Request By:
Sgt. Deborah M. Mills
Administrative Division
Richmond Police Department
Richmond, Kentucky 40475
Opinion
Opinion By: David L. Armstrong, Attorney General; By: Martin Glazer, Assistant Attorney General
You have requested advice as to whether your incentive pay paid under the Kentucky Law Enforcement Foundation Program Fund, commonly called KLEFPF, can be deducted for those days on which you are off payroll.
We deem this question important enough to respond in an official opinion, rather than a miscellaneous letter.
In your case, you used all of your sick leave and vacation time because of your illness and the death of your father. You were docked three days salary, including a three-days proportion of the KLEFPF money. You question such deduction.
Since July 1, 1982, KRS 15.460 provides:
(1) Beginning July 1, 1982, an eligible local unit of government shall be entitled to receive annually a supplement of two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500) for each qualified police officer it employs.
(2) Each qualified police officer, whose local government receives a supplement pursuant to subsection (1) of this section, shall be paid by the local government the supplement which his qualifications brought to the local government. The supplement paid each police officer shall be in addition to his regular salary. (Emphasis supplied. )
The regulations which deal with KLEFPF, particularly 503 KAR 5:050 "Salary Provisions," provide:
Section 1. (1) Incentive funds shall be used only as a cash supplement to compensate police officers who meet the qualifications established by law and this regulation.
(2) Each police officer shall be entitled to receive the state incentive fund supplement which his qualifications brought to the local unit.
(3) Incentive funds shall not be used to supplant existing salaries or as a substitute for normal salary increases under the fund which would violate any federal or state law or regulation regarding wage guidelines.
(4) The local unit shall not be required to award normal salary increases under the fund which would violate any federal or state law or regulation regarding wage guidelines. (Emphasis supplied. )
If the incentive fund monies are deducted from the officer's pay on those days in which he/she is not drawing pay, the officer is not receiving such monies for those days and, ultimately, not receiving the entire annual $2500 to which he is entitled. The governmental unit is keeping it instead. This was not the intent of the statute or its accompanying regulations.
Under the prior law, the salary supplement from KLEFPF was a percentage of salary of the officer and may have justified a deduction where the officer received a reduced salary, but since July 1, 1982, the supplement is a flat sum of $2500 for each qualified police officer. He is entitled to all of it during his employment. This annual payment is apportioned monthly to him (or for him) ($208.33 1/3). If he were to leave employment (not go off the payroll for a day or two), the payment should cease. But, the monies paid should go ultimately to the officer. The governmental unit has no right to any part of the officer's money. It should either go to him or be refunded to the KLEFPF if overpayment results.
In your particular case, even though you received no base salary for the three days you were off (without annual leave or sick leave balance), you were entitled to your KLEFPF money for that month.