."
You informed this office that in accord with the requirements of KRS 161.260, a meeting of the committee for nomination of candidates to be elected to the board of trustees of the Kentucky Teachers' Retirement System (KTRS) was held in Louisville in March of 1983. You related that at that meeting a question arose concerning reimbursement for travel, meals and lodging for members of the committee who were required to travel to the meeting site.
In light of the above, you have presented us the following question:
"Is the KTRS board of trustees required to pay expenses of nominating committee members for attending the meeting described in KRS 161.260?"
We believe an affirmative conclusion is reasonably supported by the law.
The answer to your question, we believe, depends upon the scope of the application intended by the last sentence of KRS 161.260. That is, are the expenses reasonably incurred by the nominating committee to be deemed a part of the "expenses of the election. " We take the position such expenses are covered. The statute requires the formation of a nominating committee and further requires that once formed that committee shall meet to nominate candidates for the positions of trustees of the KTRS. We view the expenses of this nominating committee to be a legitimate part of the total expenses of having an election. The nominating committee's meeting is in fact an indispensable part of making it possible to have an election. Thus, we believe that since the nominating committee is performing a statutorily required function, the law should be read liberally to accomplish the end intended by the General Assembly, as is required under KRS 446.080, such that the members of this nominating committee should not be required to personally bear the expenses of fulfilling that function.
Therefore, it is the formal opinion of this office that the members of the Kentucky Teachers' Retirement System Trustee Nominating Committee are entitled to reimbursement out of the board of trustees' general expense fund for all reasonable, actual and necessary expenses incurred in attending the nomination meeting.