Request By:
Hon. Richard J. Deye
Deye and Browning
P.O. Box 340
Morgantown, Kentucky 42261
Opinion
Opinion By: David L. Armstrong, Attorney General; Walter C. Herdman, Asst. Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of March 16 in which you relate that the City of Morgantown has recently established by ordinance two nonelective offices, that of city clerk and city maintenance supervisor. Each position was established by separate ordinance which designates a specific salary to be paid to the officeholder. The question is raised as to whether or not it would be necessary to amend the ordinance fixing the salary each time the city desires to increase or decrease the salary, or could the ordinance be written in such a way as to simply state that the salary of the officer holding the position could not exceed a certain amount which could possibly be changed within the limit without an amendment.
KRS 83A.070(2) requires the legislative body to fix the compensation of each city officer by ordinance which may be changed by ordinance. We believe this statute requires that the salary of a nonelective officer be fixed by ordinance at a specific amount and not simply provide a maximum which cannot be exceeded.
On the other hand, there is a possible alternative by authorizing in the salary ordinance, which establishes a fixed salary, a cost of living increase based on the consumer price index as computed by the state Finance and Administration Cabinet as of a certain date each year. In this respect, we call your attention to Senate Bill 35 which has been enacted by the 1984 legislative session effective July 15 permitting such procedure to be followed in connection with the compensation to be paid mayors and members of the city legislative bodies of the various class cities. We are enclosing a copy of the bill, the principle of which we believe could equally be applied by the city to its nonelective officers and employees. This in effect would authorize an automatic but controlled change in compensation each year without the necessity of amending the ordinance.
You should also take note of subsection 2 which provides that the legislative body of the city shall set the compensation in the ordinance in accordance with KRS 83A.070 at a rate no greater than that stipulated by the Finance and Administration Cabinet. This allows the city to fix the yearly rate of increase lower than the computed rate based on the national index. Of course we do not intend to imply that the city has to follow this procedure insofar as nonelective officers are concerned, but the basic principle could be applied.