Request By:
Ms. Jo Nell Peveler
Muhlenberg Circuit Clerk
Courthouse
Greenville, Kentucky 42345
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
The problem you have relates to the circuit court clerk serving as librarian of the county law library.
The letter reads in part:
"I was elected clerk in Nov. 1979, on an unexpired term, then ran again in 1981 and was elected for another six years. When I came in as Clerk we had a law librarian, then after he left in August 1980, I was told that I could not be paid for this service so I was not too interested in doing this for this is certainly a big job here in Muhlenberg County. For I have to work just about every day in the library in order to keep it all in good shape. Then I was told by the President of the Clerks' Association that I could draw a salary for this. So in August I filed a claim with the Muhlenberg County Fiscal Court, in the amount of $1200.00 for back pay from August 1980 up and including August 1982. But they refused to pay this amount . . . . ."
KRS 172.110 reads:
"(1) The circuit clerk shall be ex officio librarian of the county law library, and he shall see that county and state officials have access to the library at reasonable hours each day except Sunday and holidays. He shall receive a salary of not less than fifty dollars ($50.00) nor more than one hundred dollars ($100.00) per month for his services as librarian.
"(2) He shall keep the library rooms in order, preserve, arrange and index all the books, charts, maps and furniture belonging in the library, and see that no books or other things are taken from the library rooms without a receipt being given therefor.
"(3) He shall receipt for all books, maps and furniture placed in the library. The receipts shall be given to the state law librarian and preserved in his office at Frankfort.
"(4) He shall take an inventory each December of all the books, maps, charts or other property in the library belonging to the state and report the inventory under oath to the state law librarian before January 1 of the following year."
Clearly, under KRS 172.110, the circuit clerk is the ex officio librarian of the county law library. That function cannot legally be delegated to another person, except that the circuit clerk can delegate the clerk's librarian function to the clerk's deputies under KRS 61.035. See OAG 80-517, copy enclosed. The compensation for the librarian function, when added to what the circuit clerk receives as circuit clerk, cannot exceed the rubber dollar limit for each particular year.
Under KRS 172.110(1), your compensation as county law librarian must be not less than fifty dollars ($50) nor more than one hundred dollars ($100) per month. Such monthly salary amount must be fixed by the fiscal court, payable out of the county treasury. See KRS 172.130, 172.170, and 172.180, relating to the financing of such library.
Whether or not you would be entitled to back pay for that part of said period during which you substantially performed the functions outlined in KRS 172.110 is strictly a factual matter which you would have to take up with the fiscal court in pressing your claim. If you cannot resolve the matter with fiscal court, you may sue the fiscal court for back salary and let the court decide the matter.